The verdict is in: Law school is a risky bet.

The number of applicants to US law schools is down 20 percent since this time last year, according to the Law School Admissions Council. At this rate, between 53,000 and 54,000 applicants will apply for the fall semester, compared with 68,000 last year. If the trend persists, the number of applicants will have fallen by 38 percent since 2010.

The drop-off marks a serious loss of faith in the legal education system, which has been widely criticized by politicians and the media for inflating low graduate employment outcomes while charging students a small fortune in tuition — sending them off to wait tables while carrying average debt loads north of $100,000.

Last spring, the American Bar Association released detailed data showing just how difficult it is to secure a full-time law job these days: Nine months after graduation, only 55 percent of 2011 graduates had sealed a deal.