Recruiter: Summer Associate Positions Could Decline by Up to 35%

Law Students

Recruiter: Summer Associate Positions Could Decline by Up to 35%

Posted Oct 17, 2008, 10:22 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

A recruiter is predicting that 2009 will be a tough year for summer associates.

Recruiter Jerry Kowalski told the National Law Journal he estimates that summer associate positions will decline by 30 percent to 35 percent next year.

The story says a handful of law firms have canceled next year’s summer associate programs and several have “quietly reduced” the number of law students they intend to hire. Summer associate programs are among the discretionary expenses that law firms are trimming amid the economic downturn.

Students who would have focused on New York summer positions in better economic times are now looking in other cities and at smaller law firms, recruiters told the publication.

Among the firms that have canceled summer associate programs for 2009 are Thelen, Arnstein & Lehr, and the Chicago office of Barnes & Thornburg.

Updated on Oct. 18 to correct the spelling of "Thornburg" and to clarify that only Barnes & Thornburg's Chicago office is affected.

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Posted by larry - 2 months, 3 weeks, 1 day, 7 hours, 27 minutes ago

Should have gone to medical school. More jobs as doctors than lawyers these days.
Posted by Rocco - 2 months, 3 weeks, 1 day, 6 hours, 29 minutes ago

Larry - just look beyond the bullshit of big firm life and you’ll be much happier for it. PD lawyers rule!
Posted by Hadley V. Baxendale - 2 months, 3 weeks, 1 day, 5 hours, 44 minutes ago

If big law eliminates the “bait” of the leisurely life of a summer clerk, how will it do the “switch”?

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