NALP Numbers Tell Sad Story: Offers & Recruiting Plunge, But Law School Help Boosts Jobs Stat
Only about a dozen people attended a late-afternoon program in Puerto Rico on Friday in which executive director James Leipold of the National Association for Law Placement discussed the statistics NALP has developed on the recessionary legal economy.
But they got an earful, Above the Law reports today:
The rate of entry-level job offers to law firm summer program participants plummeted to 69 percent in 2009, a record low. (The summer after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, it hit 81 percent.)
Meanwhile, only 3 percent of the firms were recruiting third-years during on-campus interviews that fall, compared to 25 to 50 percent of the firms in the seven years before 2009.
And 17 percent of the firms that had summer programs last year have already canceled their summer programs for 2010.
The only figures that aren’t expected to drop off a cliff are for job placement within nine months of graduation, according to Leipold. He said he expects the number to hover around 80 percent when NALP employment statistics come out within a few weeks, ATL recounts.
This relatively good news may be attributable to the placement help that law schools have given graduates, the blog speculates, citing NALP statistics that show 42 percent created or provided jobs of some nature.
The program was part of NALP’s 2010 Annual Education Conference & Resource Center Exhibition.
