Law students face tough job market
Steve Goodstadt is heartbroken. He is investing a small fortune into a law school education, but doesn’t feel the degree will do him any good.
‘You’re paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for your education, but who knows if you’ll have a job afterwards?’ said Goodstat, a second-year law student at Syracuse University’s College of Law.
Kim Price, director of the Office of Professional and Career Development at SUCOL, said large law firms are not hiring as much as they used to, yet public service jobs, or positions in smaller firms, are becoming easier to find.
‘As Vice President [Joe] Biden said in his speech, the government has new programs for lawyers going into the public sector,’ said John Jensen, a first-year law student. ‘It’s helping law students pursue the type of law they want to pursue.’
In the Class of 2008, 46 percent of SUCOL graduates pursued a career with a private practice, according to the school’s Web site. But the recession has caused law firms to significantly cut back recruitment, if they are recruiting at all, according to an August article in The New York Times.
With the competition growing intense, Price said planning and persistence are important factors in finding a job in the law field. She said SUCOL is encouraging students to make appointments to discuss their job search strategies, and to stay actively engaged in the search process.
‘For all students, there are two keys to this job market: one is networking and the other is being flexible about how you achieve your end goals,’ Price said.
Recruiting programs in universities around the country that allow employers to interview students at their school before they graduate have been affected by the recession. Top law firms in New York City and Philadelphia had to cancel their recruiting sessions because they could not afford to hire new students, according to the New York Times article.
Sal Razavi, a second year law student, thinks the shortage of law jobs must be a conspiracy.
‘The entire market of lawyers for big firms was oversaturated, and they are now using the excuse of the recession to fire everybody,’ Razavi said. ‘A huge part of the lawyers are tied to the banking and finance industry.’
Though large law firms are not apt to hire many new graduates, other fields have increased their need for legal representation, said Thomas Evans, general counsel for SU and former partner at Bond, Schoeneck & King said in an e-mail.
‘Of course, as we all know, there are some legal fields that have grown during the recession, such as bankruptcy,’ Evans said. ‘So although the recession has certainly had the effect of reducing some fields of legal work for a variety of reasons, the practice of law continues to be active and a profession that many continue to seek.’
Goodstadt said he’s still worried. ‘Right now, I’m not hopeful. People assume lawyers will always be fine because someone dies, gets divorced or goes bankrupt, but it’s not the case anymore.’
Published on September 14, 2009 at 12:00 pm
