ANALYSIS: The Future of Legal Is Female—But It Comes With a Cost

There have been more women than men in law school for almost a decade, but women still face considerable barriers in the legal industry, such as disproportionate workloads and blatant sexism. And new data from Bloomberg Law suggests that substantial law-school-related debt is another burden for women in law.

Since the US Supreme Court’s June decision to toss President Joe Biden’s initial student-loan forgiveness plan, I’ve taken a closer look at law school debt according to a borrower’s race, ethnicity, gender, and life experiences.

Thirty percent of the respondents to Bloomberg Law’s most recent Law School Preparedness Survey reported having law-school-related debt in the six-figure range, but a gender-based breakdown of the data shows that women make up a majority of those respondents. The same holds true for debt at or above $50,000.

Of the survey respondents (respondents included law students and practicing attorneys) who reported having more than a quarter of a million dollars in law school debt, over 60% identified as female. Notably, respondents who identified as nonbinary—only 1% of total respondents—made up 5% of respondents reporting debt levels over $250,000.

Comparatively, respondents who identified as male made up the majority of the respondents with no debt or with debt under the $50,000 mark.

So why do more women have more debt than men? There are likely several explanations, including time in practice and the increased cost of getting a law degree.

About two-thirds of current law students identified as female in the most recent survey—a double-digit percent increase over numbers reported by the American Bar Association in 2021. Additionally, for the 37% of attorney-respondents who identified as female in Bloomberg Law’s survey, those respondents reported being in practice for an average of 17 years, which is 10 years less than their male colleagues reported.

While women are making great strides in the legal profession, they’re doing so at a time when legal education is much more expensive, forcing many students to incur more debt. And the price tag can’t be ignored, especially when you factor in the gender pay gap and retention issues in leadership positions.

Bloomberg Law subscribers can find additional content geared toward firm associates, including practical guidance, workflow tools, surveys, and more on our In Focus: Lawyer Well-Being page, In Focus: Lawyer Development page, Surveys, Reports & Data Analysis page, and Legal Operations page.

For more information about the 2023 Bloomberg Law DEI Framework, including the listing of member firms and overall aggregate report, as well as information on the 2024 DEI Framework timeline, click here.

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