The December propaganda was late, because the bumblefooses at ABA Journal had problems securing the quality of paper expected by its toney subscribers. Pandemic be damned, they aren't ready to tack just anything to the outhouse wall.
https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/why-havent-i-received-my-latest-issue-of-the-aba-journal-yet/
On other fronts, the story contained a link to the digital version of the late issue, which, by happenstance, contained the federally required circulation report, back around page 68. I hadn't seen one of these since about 2017, mainly because it is getting so hucking fard to find any colleagues who still get the Journal. However, the circulation report shines a light on the membership problems ABA is trying to hide, because every dues-paying member gets a copy. (There are some few non-member subscribers as well, so the circulation number is actually higher than the number of dues-paying members, but provides a useful proxy).
Back in 2017, number of copies published for paid circulation nearest to filing date was 277,203. Number in current 2021 report, 142,879.
Whack!!
The "new membership model" is clearly failing. Running the number of members indicated by the circulation proxy against the number of licensed lawyers, I find ABA has declined from its already unimpressive 2017 standing to about 10.7% of the nation's lawyers.
The problem continues to be exacerbated by failures of the "ABA value proposition." Several young colleagues have mentioned in the past that they hold their noses and pay the low, young lawyer rates because it is a cheap way to get their required CLE. Now, however, the entire State of Florida has scuttled credit for ABA seminars over the ABA requirement for "diverse" panels. It remains to be seen how many states will follow suit, but in the meantime, ABA is repeating the failed experiment with proposed accreditation standard 260, which will evaluate law schools based on the degree to which their faculty/staff "diversity" conforms to national demographics in "representing" favored racial and ethnic groups.
Bottom line, the ship is still sinking, although the bilge pumps are running furiously. More budget cuts will be needed, and it will be increasingly difficult for ABA leadership to cover up the death spiral with their simple-minded lies.
