A new era of legal education is arriving as law schools face a surge in applications.
As of 2025, total law school application numbers in the U.S. rose over 27% compared to the previous year. According to Pitt professors, the traditional methods of both financing education and practicing law are being restructured due to factors such as federal loan caps and the rapid adoption of AI tools in the classroom and field.
Charmaine McCall, assistant dean for admissions and financial aid in the School of Law, said the school is seeing an unprecedented surge in interest from prospective students.
“I have been with the law school for over 23 years and have never seen this type of increase before — as of right now, we are 60% ahead of where we were last year,” McCall said.
Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the federal government will eliminate Grad PLUS loans and cap professional student borrowing at $50,000 annually starting July 2026. This shift coincides with law schools increasingly incorporating AI tools into their curricula to reflect the technology’s growing role in legal research and document management.
Michael Madison, a professor in the School of Law, said the recent rise in law applicants may stem from a blend of economic and political factors.
“My best estimate, as someone who has been examining legal education for a long time, is that the recent uptick is related to a combination of economic and political conditions,” Madison said. “An uncertain economic climate usually prompts more interest in law school from people looking for financially stable careers.”
According to Madison, another factor driving the increase in applications may be renewed focus on “the rule of law.”
“Public turmoil around the rule of law, domestically and internationally, increases the salience of law school as an option for people who want to do good in the world,” Madison said. “Right now, I suspect that the ‘do-gooders’ are driving the applicant numbers more than the ‘careerists.’”
McCall said in addition to external factors like the political landscape and economic state, there are internal aspects that have increased Pitt Law applications.
“Besides the external drivers of this increase, like the current political landscape, internally at Pitt Law, there are many changes and exciting things going on,” McCall said. “Excitement surrounding the new dean, in addition to the bar exam pass rate last year, in which we were first in the state, have pushed applications up.”
Another factor impacting law students is the often high tuition fees. McCall said the cost of education for many law schools is greater than $50,000 per year, and as such, the new federal loan caps may pose several challenges for students.
“If students get no scholarship funding, they will have to come up with another way to find this funding, and they aren’t working during law school. This could be an issue for students that are not eligible for scholarship and could cause graduate and professional school applications to go down,” McCall said.
Alex Ball, the pre-law and social science pre-professional career consultant at the Career Center, said his focus is on understanding the federal loan cap policy and helping students contextualize how it may affect their planning.
“We treat it as another factor in the financial aid equation, encouraging students to consider cost earlier in the decision-making process rather than as an afterthought when evaluating offers,” Ball said.
Another factor reshaping the field of law at Pitt and beyond is the rapid integration of AI in education and the professional workforce. Law firms are implementing AI tools with the ability to quickly conduct tasks typically completed by associates, including drafting memos and supporting litigation analysis.
Andrele St. Val, associate professor of legal writing in the School of Law, remarked that while AI is becoming increasingly integrated in law and has the potential to be a useful tool, it should not be used by first-year law students.
“I believe AI should not be used by new law students or should be used in a limited manner because students in the first year are still learning the basics and establishing their knowledge base,” St. Val said. “It is imperative that students learn the basics themselves, and they can add the most value once they use this knowledge to then better assess the outcomes AI produces.”
“In law, words have meaning and impact, beyond what AI is capable of replicating at this moment,” St. Val said. The human element that we bring — the analytical processes and ability to think — is distinct, and there is a lot of nuance in language that AI is unable to really pick up on at this time.”
Patrick Parsons, associate dean for library and technology in the School of Law and director of the Barco Law Library, said it is important for students to be literate in AI regardless of how much they will use it.
“Ignoring AI will situate you poorly, regardless of what your final stance is going to be,” Parsons said. “The gains from AI and the breadth of what it enables us to do is undeniable.”
According to Parsons, creative problem-solving with regard to AI will become a desirable skill for law students to have.
“Once you understand how the technology works at a base level, opening yourself up to different use cases – being able to look at your own workflows and at the inefficient or unproductive areas, and then trying to augment those with generative AI tools – is a desirable skill among law students,” Parsons said.
Kevin Ashley, a professor in the School of Law, said the challenge for legal professors is how to make students into smart, critical editors of output created by generative AI.
“Corporate legal counsel expects law firms to be well-versed with AI tools, and that means law students have to be well-versed with the tools, too,” Ashley said. “Students cannot be lulled into relying on it uncritically, but if used correctly, AI can make associates’ tasks far more efficient, and they will be able to handle many more tasks as a result.”