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January 6, 2010
A year end snap-shot of the job market for law grads
Student loan debt is up and job expectations are down according to a year-end, informal snapshot of several sources. The online ABA Journal is reporting today that almost a third of all law students expect to graduate with more than $120k in loan debt. Over at Above the Law, editor Elie Mystal describes, in a column called "Debt: the Silent Killer," the effect $150k in law school debt has had on him since he graduated from Harvard Law in 2003. Since he decided he didn't like the practice of law after all, he calls the experience "a very expensive vacation that debt financed." The ABA president is urging Congress to offer law students debt relief.
On the employment side of the equation, the year that just concluded represents the worst period ever in BigLaw lay-offs with more than 12,000 jobs lost. The picture is brighter for more nimble, mid-size firms although even 65% of those surveyed still expect to reduce associate salaries in the coming year. And then there's this: "Associate Pay Cuts Here to Stay."
Perhaps for that reason, law students have changed their expectations about working in the private sector with more indicating a desire for (lower paying) public interest work according to the most recent Law School Survey of Student Engagement (and here).
This year's survey found that the percentage of law students who expected to work in private law firms dropped to 50 percent, down from about 58 percent in each of the previous three years. The percentage of law students who anticipated finding work in the public-interest sector rose to 33 percent, from about 29 percent in each of the past three years.
The findings "may indicate that law students are reframing their career expectations in response to changes in the economic climate that have affected hiring at many law firms," said Lindsay Watkins, the survey's project manager.
How will it all end? This article reminds us that we've been through a severe legal recession before and survived just fine - some even thrived. Whether circumstances exist now that didn't then (more law schools, more law grads, outsourcing, etc.) is still the big unknown.
(jbl)
January 6, 2010 | Permalink
Comments
I am in Elie Mystal's boat. I graduated from law school in 2006 with about $95,000 in debt. Like Elie, I detested private practice and gave it up on principle. You see, I have this little problem: I insist on ethics and honor. That makes private law practice, well, a bit incongruous.
Since 2007, I have done consulting jobs that pay the crushing loan installments. Even more recently, I haven't been able to work at all due to a family health crisis. The creditors don't care, of course. They just want their monthly checks; to hell with your problems.
I agree that debt is a "silent killer." Thanks to Bush-era deregulation in place at the time I signed my promissory notes, my loan principal has actually increased since I began repaying in late 2006. In essence, the banks have a permanent lien on my financial lifeblood, which is meager at best. This financial burden robs voluntariness from all my employment decisions; I can't work a public interest job that won't even cover my monthly debt bill. I call it "modern indentured servitude" because debt-saddled grads essentially MUST work in order to pay off the boulder that has been tied around their necks.
Nonetheless, I disagree with the assertion that law school was a "very expensive vacation that debt financed." I do not regret my education in the least. I took it seriously; I never felt that I was on vacation while studying. True, it is unfortunate that I had to become an indentured servant in order to obtain my education. But I relish what I learned in law school. As a writer, it helps me every day. It enriched the way I think about every intellectual issue I encounter. I am thankful for my legal education. It pays psychic rewards in the classical sense, even if it does not fill my bank account.
But most people do not get educations--at least in America--to enrich their perspectives. They get educations to get jobs and make tons of money until death or disability. This is the fundamental problem with the American system. People do not care about learning for its own sake. They use it merely to become commercial instruments for the rest of their lives. The fact that debt plays a role in the system is not surprising. Just as entrepreneurs take out loans in order to make more money in the future, so too do students take out loans to transform themselves into "profitable ventures." American students, in other words, are no different than entrepreneurs; and the goal of education in America is purely commercial.
And this is my core objection: Shouldn't academic pursuits and crass commercial concerns be distinct? The educational debt quandary in America shows that they are not. That's a shame; and it's ruining many people's lives every day.
Posted by: Balthazar Oesterhoudt | Jan 7, 2010 10:26:19 AM
