America needs more lawyers.

That’s just a fact. Legal services for the poor continue to be systematically overburdened and unless Jim Harbaugh gets his way that’s going to get worse. Rural areas are so bereft of attorneys that states are developing tuition plans around binding lawyers to the countryside for a number of years. The lower middle class — unable to take advantage of legal aid, but still unable to hire full priced legal help — constitute an oft overlooked justice gap.

And yet, it’s hard to recommend going to law school right now when bottom-tier law schools are still charging $200K+ to get a degree. More law graduates don’t necessarily translate into more assistance for those who need it most when they’re so in debt that they can’t take the jobs that need the most attention.

But it looks like the recent upswing in lawyer popularity — driven by the Trump resistance — a trend that many have celebrated — is sparking renewed interest in law school attendance.

Bloomberg’s Big Law Business points to Keith Lee’s latest calculations of the mood of top graduates toward law school. Looking at graduates of the Ivy League schools, as well as Chicago, Duke, and Stanford, Lee noted a 1.2 percent year-to-year increase in law school applications from this gaggle of schools, which may not sound like much until you consider the recent history of law school applications. From Big Law Business:

This is potentially good news for law schools looking to attract top talent: Since 2008, the number of these top tier graduates applying to law school has dropped 40.92 percent, from 3,282 students to 1,939, according to Lee’s calculations. The post-recession peak was in 2010, when 3,705 students from the 11 above-listed schools applied to law school, and the biggest drop occurred between 2010 and 2012. The numbers have started to level off since then, Lee found.

And now there’s an uptick. The good news? The declining admission standards of the last several years will reverse themselves as more candidates enter the fray. The bad news? Prime that legal education bubble because the law schools haven’t learned a damn thing and now America will put more asses in those seats and justify every ill-considered business move they’ve made over the last several years.

But barring some unforeseen development, what we shouldn’t assume is that this is going to leave the under-served population flush with attorneys.

Are Top College Grads Starting to Think About Law School Again? [Big Law Business]

Top University Students Avoiding Law School 2017 Edition [Associate’s Mind]

Joe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.