Deborah Jones Merritt (Ohio State), Historic Levels:

According to the Law School Admission Council, about 68,000 students
applied for spots in this fall's entering class. Almost half way
through the current admission cycle, it looks like about 53,000 students will apply for the fall 2013 class. When did law schools last see that number of applicants?

Not in any year since 1983, the earliest year for which I can find data.
… The
lowest number of applicants recorded during the last thirty years was in
1985, when only 60,338 people competed for 40,796 spots. At this point
in the admission cycle, it's hard to believe that applicants for fall
2013 will top 60,000 — or even 55,000. …

When 60,338 people applied to law school in fall 1985, the median tuition at a private school was $7,385. Median in-state tuition at public law schools was just $1,792. If those figures had risen with inflation, they would be $15,801 at
private schools today and $3,834 at public ones. Instead, the median
sticker price at private schools is two-and-a-half times as high, while
it's five times higher at public institutions.

Now here's the real kicker:  NALP has just published graphs showing that the median reported salary
for full-time entry level jobs (those held nine months after graduation)
has fallen back to 1985 levels when
adjusted for inflation. That figure, of course, is for graduates who
were lucky enough to land full-time jobs; just 69.8% of 2011 grads
reported a full-time job of any kind. …

In constant dollars, law school costs two-and-a-half to five times more
than it did in 1985. Yet the degree offers a 1985-level starting salary
for the average graduate — if that graduate can find a full-time job. How
many people will apply for that deal?