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Adding to Grim Math of Legal Job Market: 43,000 New Law Grads

Posted Apr 17, 2009 11:12 AM CST
By Martha Neil

After a stunning series of law firm layoffs and incoming associate start-date deferrals this year, some 43,000 third-year students will soon be graduating from the nation's law schools.

This grim math adds up to a tough job market for both the new graduates and a number of young attorneys who themselves aren't all that long out of law school, reports the National Law Journal.

"I don't fit into the 'experienced attorney' category, but with the class of 2009 entering the playing field, I'm not considered a recent law graduate, either," says Jessie Pinkrah. A 2008 graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, she had four months of legal work experience under her belt when Thacher Proffitt & Wood imploded last year.

Now, with the dismal economy and thousands of young associates suddenly out of work, "It's just more competition for jobs that we had very little chance of getting to begin with," Pinkrah says.

A third-year at Texas Wesleyan University School of Law sums up the situation succinctly, as discussed in an earlier ABAJournal.com post:

"I spoke with another student this morning. She knows of no one who has a job upon graduation," said Britt Hadley, 35. "I know of only one."

Related coverage:

ABAJournal.com: "March Mayhem Tally Tops 3,500 After End-of-Month Law Firm Layoffs"

ABAJournal.com: "As Laid-Off Lawyers Look for Work, How to Find It Isn’t Clear"

ABAJournal.com: "Laid-Off Associates Seek to Reinvent Themselves"

ABAJournal.com: "Prof’s Tragedy Inspires Law Grads to Seek Spirit of True Success"

Updated at 1:05 p.m. to link subsequent ABAJournal.com post.

Comments

1.

CJ
Apr 17, 2009 2:59 PM CST

Same as every other year.  Job market sucks.  We’ve seen recessions before.  ABA should probably not accredit any more law schools though and states should probably refrain from letting non-accredited grads take their bar exams.

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2.

fed up
Apr 18, 2009 11:11 AM CST

Let the market place determine new, lower attorney’s fees.  And let lawyers in India and China compete in our market too.  The shakeout will benefit all.

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3.

unperson
Apr 18, 2009 12:05 PM CST

If the law profession media and the state bars and the ABA would have done their jobs and publicized how the law schools have been putting out false, made up income and employments stats about their law school grads, then this disaster would not have happened because far fewer people would ever have gone to law school.


for years now, the law schools lied about how well their graduates did, about how much $$ they made out of law school and how many of them got law jobs.

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4.

uhhh
Apr 18, 2009 12:14 PM CST

if the aba would keep the legal profession in the U.S., instead of allowing outsourcing to india and china, there would def be more of a demand for lawyers here in the U.S.  The aba needs to retain control over the U.S. legal market.

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5.

JPM
Apr 18, 2009 2:36 PM CST

Yet the ABA has continued to accredit new schools. Law Schools have been allowed to publish misleading if not fraudulent employment and salary stats to entice young people to make an “investment” in themselves with impunity.I pity the new grads.

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6.

HJN
Apr 18, 2009 2:40 PM CST

The market only works when information is accurate. if you sold a car with misleading or fraudulent statistics as to its mileage and performance you would be sued under consumer protection ststuates. Law schools, which cost about 15 x more than the average car, put out fraudulent emplyment and salary statistics. When is the frist class action?

I still have no idea why student loan debt is non-dischargable.

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7.

Eric Sposito
Apr 18, 2009 3:20 PM CST

Student loan debt is non dischargeable because the loans are guaranteed by the Federal Government. I won’t get into the egregious profits made by banks that issue these guaranteed loans, that’s another issue for another time

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8.

Wondering
Apr 18, 2009 6:18 PM CST

If law schools are indeed putting out fraudulent statistics, should deans be held to answer
under RPC 8.3(c)?

It is professional misconduct for a lawyer to:

(c) engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation;

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9.

disgusted
Apr 18, 2009 10:29 PM CST

To Wondering. Yes. They should. Until now, probably not enough people had nothing to lose by suing their own law school or reporting the Dean or others to the bar.

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10.

James
Apr 18, 2009 11:00 PM CST

Chinese / Indian Lawyers… um no.  There’s only so much you can outsource.  I really wish the ABA would take different stand on this.  They said that the reason they didn’t shoot down outsourcing as an ethics violation was because it would give smaller firms the opportunity to compete with larger outlets in stuff like document review. 

Now that we all know this is more ABA BS maybe they’ll rethink.

STOP ACCREDITING NEW LAW SCHOOLS.  THERE IS NOT A SINGLE COMMUNITY IN THE USA THAT IS NOT SERVED BY A LAW SCHOOL.  NO ONE WHO IS OPENING ONE AT THIS TIME HAS THE INTEREST OF THE PROFESSION IN MIND.

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11.

zekethewonderdog
Apr 19, 2009 9:00 PM CST

Excuse me, but you lawyers all think too much like lawyers.  Rather than whining about the job market, create your own.  Good lawyers never lack for work.  Fringe lawyers will always be suffering until they become good ones.

A legal education is a great thing.  But you don’t have to limit yourself to being a lawyer to employ it.

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12.

Jennifer
Apr 20, 2009 8:58 AM CST

In 2005, the job hunt for the newly graduated in my market averaged approximately 12-14 months.  Let’s hope they read the ABA’s advisories on what lawyers need to do in guranteed lean times.

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13.

Susan Cartier Liebel
Apr 21, 2009 2:02 PM CST

As someone said, ‘A barred lawyer in good standing can’t be unemployed.”

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14.

B. McLeod
Apr 23, 2009 11:19 PM CST

Indeed, that used to be a “given,” but now these younger lawyers act like they just can’t practice if they’re not in some big firm.  Some of them have cast firm layoffs as taking away their “identity as lawyers,” and others have actually even attempted suicide, rather than even trying to hang the shingle.  I don’t get it.  Really.

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15.

john
Apr 24, 2009 2:10 PM CST

Good luck, the debt to income ratio has not made sense for attorney’s for a long time…unless you’re guaranteed employment at top firm or can go to a cheaper state school.  But people keep going-enjoy paying down $150k debt while making $50k a year; that is if you can even find a job these days.  I know of no first year who has been able to make in excess of $30-50k going solo.  Plus, think of your first couple years in practice, you honestly think you could have trained yourself?  I’ve come across some pretty bad lawyer who I suspect “trained” themselves

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