While national indicators have shown signs of dimming job prospects and declining starting salaries for law school graduates, local law schools report their students have been largely successful in finding employment.
In its June report, the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) reported starting salaries for private practice law firms dropped by 20 percent for graduates of the class of 2010 compared with the previous year, from an average $130,000 in 2009 to $104,000 in 2010.
The median starting salary for graduates of the class of 2010 was $63,000, a 13 percent drop from the previous year when it stood at $72,000.
The NALP also reported that just 50.9 percent of law school graduates from the class of 2010 obtained jobs in law firms, down from 55.9 percent for the previous year. But just 64 percent of those graduates surveyed were employed in a full-time position that required bar exam passage.
“It is clear that apart from the recession, there are probably going to be fewer jobs for associate attorneys in the future,” said Gary Munneke, a professor at Pace University School of Law and a member of the American Bar Association (ABA) and the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA). Despite that, Munneke said that he was not overly worried, calling the legal profession “very elastic.”
“I take a very broad view of what lawyers can do with a law degree,” he said. “Legal skills are particularly useful in a lot of different endeavors. It”™s probably the most versatile degree.”
The NALP findings come as the New York Times recently estimated that from 2010 through 2015 there would be 2,100 job openings for attorneys each year in New York state. Compared with the 9,700-plus people who passed the New York bar exam in 2009, the Times report listed New York as having the largest “lawyer surplus” of any state.
At the Pace University School of Law in White Plains, data collected from NALP databases and from the Princeton Review show over 90 percent of those who graduated in the class of 2010 were employed within nine months. (That mark did not specify the number employed in jobs that required passage of the bar exam.)
Of those who were employed, 42 percent were working in the private practice, 18 percent were working in business-related positions, 18 percent were working in academic positions, and 10 percent were working in government positions, among other areas.
According to the Princeton Review, 85 percent of Pace Law graduates pass the bar exam on their first attempt, with the average annual starting salary for graduates listed at $88,693.
The law school has not observed any significant changes in the numbers of graduates going into private practice work, according to Lauren Rubenstein, media relations manager at Pace Law.
In light of the tough job market, Rubenstein said that Pace Law recently expanded its Center for Career Development, rebranding it as the Center for Career and Professional Development to reflect the various uses of a law degree.
The new office will use various technologies, workshops and programs “to instill in students a deep sense of professionalism necessary to practice law successfully after graduation,” Rubenstein said in an email.
At the Quinnipiac University School of Law in Hamden, Conn., the school has reduced its total enrollment over the last 10 years from roughly 800 students to 450.
“Starting about a decade ago, the school of law started to intentionally reduce the size of its incoming classes, as part of a strategic initiative to improve the academic profile of the student body,” said John W. Morgan, associate vice president for public relations.
Recent news reports have come down hard on law schools, with several reports accusing the schools of failing to adequately prepare students for the reality of the job market while universities continue to see profits from their affiliated law schools.
Munneke, who is chairman of committees on both the state and American bar associations, acknowledged these criticisms, and said that law schools and the bar associations could do more to help prepare students for nontraditional legal jobs.
“I think the law schools have not done as good a job as they could in preparing lawyers ”¦ who go into fields outside the practice of law,” he said. “The curriculum and a lot of the drivers move students toward traditional (law) jobs.”
He added that the bar associations“don”™t do too much to help people develop ties outside of law practices because that”™s where most of the members come from.”
you cannot believe any of these law school graduate employment and salary figures. these law schools deans make huge salaries. And they use these stats to induce more victims to enroll. The figures in this article come from the law schools themselves via the NALP. The law schools have a vested interest in maintaining employment figures that look good.
Have these figures EVER been audited by an independent auditor?
Then why should we believe them?
I am a lawyer, and I do not believe these figures.