Law school applications are surging across the country, a trend that is driven by political and economic factors, says Jacob Rooksby, dean of Gonzaga University School of Law.  

The first time President Trump was in office, there was a widely reported “Trump Bump” in law school applications, a trend that seems to have returned as President Trump enters a second term, Rooksby says. 

“Part of it is students are motivated by some of the changes that they’re seeing in society,” Rooksby explains. “Liking them, disliking them, but realizing that the rule of law is very important, and lawyers obviously have an important role to play in society, judges as well.”  

The Law School Admissions Council reports that 190 of the 196 American Bar Association accredited law schools in the U.S. have experienced a spike in application volumes. Data from the association shows a significant rise in applicants in 2025, increasing by 20% from the year before, and up 25% from two years prior. 

In Washington state, the report shows applicants to Pacific Northwest schools increased 35% from 2024. Rooksby says the number of deposits for the 2025-2026 school year has already surpassed the amount received by this time last year. Deposits refers to admitted students who have paid a deposit confirming their seat in next year's class. While the school's official deadline to submit an application and make a deposit is April 15, the school will continue to consider applications into the summer for an August start. 

In 2024, Gonzaga University School of Law received 1,230 applications for the 2024-2025 school year, up from 1,028 received for the 2023-2024 school year. Rooksby says enrollment at Gonzaga is up 75% from 2018, when he became dean. 

“We’re not a school that is seeking to grow enrollment at any cost,” Rooksby says. “We’re proud of the fact that we’re bringing in very qualified students, and a very diverse class.” 

In his experience, prospective students are more interested in location when applying to programs. Gonzaga, situated in the Pacific Northwest and in a relatively more affordable region than other big city schools, is a large draw for many students. He’s noticed that students who are offered a letter of admission are more likely to accept the offer after visiting the campus. 

“I think what they see is an environment where they can easily envision themselves,” Rooksby says. “There’s an idea that I can live a really good life here for three years, I can experience the outdoors and be close to nature and get to know my faculty.” 

Another factor, he says, is that economic downturns and uncertainties tend to send people back into professional programs, something that has been true historically for the past 50 years. 

“The other piece of this is today’s students are coming into this environment having lived experience through the pandemic,” Rooksby notes. “They have more self-direction … and law is a vehicle for career enhancement. A legal education opens up a lot of different doors and a lot of different arenas.” 

Because today’s students are more inclined to taking control of their careers, Rooksby has noticed more students migrating into business a couple of years after graduating or starting out as in-house attorneys­–an unusual shift from how recent grads were charting their careers 15 years ago, he says. 

Sean King, director of the schools Law Career Services Offices, says current students are generally more interested in joining a private firm, which is generally where attorneys are more likely to make higher salaries. However, there is still la good chunk of students who are interested in governmental and public-interest work, he adds. 

King says that across the state’s rural counties, municipalities are having a difficult time hiring for prosecutor jobs. King has heard from a number of offices in Central and Eastern Washington who have had jobs posted for over a year, receive a handful of applicants, but more often than not, the application is withdrawn before the interview can even take place. 

“Twenty years ago, that was never a problem,” King says. “A lot of these trends, whether private practice interest or just difficulty hiring prosecutor jobs for example, that’s something you see nationwide, and Washington is no different.” 

King, who was previously working private practice in Spokane for the last eight years, says he was surprised to see some of the generous salary offers some of these rural counties are making to attorneys fresh out of law school. 

The current political environment as it pertains to the law industry and the way several firms have made deals with the current administration to avoid retribution is also factoring into the career decisions students are making. King says students are aware of which firms have received executive orders, and which ones have entered into agreements with the current administration. 

“That could be a tipping point in terms of decisions that students (make), having knowledge of what a certain firm did that very well could determine their career path in the future, on either side of these decisions by law firms,” King says. 

Rooksby says that while it’s hard to speak for all students, the general culture and attitudes of Gonzaga’s law students steers them toward environments where they can live out their values. As a Jesuit institution, students are asked to grapple with these issues and not turn a blind eye to society, he says. He contends that the law school attracts students with more of an academic interest, and likely would not go to work for firms that are making headlines for making deals. 

He points to Seattle-based Perkins Coie, the first firm to receive an executive order restricting its business, and in turn sued the Trump Administration, as an example of the region’s culture and ethics. 

“Perkins, being the largest law firm in our region and the position that they’ve taken, very different from some of the other firms, is important because it speaks to the ethos of this region,” Rooksby says. “There’s a notion that employers should have values, and prospective employees of those firms want to feel a part of a culture that they can get behind.”