ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT This article addresses the dramatic increase in the number of law students in
Australia over the past two decades. It is argued that the transformation of legal education
is attributable to the neoliberal turn, the embrace of the new knowledge economy, the
adoption of a user-pays philosophy, the low costs associated with offering law courses and
consumer demand. While the profession might mutter that there are ‘too many lawyers’, it
has done little to inhibit the explosion in numbers. Indeed, the profession itself has been
transformed as a result of neoliberalism and the acceptance of competition policy. What is
perhaps most distinctive about the Australian experience is that less than half of all law
graduates go into legal practice, while the other half is readily absorbed into government,
the corporate sector, the not-for-profit sector and a host of other occupations. Furthermore,
while legal practice has been a dynamic site of growth, the expansion has been largely
concentrated in metropolitan centres. In fact, the evidence suggests that there may not be
enough lawyers to service rural, regional and remote areas.
