Brooklyn DA Interns, a ‘Bumper Crop,’ Compete for Work and Chairs

Posted Jul 27, 2009 6:21 AM CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

The tough job market has apparently pushed more law students into unpaid internships at the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, where they compete for office chairs, good assignments and permanent job offers.

Public employment has become more attractive as law firms cut the number of summer associates hired, the New York Times reports. The “bumper crop of interns” in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office has created some logistical problems, according to the story.

“It’s much harder for them to find stuff for us to do,” one intern told the newspaper. Some interns fill their days doing crossword puzzles or playing computer games, while others go to court to observe the proceedings. Intern Susan Cho, a Villanova law student, pointed out another problem. “There’s sometimes trouble finding a seat,” she said.

The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office ended up with 195 interns this year, 45 more than it was seeking, and a possible record, the story says. The District Attorney in Queens also has more interns—83 of them, 23 more than last year.

While more students landed internships, fewer will see permanent job offers. Carol Moran, director of legal hiring for the Brooklyn District Attorney, said the office is hiring about 7 percent to 8 percent of applicants, down from 10 percent to 12 percent in past years.

Would-be prosecutors aren’t the only law grads facing a bad job market. According to the National Association for Legal Career Professionals, 90 percent of 2008 graduates were employed as of February, the first drop since 2003.

Comments

anonymous
Jul 27, 2009 8:21 AM CST

Something is wrong here. You have 200 people (many of whom are buried under massive debt with compounding interest) who are working for free with only a 7% chance of landing a 45K job in a high cost of living city, and then you have this Career Professional outfit claiming that 90% of the ‘08 grads are employed. Employed at what? Scrubbing toilets at McDonald’s? When is the ABA going to come in and start regulating employment reporting fraud?

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TNG
Jul 27, 2009 9:26 AM CST

Ha! the ABA is never ever going to regulate employment reporting fraud or any of the inaccurate data reported by law schools to US News & World report. Nothing will ever be done about this.

HOWEVER, at this day and age, as opposed to say before 2007 or 06, every potential law student has more than enough information through law related blogs, personal blogs, commenters such as u and me, and so on to be fully, fully, fully informed of the BS that law schools perpetuate about the lack of opportunities in the legal field and the inapplicability of a JD in anything but the legal field.

At the very least, all potential law students should now know that investing anything more than say 75k (which is about the max in federal sub loans one can take in 3 years) is a complete waste and, well, just plain stupid.

Law school is not worth the debt incurred when the chances of actually getting a decent paying legal job is remarkably low for the 80% of law grads not in a top ten school or in the top 5% of their class.

This whole article is just pathetically sad and I empathize for these law students and grads.

My advice if one is over the age of 28, don’t waste your money or precious youth on law school and if under 28 and you must go, give yourself no more than 2 years after graduating trying to get into a good job and if nothing comes of it, change career fields and never look back.

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tom
Jul 27, 2009 9:35 AM CST

the ABA is run by the law school professors and law schools admins, so that is why the ABA does nothing about the fraudulent law school graduate salary employment statistics.

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R
Jul 27, 2009 11:53 AM CST

My problem with statistics is when they do not give the source of the numbers. While I do take with a grain of salt all claims of accuracy when it is a random sampling of 1032 people in 12 states as being poll for the entire country, at least I know where the survey is coming from. The problem with employment stats is that they never revel how may of the graduating class responded. If I was making six figures, I would most likely respond to the law schools request for my employment. If I am making minimum wage at McDonald’s I probably will not respond. If these polls listed every non-response as unemployed, the resulting statistics would probably be closer to the truth. It also would not surprise me if Law School didn’t purposely tell there student to not respond if not above a certain criteria just to improve the USN&WP;Law school rankings. From all of the employment numbers I have seen, I do not think that the unreported portion is counted. If 200 people are in your graduating class and they only report on the 20 people who responded, 18 that have big law six figure jobs and two who are not working for person choice (i.e.. Pregnancy, want to travel the world, etc.) now you have you 90% employment with an average salary of $160,000. Which is very misleading and deceptive when of the other 180 people in your class, maybe half are unemployed and the other half are making $80,000 or less.

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DR
Jul 27, 2009 8:21 PM CST

I live in Brooklyn and Brooklyn comprises of about 2.5 million people…so 195 interns doesn’t seem like such a big deal, in my opinion. My only contact with the DA’s office was the time I was a witness on a grand jury. My family was victim to a breaking and entering and I dealt with the questions of a very green assistant DA who I thought did a pretty good job, given his experience and limited resources. It is a tough job…in Brooklyn, that is…and I give these young kids a lot credit. I give them a lot more credit than the people who work in commercial litigation. I couldn’t do their jobs and I admire them for it.

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Brooklyn DA Interns, a ‘Bumper Crop,’ Compete for Work and Chairs

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Brooklyn DA Interns, a ‘Bumper Crop,’ Compete for Work and Chairs

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