LEGAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES – elite law school graduates are increasingly finding work outside big law firms
More graduates of elite law schools are finding work outside law firms reports the Chicago Tribune (December 16, 2011). Amid a growing debate about the value of going to law school in times of economic uncertainty, the University of Chicago reports that its graduates are doing very well.
The law school just published on its website more comprehensive employment data about its recent graduates than it has in the past. The move toward more transparency was motivated by the controversy that some schools continue to market the prospects of high-paying jobs when the reality of the job market is much different.
The University of Chicago also is proud of its statistics and is not ashamed to share them. Of its 611 law graduates between 2008 and 2010, only 10 were unemployed nine months after finishing school. The median salary for all three years was $160,000.
Interestingly, fewer of its 2010 graduates ended up at law firms than those in prior classes. Of the 191 employed graduates of a class of 195, 71.2 percent found work at law firms. In the previous two classes, which were about the same size as 2010's, about 80 percent were employed at firms.
Northwestern University's law school experienced a similar decline. Sixty-two percent of the 268 employed 2010 grads went to work at law firms. In the previous four years, at least 73 percent of its employed grads nine months out of school were earning a living at firms.
The employment data show that even the Chicago area's two most prestigious law schools were not immune to the economic downturn. Law firms, especially larger ones that have more than 500 attorneys, reduced entry-level hiring in response to the financial crisis in 2008. The big question is whether law firm hiring in 2010 was a one-year blip or the start of a long-term trend.
Brad Keck, a U.S.hiring partner for Mayer Brown inChicago, is not optimistic hiring will bounce back any time soon to pre-crisis levels at the international firm. “There's going to be some modest increase in hiring,” he said, “but not as high as it's been historically, because turnover is low and there's general softness in the demand for legal services.”
The dim outlook has widespread consequences for law schools. Applications are down even at the top schools. Application volume at the University of Chicago was off 14 percent last year, said Michael Schill, dean of the law school.
At the top schools, competition has increased for the coveted jobs at elite law firms that pay the $160,000 starting salaries. Schools have had to adjust their placement and financial aid strategies. Encouraging students to consider jobs in government or public interest is a hard sell because those jobs don't pay as well as private practice. The median salary of 2010 U. of C. law school graduates who took a government job was $56,734, slightly above the law school's annual tuition of $47,502.
Earlier this year, the University of Chicago said it would offer more financial assistance for law students considering nonprofit work or judicial clerkships. Graduates who stay in public-interest jobs for 10 years will have their education loans forgiven.
“There are still plenty of opportunities for students at the top-tier schools,” said William Henderson, director of the Center on the Global Legal Profession at Indiana University. “But they are displacing graduates from other schools.”
Most law schools will not report their employment data for the class of 2011 until February. The push toward more transparency is easier on schools such as Northwestern and University of Chicago. But “it's going to be pretty embarrassing for a lot of schools,”Henderson said.