Law Grads Waiting for Jobs Worry About Insurance, Job Competition

Law grads whose start dates have been delayed or their offers withdrawn face more than just uncertainty.

Their worries include insurance coverage, school loan payments, competition for jobs and a more difficult path to partnership, the National Law Journal reports.

Elijah Watkins, a third-year student at the University of Illinois College of Law, is among the worried. His start date at Latham & Watkins has been delayed from September to December.

"I'm in a different situation than many of my classmates," Watkins told the National Law Journal. "I have a wife and a child. For me, insurance and health benefits are an important issue."

Some law firms are delaying start dates by only a month or two, while others have longer waiting periods, the story says. For example, Orick, Herrington & Sutcliffe has delayed start dates for half of its new associates until January 2010, and the dates for the other half until March 2010. Morgan, Lewis & Bockius has pushed back start dates for an entire year, but is paying new associates up to $60,000 to work at public interest organizations. The firm hasn’t decided whether to offer health insurance to delayed associates.

Firms that have rescinded job offers include Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps, which withdrew offers for all of its incoming associates, and Lowenstein Sandler, which withdrew offers made to three of 18 incoming associates, according to the story.

One student grappling with a withdrawn job offer is Dan Vause, a Northwestern University law grad. He had already signed a lease and moved to California when he was informed of the rescinded offer, the story says. He got only a $5,000 stipend to help him move home.

"Basically, I've lost a year," Vause told the legal newspaper. “Soon I'm going to be competing with current 3Ls for jobs, and I don't have much to show for the past year."

"I've done all the things I was supposed to do to get a good job, and nothing has turned out the way I anticipated it would."