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Law Students

All the Dismal News for Law Students Now In One Place

Posted Mar 16, 2009 9:21 AM CST
By Rachel M. Zahorsky

While some legal news services and blogs remain transfixed by the never-ending deluge of law firm layoffs (the 12-day tally of axings tops 3,000) others have intermittently reported the future fate of 3Ls and 2Ls.

For anxious law students, The Shark has helpfully compiled the bad news, rescinded or adjusted offers and canceled summer programs, into a single chart of doom.

After all, “Who doesn’t love a good chart?” the legal blog asks in the post.

It remains to be seen how often The Shark plans to update the chart. It doesn't, for instance, include last week's news that Winstead canceled its summer program.

Update: The Shark is indeed updating the chart and, because of reader interest, has moved it to the pole position on its site.

Comments

1.

Anonymous
Mar 16, 2009 4:03 PM CST

Quit focusing on the biglaw layoffs that affect maybe 15% of graduating 2 and 3L’s.

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2.

B. McLeod
Mar 17, 2009 12:08 AM CST

Actually, as the Big Law castaways stuggle to avoid life in a Bushville tent, cooking weenies on a Coleman camping stove, they are being driven down the food chain.  This means 2Ls and 3Ls will be competing with the Big Law castaways (and others displaced by them) for jobs formerly thought to be beneath the castaways’ dignity.

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3.

steve
Mar 17, 2009 8:06 AM CST

Only the top 10% go to big law so who cares…..

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4.

anonymous
Mar 17, 2009 1:08 PM CST

True, few students get the BigLaw jobs, but who else hires straight out of law school?  If you see a job out there that doesn’t require 3-5 years’ experience, please let me know.  If I could find a $35k/year entry-level, non-legal job in some company somewhere, I would gladly abandon my JD and lawyerly aspirations.  In a company, at least I would get health care and the possibility of (eventual) career advancement.  But alas, my JD and humanities undergrad make me singularly unqualified to work for anyone, anywhere.

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5.

Legal Eaglet
Mar 17, 2009 3:34 PM CST

Anon, hindsight is always 20/20, but that’s why you don’t major in humanities or poli sci and then go directly to law school. You have nothing to fall back on with your undergraduate education. Who in the frack majors in poli sci or humanities anymore anyway and what is the rationale? You should be kicking yourself in a@$ now.

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6.

anonymous
Mar 17, 2009 8:56 PM CST

I went to a liberal arts school because the in the late 1990’s, they all claimed you could go work in a .com or on Wall Street with your humanities degree.  I went to a TOP lib arts school, graduated just in time for the first Bush recession, and could not get a job for nearly two years.  Career services office refused to help alumni.  I applied to law school because it was clear that I needed a suppllemental degree, and all respectable B schools at that time required post-college work experience.  Besides, how many laypeople would really believe that every law school’s published entry-salary data would be roughly twice what it actually is in reality?  Bottom line is this: I have went to a college and law school that both reject more 80% of their applicants, I am bilingual, took advanced math, economics, science, read more than a hundred books a year, and I literally cannot get a job working at the local Best Buy.  That does not speak well of American higher education.

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7.

anonymous
Mar 17, 2009 8:58 PM CST

Sorry for typos - it’s too late for my brain to be working properly.

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8.

B. McLeod
Mar 17, 2009 9:25 PM CST

I guess.  Sounds like you needed it in the 1990s.

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9.

Justin
Mar 20, 2009 5:11 AM CST

I think Mr. McLeod is right on the money with his comment. As a law student, smack in the median with my grades, I definitely think that as Big Law stops hiring the top 10, 15, 20, 25% of graduates, those students will become my competition for the comfortable 60-80K jobs normally beneath them.

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10.

fed worker
Mar 20, 2009 5:44 AM CST

For a law-related job, consider being a Federal government contracting officer.  Pay starts low (GS-5 or GS-7), but there is a rapid promotion career ladder in the first few years.  Health insurance too.  The government is way short on the number of contracting officers it should have.  Here’s a website:  http://www.fai.gov/FAIC/Default.asp

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11.

Student
Mar 20, 2009 6:01 AM CST

I am sick of all the negative news being reported non-stop.  These articles only fuel more negativity…STOP already and let’s focus on what is available to us and quit wallowing in the layoff self-pity pool!

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12.

Philip G
Mar 20, 2009 6:47 AM CST

I agree with Student.  The country is spiraling into depression because of all the negative news being reported.  Yes, people are out of jobs.  Yes, people are continuing to be laid off.  Yes, the economy is in disarray.  However, how is the constant reporting of this going to help.  I asked a co-worker last week if he had read the ABA Journal for that week and he replied, “no, it’s too depressing.”  Look at this weeks Journal.  Every story has something to do with lost jobs and how terrible the job market is.  Let’s move on and try to put a small amount of cheer into an already frustrating and often depressing profession.  Who’s with me?

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13.

drew
Mar 20, 2009 7:00 AM CST

3Ls not aiming at Big Law not only compete with those just laid off from Big Law but also with certain retirees who have lost their retirement and want to go back to work.

So it’s tough, but not impossible.  A job may take a little longer than any of us wanted, but we’ll find something.  The key is to not b*tch and moan about things not turning out how we wanted them to, and instead making the best of how things turned out.

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14.

nn
Mar 20, 2009 8:06 AM CST

To Philip G, I am with you.  For months now I’ve been saying that the real stimulus the economy needs is positivity.  Seriously, think about it, if the newspapers reported that the dow went up for two straight weeks, regardless of whether it was true, then everyone would start investing and spending again, and then everything would be all fixed. Not that I’m advocating lying to the masses, but I just think it’s funny (funny strange, not funny ha-ha)  how so much of our current economic situation is due to psychology.

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15.

Laura
Mar 20, 2009 10:01 AM CST

Yeah, so they quit reporting on job losses/market negativity and what do we have?  Everyone crying Katrina-like coverup, conspiracy, media bias, blah, blah, blah.  It’s negative, it’s horrible, it’s reality.  And, after all, the American public has that all important “right to know.”

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16.

Molly McDonough
Mar 20, 2009 10:25 AM CST

I encourage you to send story ideas and news tips (positive, negative, neutral) to tips@abajournal.com.

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17.

Amy
Mar 20, 2009 10:49 AM CST

Anyone that thinks that the big firm layoffs don’t affect more than a small percentage of job seekers is obviously not looking for a job right now.  As several people have stated before, this means that those who have been laid off by the big firms are now competing for other jobs.  Additionally, layoffs are happening with firms of all sizes, it’s just that those layoffs aren’t being reported about since a small firm laying off 2 attorneys isn’t a story of interest.  All this added together makes it even more difficult for those of us who have recently graduated from law school.  My experience has been that many experienced attorneys who have lost their jobs are now applying for entry-level or lower-level positions.  New attorneys can’t compete because of the experience on the resumes of their fellow applicants.

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18.

SAF
Mar 20, 2009 4:03 PM CST

@ #16—Why do we have to do your work for you, moderator? Can’t YOU and/or the ABA find anything positive to report?

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19.

A reader
Mar 21, 2009 7:43 AM CST

I find the comments on this thread very interesting. So, several comments focus on why the ABA Journal posts so many stories on BigLaw. Stories on BigLaw and anything to do with BigLaw pay generally generate somewhere between 20-100 comments. This week’s story on a smaller mid-size firm generated 1 comment (which happened to be mine.) Then there are the comments regarding reporting of bad news and how that leads to a further downward spiral, in terms of perception and general overall well-being. Yet when a happy and/or fluff piece is posted, 10 comments are written questioning “why is this news?” So the moderators specifically ask for input from their readership as to what you want to read. And then you jump all over them asking “why are you making us do your job?” Seriously, what the do you people want??? It seems to me that they have been really trying lately to appeal to as many people as possible…  Pesonally, I think they are doing a fine job. Reading the types and numbers of comments on particular types of articles, they are making reporting decisions in line with what it appears people want…

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20.

B. McLeod
Mar 21, 2009 12:04 PM CST

Very well put.  There will always be a few malcontents, who are mad at the entire world and won’t be happy with anything.  Obviously, the editors have nothing to gain by attempting to base content on the remarks of the posters who feel that way.

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21.

J
Mar 26, 2009 9:34 AM CST

Face it, unless you’re going biglaw, you’re not going to be making more than 60K a year. And, unless you’re top 15%, you’re not going biglaw. That isn’t to say that there isn’t substantial room for advancement, but don’t expect to be able to buy that 3 bedroom hi-rise condo for a while.

Hell, there is a lot of competition out there for 45K/yr litigation defense jobs now. Just be warned.

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