Getting A Great Job After Law School?
This past weekend the New York Times had a sobering article explaining that law school is “No Longer the Golden Ticket.” Many people somehow assumed the the legal field was immune to the economic downturn. “Well, Wall Street is dead for now,” people thought, “so I’ll go for law school. Not as glamorous, but at least the money’s there.”
Turns out that big law firms are laying off big time and are not hiring many if any new lawyers. In fact, we’re seeing a lot of resumes of law school grads that are looking for something to do during their “gap year.” Overall, these folks are not making the Atlas cut, but many are quite bright. Interestingly, often they’ve been hired by some law firm and then told to not show up for a year and instead do something community-oriented (and these folks receive half their salaries, which is still a nice chunk of change). This sounds like a pretty good deal considering what many large law firms have young associates doing for the first couple of years (cue shot of Igor, the hunchback in old Frankenstein film creeping in the basement). As we see it, the problem is that when the economy picks up and folks start suing and merging with each other with gusto again, law firms will probably pick up their half-way house hires and hold off on taking new ones for a year or so. Basically, there’s a lawyer log jam. [Yes, that sounds like the end of a good lawyer joke.] Particularly since there’s been a 20% increase in LSAT test-takers this year!
So, what does this mean for you? Well, it truly does depend. If you are headed to law school because you really enjoy legal thinking, complex albeit sometimes boring puzzles, and technical reading and writing, then no worries. You’re probably where you should be. Perhaps you’ll have a tougher time getting a job out of the gate, but hang in there. There’s probably room for you, give or take a year of a job you’re not super-psyched about.
If you’re going to law school for a sure fire route to a quick $250K salary, then hold on a sec. Look around, talk to grads — both those who have landed jobs and those who have not — and consider holding off a year or so until the job market “normalizes.” Perhaps this is a good time to address some weaknesses in your application (like a weak LSAT score or a lack of community service, etc.).
P.S. And don’t forget that there is one more little (?) thing to keep in mind – law school debt.