HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE, legal realism edition:

With significantly smaller classes starting this fall at Twin Cities law schools, it looks like the regional market for legal education is finally in correction mode.

Seems overdue, given the dismal news from the legal employment market so far this summer.

The darkest point of the Great Recession is well behind us, but 2011 law school graduates are living in a Great Depression of their own. They had a little better than 50-50 shot at a full-time legal job, based upon employment data released recently by the American Bar Association.

A year ago, the market for 2010 grads was characterized as the worst since 1996, and now it’s “arguably the worst” entry-level market in more than 30 years. The market is particularly bleak for those seeking jobs at firms of more than 100 lawyers.

Here are the grim facts, nine months after 2011 graduation: Out of 134 graduates at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, just five found their way into full-time jobs at firms of 101 lawyers or more. Hamline University School of Law placed three out of 205 in that category. Even the University of Minnesota Law School, way up the food chain with a top 20 national ranking, placed just 32 out of 261 grads at big firms.

Yeah, it’s tough all over, and while some of it’s related to the economic contraction, some of it’s structural, as I predicted a few years back. Law schools, and prospective law students, need to adjust.