The New York Times Gift Article – “The number of applicants has risen more than 40 percent over the last two years, despite new limits on student loans and uncertainty over how artificial intelligence will affect legal work. For decades, the American law school has served as a popular hedge against a cooling economy. When the “Help Wanted” signs disappear, the “J.D.” applications surge. That’s what is happening now. The number of U.S. law school applicants for the 2026 cycle is up an estimated 17 percent from last year, according to data from the American Bar Association compiled by the Law School Admission Council. That figure is a staggering 44 percent increase from just two years ago. But for this new wave of aspiring lawyers, the safety of the ivory tower comes with a steep entry fee and a shifting floor. Between new federal loan caps and the looming shadow of generative artificial intelligence, the legal profession’s newest recruits are walking into a high-stakes gamble that looks very different from the one their predecessors lost after the 2008 financial crisis. Enrollment rose to 52,404 by 2010, a 7 percent jump from three years earlier. Many of those students didn’t enter the legal careers they may have envisioned; about half of 2011 law school graduates were not working in full-time jobs that required a law degree within a year of graduation. The job prospects for lawyers have since greatly improved, with more than 80 percent of students who graduated in 2023 and 2024 working in jobs that require their legal credentials within a year, according to the American Bar Association. But the flocks of people applying to law school face new risks. New limits on student loans that go into effect this year could make financing a degree more expensive. And artificial intelligence threatens to bring major changes to the industry, affecting which jobs are available and how much they pay. “It’s too early to know how things will change,” said Kellye Testy, the executive director of the Association of American Law Schools, which has more than 170 members. “Some worry that A.I. will decrease demand for lawyers,” she said, adding that eventually the technology could have a more direct role in legal work. “That could matter in three years,” she said…”