Adding to Grim Math of Legal Job Market: 43,000 New Law Grads
After a stunning series of law firm layoffs and incoming associate start-date deferrals this year, some 43,000 third-year students will soon be graduating from the nation’s law schools.
This grim math adds up to a tough job market for both the new graduates and a number of young attorneys who themselves aren’t all that long out of law school, reports the National Law Journal.
“I don’t fit into the ‘experienced attorney’ category, but with the class of 2009 entering the playing field, I’m not considered a recent law graduate, either,” says Jessie Pinkrah. A 2008 graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, she had four months of legal work experience under her belt when Thacher Proffitt & Wood imploded last year.
Now, with the dismal economy and thousands of young associates suddenly out of work, “It’s just more competition for jobs that we had very little chance of getting to begin with,” Pinkrah says.
A third-year at Texas Wesleyan University School of Law sums up the situation succinctly, as discussed in an earlier ABAJournal.com post:
“I spoke with another student this morning. She knows of no one who has a job upon graduation,” said Britt Hadley, 35. “I know of only one.”
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “March Mayhem Tally Tops 3,500 After End-of-Month Law Firm Layoffs”
ABAJournal.com: “As Laid-Off Lawyers Look for Work, How to Find It Isn’t Clear”
ABAJournal.com: “Laid-Off Associates Seek to Reinvent Themselves”
ABAJournal.com: “Prof’s Tragedy Inspires Law Grads to Seek Spirit of True Success”
Updated at 1:05 p.m. to link subsequent ABAJournal.com post.
