HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Poaching Law Students.

Law schools across the country are fighting for transfer students in a testy cat and mouse game that involves some questionable practices.

In areas with multiple law schools — like Washington, Phoenix and northern Florida — the transfer market has lately exposed the contentious underbelly of legal education. The transfer market has become particularly active in recent years as overall law school enrollment has fallen dramatically.

Critics say law schools farther up the rankings chain are enrolling students whose Law School Admission Test scores made them undesirable to enroll as first-year students. Law schools generally do not give transfer students the sort of competitive scholarship discounts they dangle in front of first-year students, making transfers a potentially lucrative source of revenue.

Schools that lose dozens of students each year to other law schools accuse their competitors of poaching to boost enrollment and get around college rankings.

Schools that pick up those same students say the schools’ students are obviously not satisfied, or else so many would not head for the exit.

Some transfer students even say they have to cut through a variety of questionable practices designed to make it harder for them to leave one school for another.

When the pie’s shrinking, people fight harder over slices.