Solo In Chicago…Grow Your Practice!

Nope, that’s not a description of hallucinogenic drugs. Actually, it’s a funny quote from this NYT’s blog post:  Lock the Law School Doors, it’s actually meant to describe the allure of the big money and prestige of Big Law.

As you might guess from the title, the artilcle is a warning of the less-than-great job prospects that face law school graduates currently and likely into the foreseeable future. Interesting that the U. of Miami’s law school dean wrote to members of this fall’s class with a similar warning and asking that students defer entrance into law school this fall.

Of course this isn’t a new story, this was the best analysis I’ve seen in recent years discussing the legal job market and here’s a piece from the last month, Downturn Dims Prospects Even at Top Law Schools. I think we’ve seen the recent highlights because as often happens during a recession, many with poor job prospects or laid-off workers head to law school and many schools have seen increased class sizes this fall.

My take, you can’t argue with the economic reality and the dwindling (temporarily or likely permanently) of the $150k+ gigs for BigLaw associates. Hopefully law schools will use this time of economic change to broaden their career services viewpoint (make the PIE bigger). During law school I felt that there was very much an institutional preference for large firm private practice both indirectly through the comments of faculty and more directly in terms of the on-campus interviews being almost exclusively large private practice law firms. Why not increase that pie significantly by getting government/business beyond private practice on-campus…from the FBI/CIA to nonprofit management to think tank type places. Also, as quoted in the orignal piece:

“Students may just have to make it in a more entrepreneurial fashion.”

Welcome!

Saw a couple pieces in the general media that peeked my interest and hopefully others…

First, this article entitled, Aspiring Lawyer Finds Debt Is Bigger Hurdle Than Bar Exam about a New York law school graduate who got a NO from that state’s character and fitness panel (meaning no law license) due to his accrual of some $400,000 in student loan debt. There are some unique aspects of his situation namely that he’s 47 and hasn’t made any payments on the debt, but, the general student debt crisis is front and center for law school grads in the last 15 years or so and likely to get worse. I haven’t heard of anyone not getting her license in Illinois but I wouldn’t be suprised if it has occurred and more importantly the typical debt burdens of law school graduates is a huge hinderance on career choices.

Second, and touching on the related issue of student loan debt was this piece regarding a new Education Department program regarding different loan repayment and foregiveness options. Here’s the Department’s release regarding the program. It appears to offer two new options:  an income-based repayment plan which might lower monthly payments (but likely increase total pay-back as interest accrues) & a public service loan forgiveness option (this surely might be worth a look if your employment is of a public-service/government variety).

I thought this was a worthwhile read. These were the author’s 5 (his was that of a big firm background)…

MORE PRACTICE-BASED EDUCATIONS

–Clinical education is getting very good…still a lack of teaching on the business side of running a law practice.

LESS ENTRY-LEVEL HIRING