Why is churning out lawyers bad?

When Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull commented on the over-supply of law graduates, he should know, he has first hand experience both as a lawyer and as a businessman. Universities are churning out law students in record numbers and the industry doesn't appear able to support the number of law graduates - Turnbull is right to be concerned.

Law is an important skill for political leaders, current Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has a law degree, former Prime Ministers Tony Abbott, Julia Gillard, John Howard and Bob Hawke were all law graduates along with hopeful Prime Ministerial candidate and Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten. Regardless of party affiliation, law is an an important CV filler for a politician. One could argue that that law is important for business, it is an important skill set that may assist board decisions. Senior managers could well comprehend the consequences of their proposed actions and possible/probable repercussions for stakeholders.

Three arguments about law courses and lawyers generally exist, there are:

1. A law course is relatively inexpensive to set up; all that is required is a library of law references with space for as many students that can be crammed into a lecture hall.
2. When a case does go to court, 50% of lawyers will be wrong; this is an appalling failure rate that would not be tolerated in other professions.
3. Regardless of an over-supply of lawyers, competitive forces do not result in the cost of their services reducing, not that I have seen anyway. So much for the marketplace determining their value.

All jokes aside, the question is, do we allocate scarce resources to law courses where graduates have little chance of success in an open market. Law is important, why not better incorporate law units into business and commerce courses; possibly even a major in corporate law, contract management, economics, finance or international business. I hate seeing young people get into to debt at tertiary educational institutes and then lack the employment opportunities to pay back their fees and progress their careers.