Page 8 - Law Schools

S8 | MONDAY, APRIL 18, 2016 | Law Schools
| NYLJ.COM
Employment
Debunking Four Myths About Law Firm Job Offers
BY CAROL M. KANAREK
If you are currently a law student (and I hope you are, since this special NYLJ sec- tion is written for you), chances are that you believe the following myths about finding an entry level lawyer job:
• Most students obtain such jobs by inter- viewing with firms in the summer and fall after their 1L year in order to obtain a summer internship with a firm after their 2L year— which will lead to an entry-level job with that firm in the fall after their 3L year.
• Students who do not obtain post-grad- uation jobs via that process must obtain a “permanent” job offer from a firm before they graduate from law school.
• Entry-level lawyer jobs are generally obtained by answering ads, using legal search firms, and/or sending letters to firms that are listed in Vault and the NALP directory.
• One resume and cover letter are all that is needed to apply for an entry-level position at any law firm.
Let’s debunk these myths one at a time.
Myth #1: Most students obtain permanent job offers prior to the end of their first semester as a 2L student.
In reality, the number of law firms that make offers to students for post 2L summer intern positions leading to first-year asso- ciate positions is exceedingly small—and getting smaller. These are the AmLaw 200 firms and a few others (the firms that are listed in the NALP directory), and collec- tively they hire only about 5 percent of the 45,000+ students who graduate from law school each year. And even those firms that do make entry level job offers to students after their 2L summer internships are—as a general rule—drastically decreasing the sizes of their summer intern classes and/ or are making offers of post-graduation employment to fewer of those interns. Some of the larger firms have even eliminated summer internship programs all together, as they have found that changing markets and client needs have made it virtually impos- sible for them to predict how many entry level lawyers they will need two years in advance of the time those students will be admitted to the bar. Yet the largest firms are those that receive disproportional press
CAROL KANAREK of Kanarek & Brady, Career Man- agement for Lawyers, has provided career-related services to lawyers and law students for over 25 years.
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