One lawyer per 430 in Türkiye as rapid education growth sparks quality concerns

ANKARA

As Türkiye’s legal education sector undergoes a quarter-century of unprecedented growth, the country now faces a record density of one lawyer per 430 people, a shift that is fueling deep-seated debates over education quality and professional employment prospects.

According to a newly published Law Faculties Report by the Ankara-based Institute for Social Studies, Türkiye had more than 206,000 lawyers as of 2025 — nearly five times the number recorded in 1998.

Over the past 15 years, the number of people per lawyer fell from 1,095 to 430.

This ratio placed Türkiye below the European average and makes it the third most lawyer-dense country in Europe, after Portugal and Spain, the report said.

It showed that the growth in lawyer numbers is closely tied to the rapid expansion of law faculties.

Türkiye currently has 89 active law schools, nearly 100 when inactive ones are included.

Of these, 67 were established within the past 25 years.

Student numbers followed a similar trend.

Enrollment in law faculties rose from around 55,000 in 2014 to more than 82,000 in 2019.

The Institute notes that this institutional expansion has not always been matched by sufficient academic staff or infrastructure.

According to the report, across 86 law faculties, there are 586 professors in total, but 41 percent of them are concentrated in just 10 long-established universities.

Five law faculties have no professors at all, and nine have only one. The Institute warns that this distribution suggests some faculties are unable to meet even basic academic standards.