Law School Reality Archives - Page 32 of 37

Law School Grads Urged to Consider Alternative Paths

American Lawyer: “These days, graduates should be prepared to find alternative opportunities in the law, or even take a nonlegal job to pay the bills and get experience through pro bono work, say career development directors at several law schools . . . .”

“In April, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the legal sector shed 1,100 positions during the month, which came on the heels of 1,000 lost jobs in March. And between April 2009 and April 2010, the BLS reported that the legal industry has lost a total of approximately 28,000 jobs while the national unemployment rate hovers around 10 percent.”

New Lawyer Job Market Stinks!

The National Association for Law Placement just published a new report called “Class of 2009 Faced New Challenges with Recession: Overall Employment Rate Masks Job Market Weakness.”

“a far higher percentage of this class reported employment that was temporary . . . . Overall, nearly 25% of all jobs were reported as temporary . . . . 42% of the law schools reporting that they provided on-campus post-graduate jobs for their students.

Reading between the lines it appears that only 61% of ’09 Class have permanent jobs. See “The Numbers are In: The Job Market Stinks!” and “New NALP Numbers Are Out — and as Bad as Ever.”

LSAT: The Next “Wealth Test” of College Seniors

The Huffington Post: “But when I looked online to sign up for one of these lauded prep courses, I found that their cost ranged from $1200 to over $9000 — with in-class hours ranging from eighty-some to over three-hundred! This is very problematic on more than one level.”

U.S. News Takes Steps to Stop Law Schools From Manipulating the Rankings

U.S. News & World Report: “it’s clear—based on our own analysis of historical trends in the our law school rankings and recently published blog posts—that certain law schools are taking advantage of that knowledge to game our rankings. U.S. News is going to take steps to prevent these data manipulations by law schools in future rankings. The post serves as notice of those changes to be explained below.”

Rethinking College – the Times They are a Changing

Two interesting articles in the New York Times (“Plan B: Skip College“) and the Wall St. Journal (“A Lament for the Class of 2010“) have a similar theme – a college degree is no longer a sure ticket to a good job and economic success. From the WSJ article:

“They [2010 college graduates] will enter an economy where roughly 17% of people aged 20 through 24 do not have a job, and where two million college graduates are unemployed. . . . there’s always law school. Never mind that applications are at an all-time high and that thousands of legal positions at investment banking firms have disappeared forever. Never mind that recent Ivy League law school graduates are now working as file clerks, substitute school teachers, census takers. Never mind that in order to pay back the $200,000 it’s going to cost you to go to law school, you’ll need to land one of those plum legal jobs at Goldman Sachs or AIG or one of those other firms that are no longer hiring . . . .”