State of the Legal Job Market

by Jan Nussbaum
Assistant Director for Professional Development

Recently I moderated a panel discussion on the current state of the legal job market. As part of the program, I summarized a recent NALP report on the subject. The conclusions in the report, which was based largely on 2010 national law graduate employment data and fall 2011 recruiting data, were consistent with comments made by the panel speakers - Errol Dauis from OneJustice; Jennifer Peneyra from Farella Braun & Martel; Char Sachson from the CA Attorney General's Office; and Heidi Timken from Timken Johnson Hwang. In summary:

Law Firm Recruiting is Inching Up: While the legal employment market has certainly not recovered to where it was before the recession, there are a number of signs that the market is slowly improving. Some practice areas have rebounded faster and stronger than the rest, namely patent litigation, energy law, health care law and banking. (1)

Smaller and Mid-Size Firms Have Held Their Hiring Steady or Increased It: While 2010 saw an unprecedented 5% drop in private practice jobs, this primarily came from large law firms. The number of offers made by the smallest firms (2-10 attorneys) has remained more or less constant throughout the recession and its aftermath, and this remains the most common destination for those recent graduates entering the private practice. (2)

Ms. Timken commented that her firm hired attorneys during the worst part of the recession, going from a three attorney firm to six. Ms. Peneyra stated that while Farella reduced their summer associate program size, and thus extended fewer offers to law students, when the need arose, the firm hired recently admitted attorneys, and continues to do so.

The national data shows an increase in recent graduate employment in business, government (primarily Federal), public interest and academia. (3) Ms. Sachson observed that State government hiring has been about the same from year to year, mainly from replacing attorneys who retire or leave. Mr. Dauis said some public interest agencies are expanding and some contracting based upon the amount of funding obtained from year to year.

Presentation and Preparation is Key: The speakers emphasized that while the applicant pool is highly competitive, what makes a candidate stand out is being well prepared and presenting oneself in a positive manner. This meant: 1) knowing as much as you can about the employer's and specific interviewer's practice and background; 2) having a genuine enthusiasm for wanting to do the kind of work that the employer is engaged in; and 3) connecting with the interviewer(s) on a personal level.

The speakers emphasized the customary job hunting tactics of networking, especially trying to connect with someone at the hiring agency or firm, and flawless application materials free of grammatical or typographical errors.

Mr. Dauis stressed the importance of having a track record of pro bono work for landing a position in public interest. He advised that many public interest agencies hire recent grads as fellows, and that this, or volunteer work, can lead to a staff attorney position in the future. The other panelists mentioned that in their sectors grades are important, but if you lack the grades, then obtain experience any way you can, including working as an intern, volunteering or a fellowship.

You can view the program in its entirety on the LCS Youtube page after it's been uploaded in the next week. If you'd like a copy of the NALP report, please contact me at jnussbaum@ggu.edu.

1 - "Banking" work is primarily litigation against bank mortgage practices and new government banking regulations. Cautionary Note: The European debt crisis has caused credit markets to again be wary. Thus, transactional work slowed considerably in Q4 of 2011, and has been sluggish in the first part of this year. This has mainly affected the larger firms (500+ attorneys).

2 - 59% of private practice jobs are in firms of 1-50 attorneys.

3 - "Business employment" is a broad category covering everything from in-house counsel, management consultant, contract attorney work through a temporary agency, and Barista work at Starbucks.