Get ready gang. I’m starting to expand the coverage of this humble blog beyond just IPO alternatives, the economy and the smallcap markets. We will be talking more about things like Wall Street in general, the legal industry, entrepreneurship (the subject of my next book which I’m writing) and other things of interest to both my historical readership and hopefully newbies as well. Will I change the name of it? Don’t know and probably not. We’ll see. And let me know if it’s stuff you like or if you might like to see my musings on other things.
So I start this expansion with a piece I saw in the ABA Journal today. Shockingly, only 55% of 2011 law school graduates have full time lawyer jobs. That’s a year after graduation! The rest are not unemployed, but may be working part-time or doing something non-legal. Given the enormous cost of law school, and the tremendous debt most students take on, this is really something to give people pause.
Pretty much throughout the last 30-40 years, even during recessions, most law grads were pretty much assured a job coming out of school. Especially those from top schools. The Great Recession changed that dramatically, and things are not much better. It may even be that the paradigm has changed and even as the economy improves Big Law will continue to contain their first year lawyer hiring and rely more on senior associates and lateral hires. Plus tuition has just skyrocketed in recent years. It was shocking when in my last year of law school tuition was raised to $7,000. We all know what it is today, and frankly far outstripping inflation.
A number of law schools have started intentionally reducing their class sizes to acknowledge the reduced job market. Do we just have too many law students? Maybe. Too many lawyers? Definitely! My simple advice to those considering law school: assume you will not get a legal job when you get out and be prepared for that financially. Go to law school as much to learn skills and critical thinking that will help you in any career you choose in case it doesn’t pan out in law. A similar size firm to mine just hired an Ivy League law graduate from 2011 who still did not have a job. Strong resume, nothing to suggest this person could not have found something. That’s a bad sign, guys.
OK so more new topics as we go!
