National Law Journal, Would Law School Warning Labels Make Any Difference?, by Ari L. Kaplan:

[There are]  two reasons that individuals assume the debt to go to law school without a full awareness of the potential outcomes.

First, most prospective law students sincerely believe they will graduate in the top 10% of the class. “You sign the loan papers with the idea that it will all pay off and it is the idealized big firm life that allows people to take debt,” notes Indiana University Maurer School of Law Professor William Henderson. He recommends that the ABA Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar direct schools to walk students through the application process more carefully to conduct an intelligent analysis of their career prospects.

Second, law school applicants are generally naive consumers of debt. “As soon as tuition rose to a level where people had to borrow significant sums in order to go to law school, you had students with no experience taking out loans, repaying them or understanding what it means to have debt,” says University of Miami School of Law Dean, Patricia White. “It was a little bit like the foreclosure crisis and the mortgage debacle,” she adds. …

If law schools really want to start addressing the transformation of the legal industry, perhaps they should consider providing stronger warnings.