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Originally Posted by Munchkin03
My private-sector attorney friends are, by far, having the worst time of anyone I know. One buddy was actively getting new clients for his firm, and they laid him off.  Another person, one of my best friends, is HR at a big firm. It really sucks to be her now.
Do you read abovethelaw? |
I do read abovethelaw, although I'm considering going cold turkey on it for a few months. Every day there are reports of firms laying people off and it's gotten really depressing. Apparently the NYC market has been hit the hardest, and they're putting severe limitations on who they're recruting in the fall.
One of my professors is a well-regarded appellate attorney in the area, and his firm laid off a bunch of attorneys. He's been in practice around 20 years, and he said this is the toughest market he's ever seen for the profession.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OtterXO
That's putting it mildly. I can't even imagine starting out right now. I've had several friends my experience level (in our 4th year of practice) get laid off recently. Some from large firms, some smaller. The trouble with hiring first year attorneys is that they generally don't know what the heck they're doing...but you spend the money to train them. Unfortunately, even the more marketable (3rd-5th year) attorneys are having trouble finding jobs right now though. First year attorneys are getting shut out of the game. I have a friend who has been licensed for over a year with no job.
While I'm definitely happy to have a job, but I don't feel like any legal job is stable right now. If one of our big clients goes out of business then who knows what would happen.
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True. I feel like in most years I would be fairly marketable, especially for a new attorney. I get good grades (at a fairly good law school, lower first tier), I'm on a journal, I'm on moot court board (which at my school is extremely selective), and I already have good experience arguing in court on a number of occasions and prevailing on some dispositive motions. Even still, the market is limited, and I've had to completely re-shape my job searching strategy.
I feel really bad for the mid-level associates who are getting laid off from their firms. I can't imagine putting that time into a place and having them cut you loose like that. At the end of the day I'm pretty lucky; I have a good job as a legal intern, for decent pay, and the economy (in a backwards kind of way) has allowed me to do a lot of assignments that normally would have been assigned to an attorney. The question is, though, what happens when I graduate in January?
Quote:
Originally Posted by ADqtPiMel
My husband is also having a hell of a time finding a job. He's graduating law school in May and still doesn't have anything. He's at the top of his class but attends a lower-tier school -- so all of the jobs that he previously would have had a strong shot at are going to the graduates from better schools who had their big firm offers rescinded and are now going after government jobs.
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I may have said this before, but good luck to your husband. It's rough out there, no doubt, and it sounds like he's done as much as he can to make himself marketable.