Dreams Deferred for Law School Graduates

by Mike Rosen

When Andy Morrison started law school, he expected to find a job as soon as he graduated. But after earning a JD from the University of San Francisco in 2008, Morrison found himself confronted by a narrowing recruitment pipeline.

A study released by the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) found that in the past year, law firms have cut on-campus recruiting by up to 30 percent, and a number of offices nixed 2010 summer programs outright. The rate of offers for entry-level law firm positions to summer associates also fell by 20 percent.

This slowdown in recruitment follows a wave of deferrals for employment start dates, which has left some grads without a job for six months or longer. For example, more than half of the 2008 summer associates who accepted a job were deferred until after December 2009, NALP reports.

"These deferrals have definitely created a backlog, so that a lot of firms have offered fewer summer programs, or some cut summer programs entirely as they absorb the backlog," says James Leipold, NALP's executive director. "This is a real challenge for law firms; they're used to bringing in a single class at a single point. It's hard to say when this will end, though we know that law firms don't intend to do this forever."

In the meantime, would-be lawyers "are going to have to do more to find employment," says Susan Gluss of UC Berkeley's School of Law. "They may have to be more willing to relocate, do more networking, do more research."

USF graduate Morrison, for his part, has taken temp jobs while he continues the search for permanent work, and he's expanding his career search to encompass the entire state. He's even considering a return to the software industry.

"You go to law school expecting to find a certain job," Morrison says, "and when you get out, it's hard not to be disappointed by this reality."

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