ABC News, 'Trump Bump,' Iffy Economy Cited for Huge Law School Application Spike: Experts:

According to the Law School Admission Council, the number of applicants for law school has jumped more than 20% from 2024.

What's behind the spike?

"I don't think anyone actually knows definitively because I think there's probably multiple factors at play," Anna Ivey, a college and law school admissions consultant, told ABC News.

Ivey said the last time there was such a large increase in the number of law school applicants was during President Donald Trump's first term in the White House.

"We called that the 'Trump bump.' There were a lot of people who thought it was a good time to flock to law school. Anecdotally, I can say there were certainly some portion of law school applicants who were motivated because of what they were perceiving happening in the administration," Ivey said. "I suspect we're having another 'Trump bump.' Now that he's back in office, I would not be surprised if that's happening at scale."

Derek Muller (Notre Dame; Google Scholar), If There's A "Trump Bump" in Law School Admissions, Then Law Students Have Discovered Time Travel:

[W]hile there’s a kind of trendy “conventional wisdom” about a “Trump Bump” in law school, it belies the actual facts on the ground. Applications were up this cycle well before the election, and well before any time when plausible candidates could have applied to law school. Unless law students invented time travel to learn about the election results, then traveled back to prepare for law school, the presidential election is not a material factor in the increase in applicants this year.

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