Law Grads Scramble for Interim Jobs; More Deferrals, Fewer Stipends in Future?

Rosemary McKenna feels fortunate to have received an offer to work as an associate attorney at Blank Rome.

But the 26-year-old graduate of Temple University's Beasley School of Law has been told by the law firm not to plan to start there until January. In the meantime, she is working two restaurant hostess jobs in Philadelphia to pay the bills, reports the Wall Street Journal. Unlike some counterparts at other well-known firms, she isn't being paid a stipend by Blank Rome to help cover the gap between what she is now being paid and her expected first-year salary.

Forced to chart a new career course this year by the sudden economic downturn that hit hard last fall, McKenna and other new law grads have had to scramble to find interim work amidst a stunning number of start-date deferrals by well-known legal partnerships. But those in subsequent law school classes might do well to expect a this startling development to become the new norm.

In the future, such delayed starts may become more common and stipends may be a rarity, predicts Abbie Willard. She is the University of Chicago Law School's dean of career services and policy initiatives.