Matthew Willens, a Chicago personal-injury attorney, announced this week that he's launching a $1,000 Anything But Law School Graduate Scholarship for one student a year who is planning to go to a nonlegal graduate school.

A Chicago personal injury attorney who says he's concerned about the future of the legal profession has put his money where his mouth is — by offering to pay people to not go to law school.

Matthew Willens announced this week that he's launching a $1,000 "Anything But Law School Graduate Scholarship" for students planning to go to a nonlegal graduate school.

Willens, who also teaches at his alma mater, Loyola University Chicago's law school, isn't opposed to legal education, though he acknowledges some law schools are "pumping out more lawyers than there are lawyer jobs."

Instead, he said he wants to steer more — well, at least one a year for now — gifted students toward a more promising career path. And he's open about there being a self-interested reason, in addition to the publicity he's generating.

Law school grads with crushing student-debt loads and no job offers are launching their own practices and taking on clients even though they have no experience, he said.

"They're hanging a shingle and they just really don't know what they're doing," Willens said. "From a selfish perspective, it doesn't help the profession. It's a black eye."

The law school market has started adjusting to the slack in demand for attorneys. Applications at law schools were down 18 percent this fall compared with 2012, according to the Law School Admission Council.

"Some of the brightest people in the country are graduating with no real chance of becoming a quality lawyer," he said.

sschmadeke@tribune.com