New Lawyer Says Waitress Job Pays More than Small Law Firms
Recent law school graduate Bobbi-Sue Doyle-Hazard has discovered a sad reality as she works as a waitress at a Boston steak restaurant and goes on interviews for jobs at small law firms—her pay will likely drop when she finds legal work.
She told the Boston Business Journal about one recent job interview. “When asked what I’d like for a salary I said $50,000, and I was told that was high,” Doyle-Hazard said. Still, she is thrilled about the interviews and eager to find work in civil litigation.
Doyle-Hazard, a graduate of Penn State University’s Dickinson School of Law, was one of several young jobless or underemployed lawyers profiled in the Boston Business Journal story. She works 40 hours a week at the restaurant Abe & Louie’s and makes enough to pay for rent and law school loans.
Another lawyer, Noah Ehrenpreis, had his start date at a large Boston firm pushed back until March 2010. In the meantime, he is working with the Lawyers in Transition Task Force, sponsored by the Boston Bar Association. The task force is developing a program to help jobless lawyers find opportunities with legal services organizations.
