The Wretched Choice: Mission Statement

This blog is for the five-figure earner with the six-figure law school debt, the admin-cum-lawyer, the attorney without a practice.  This blog is for the 55% of new lawyers who haven't yet found permanent, full-time legal work.


Maybe you’ve already made the wretched choice to attend law school.  Maybe you went so far as to graduate, perhaps even pass the bar.  Your debt is probably well over $50k, and you’ve been out of work for…. 6 months?  a year?  two years?

You’re not alone.

Many, many lawyers are pounding pavement in search of a job.  You know the story:  First, you submit job applications only for attorney positions.  Then, okay, maybe paralegal.  Next, you find yourself crumbling to apply for any professional job — human resources?  education?

And then, on that self-pity run to Walgreens one night for shiny, holiday-themed chocolates, the idea comes to put in an application right then and there at the counter.  It might not help much towards loans, but at least you’d stay alive.

And they reject your application.  (Because, really, who wants a lawyer looking over their shoulder?)

No, you cannot go back in time.
 Source: thethreesisters on flickr

The life of a new lawyer in the 2010′s is not easy.

But let’s step back and mobilize.  Yes, this sucks.  No, you didn’t know it was going to happen.  Yes, you would go back in time if you could, to lock your pre-law self in a closet and burn all school applications.  No, you can’t go back in time to undo law school, or its debt, or the time it devoured from your life.  You can only move forward.

And yes, you can move forward into financial success and personal happiness.  Truly.

This blog exists for two purposes:

One, to gently urge people to NOT GO TO LAW SCHOOL, WHATEVER YOU DO.

Two, to provide a forum of hope for those of us who went.  We did the deed; we adopted the debt; we are attorneys without practice.

But we can still make good.

Reason 42

Reason 42.  IT is the new “it” career.

Remember L.A. Law?  The Practice?  Perry Mason?  No, of course you don’t, because lawyering is so yesterday.  The world of today is the high-tech world.  It’s what’s cool in movies, and it’s what’s hot in the job market.  Hiring officials are pounding down the (virtual) doors of computer engineers, with demand far outstripping supply.  With 30% projected growth[i], job prospects for computer engineers are sunny with a chance of wealth.[ii]

The point is, there are alternatives.  Lots of alternatives.  Amazing alternatives. 

 (To explore other great alternatives to law school, feel free to check out the "Don't Go to Law School: 50 Reasons" ebook.)

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[i] U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics: Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2012-13 Edition, Software Developers.  http://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/software-developers.htm  Accessed November 26, 2012.

[ii] Gearon, Christopher J.  “You're an Engineer? You're Hired:  The unemployment rate in the field these days is a super-low 2 percent.”  March 22, 2012.  US News College Compass.  http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/articles/2012/03/22/youre-an-engineer-youre-hired Accessed November 26, 2012.  

Reason 33

Reason 33.  Law school, like the Titanic, won’t necessarily make you a lawyer.

Law school is frivolous.  It commands vast resources of money and time, yet, like the Titanic, it ultimately does not get you to where you were going.

For example, nine months after graduation, a mere 65% of 2011 law school graduates held jobs requiring a law degree.[i]  What were the other 35% of folks doing?  Something that they could have done without three years of law school.

Think of it this way:

·         Would you go to dentistry school in order to become a trainer of wild stallions? 

·         Would you become a licensed accountant in order to teach ballet to eight year old girls? 

·         Would you buy a ticket for a tragedy-bound vessel guaranteeing doom, death, and endless tiffs over heart-shaped lockets?

·         Would you pay over $100,000 for a 60-40 shot at a job that involves long hours and low pay? 

If yes, then law school is for you.

(To read more about the nonsensical state of being known as law school, please feel free to visit the "Don't Go to Law School: 50 Reasons" ebook.)

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[i] And not all of those were working as attorneys – only 60% of 2011 law school grads were actually working as lawyers.  Weiss, Debra Cassens.  “Only 65 Percent of 2011 Law Grads Have Jobs Requiring Bar Passage, a Record Low.”   June 7, 2012.  ABA Journal.  http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/only_65_percent_of_2011_law_grads_have_jobs_requiring_bar_passage_a_new_rec  Accessed November 26, 2012.

Reason 29

Reason 29.  New attorneys vastly outnumber dwindling law jobs; desperation is on the rise.

After graduating, racking up $50-100k in debt, and passing the bar, you’ll have a 55% chance of landing a permanent, full-time legal job within a year of graduation.[i]

Yes, I wrote that right, and yes, you read it right.  Unless your mom is an attorney and wants to hire you, your odds of becoming a full-time, permanently situated lawyer will be about the same as that of a coin toss. 

Many students give up on becoming an attorney after several months and settle for any decent job that pays.  And for those who choose to hang tight, stay strong, and strive tirelessly to become a working attorney after graduation, it’s not uncommon to pound pavement for over a year (and quite possibly more) before landing any permanent job in the legal profession.  Even temporary contract gigs have become quite desirable for paying the rent – and thus are increasingly hard to get – and it’s also not unusual for newly licensed attorneys to log hundreds or thousands of volunteer hours in the fight to find a job.  New attorneys’ applications for non-profit volunteer opportunities stack into the hundreds. 

And, in case you like horror flicks and rollercoasters, here are a few more terrifying figures to make your stomach drop: 

·         Nine months after graduation, only 86% of 2011 law school graduates had found work.  Not legal work, mind you – just plain work.[ii]  This will hopefully improve in step with the general economy.

o   It gets worse, though:  If you exclude graduates who have taken “bridge fellowships” funded by their own schools (thus conveniently inflating graduate employment stats), that number is actually 81%.[iii]   (Note that the vast majority of those “bridge” jobs are part-time and temporary.) 

o   On top of that, another 3% of the reported jobs were actually solo practitioner positions, in which the grad started a business and hired herself. 

o   Another 2% were working for legal temp agencies.[iv]

·         Among those who had jobs, only 65.4% held jobs that required passage of the bar. 

o   Of those, 12% were part-time, and 7% were both temporary and part-time.   

The scary thing about a really difficult job market is that it’s not personal.  You can’t sweet-talk it or have it look the other way for you.  No amount of beauty, determination, hard work, or intelligence can guarantee you immunity or speed up the job hunt. 

Plain and simple, the number of new students graduating each year far outstrips the number of available attorney jobs.  In 2009, twice as many people in the U.S. passed the bar exam (54,000) as there were openings for lawyers (26,000).[v]   

For this, you’ll pay a hundred thousand dollars, live on bad delivery pizza, and give up every waking hour of three years of your life?

(Hungry for more cheap thrills and stomach-plunging statistics?  Feel free to check out the  "Don't Go to Law School: 50 Reasons" ebook.)

 

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[i] Weiss, Debra Cassens.  “Only 55 Percent of 2011 Law Grads Had Full-Time, Long-Term Legal Jobs, Analysis Shows.”  June 19, 2012. ABA Journal. http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/only_55_percent_of_2011_law_grads_had_full-time_long-term_legal_jobs_analys/  Accessed 26 Nov 2012.

[ii] “Law School Grads Face Worst Job Market Yet - Less Than Half Find Jobs in Private Practice.”  June 7, 2012.  National Association of Law Placement. http://www.nalp.org/2011selectedfindingsrelease  Accessed 26 Nov 2012.

[iii] “New Research on Law School Funded Positions for Law School Graduates.” September 2012.  National Association of Law Placement.  http://www.nalp.org/sept12research_lsfunded  Accessed 26 Nov 2012.

[iv] “Median Private Practice Starting Salaries for the Class of 2011 Plunge as Private Practice Jobs Continue to Erode.”  July 12, 2012.  National Association of Law Placement.  http://www.nalp.org/classof2011_salpressrel  Accessed 26 Nov 2012.

[v] The worst ratios belong to New York, California, and New Jersey.  Rampell, Catherine.  “The Lawyer Surplus, State by State.”  June 27, 2011.  The New York Times.  http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/27/the-lawyer-surplus-state-by-state/  Accessed 26 Nov 2012.