Law school is said to be an increasingly popular option among professionals hoping to ride out the recession, although this may come as a surprise to some who have been reading about recent layoffs at top firms.

According to a blog on the Wall Street Journal website, law school applications are up 2 percent nationwide over last year's figures, while one school, Washington and Lee University in Virginia, has seen a 29 percent increase in applications.

"In up and down times, economies as complex as ours need a lot of legal services," Rodney Smolla, dean of the Washington and Lee University School of Law, was quoted as saying in the report.
The report also noted that despite a downturn in much of the industry, some fields like bankruptcy and litigation have remained strong parts of the legal field, while things like mergers and corporate finance are said to have slipped.

The things that draw people to law school aren't much different from what draws people to advanced business degrees during a recession. Many people figure they are getting advanced training at a time when the job market is particularly poor, leaving them better positioned when a recovery begins.

There is also the perception that earning a law degree can qualify a person for far more than just working at a large firm or beginning their own practice.