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The Importance of Economic Supply in Determining the Size and Quality of the Public Interest Bar

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Robert V. Stover
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Abstract

During a three-year panel study, the job aspirations of University of Denver law students changed so as to reduce the economic supply of public interest attorneys. Elementary economic theory suggests that this reduction in supply has an important impact on the size and quality of the public interest bar. Both demand and supply must be considered in attempts to increase the number and quality of public interest attorneys. Although this study does not attempt to explain the reasons for changes in students' job aspirations, reformers attempting to increase economic supply should not ignore the potential impact of legal education.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , 1982 , pp. 455 - 480
Copyright
Copyright © 1982 The Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

*

An earlier version of this article was delivered at the 1981 Annual Meeting of the Law and Society Association. My research was made possible by a grant from the National Science Foundation and by a grant-in-aid from the University of Colorado. The perceptive comments made by Robert McNown and by Howard Erlanger at various stages of the research have considerably sharpened my thinking on the subject of this paper. Valuable research assistance was provided by Mary Broker, Robert Knott, Richard Mauro, and Melody Moore.

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