#SmarterPreLaw

By

Erin M. Burke, JD

FCRH Pre-Law Advising

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background-music/

I hope you haven’t been

Credit: r.nial.bradshaw. https://flic.kr/p/mR4pqS. Changes made.

License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode

Lately, things haven’t been

great for young lawyers.

Why so?

For one thing,

Supply and demand.

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110000

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Law School Enrollment

Law firm demand for those

enrollees, not so much.

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Recent Graduate Employment Rate In Law firms and Full-time Legal work

Full-time Legal

Law firms

Linear (Full-time Legal)

Linear (Law firms)

All while

$0

$5,000

$10,000

$15,000

$20,000

$25,000

$30,000

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$40,000

$45,000

1985 1988 1991 1994 1997 2000 2003 2006 2009 2012

Law School Tuition(Private)

So why did people keep enrolling?

Things seemed good.

And by some measures,

things were in fact good.

92% of graduates in 2007

found a job

(just maybe not as a

practicing lawyer).

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50

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Overall Graduate Employment Rate

Overall Employment

Linear (Overall Employment)

And also, $ attracts

Salary distributions had

gone from looking like this

1996

To this

2007

Terrific!

Wait, this is a trick.

Yes it is.

2008.

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Standard License. http://graphicleftovers.com/graphic/Financial-crisis-headlines/

“[O]n a single day in February 2009 as the Great Recession deepened… Six major firms around the country announced the layoffs of close to 1,000 lawyers and staff members on what became known as “Bloody Thursday.” In that month alone, some 2,000 lawyers and staff members lost their jobs.”

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Recent Law Grad Employment Rates

Overall

FT Legal jobs

I knew pre-med was better.

Or maybe business.

Wait now, not so quick.

Although here is one bad

idea to process this news

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sa/2.0/legalcode

Better idea? Make this

pre-law symposium count.

Ask questions and

challenge speakers.

Be sure that you

understand, and that you

truly want, this career.

There is some good news.

Fewer students are

entering law school, and

the drop in employment

has steadied out.

But law has and continues

to change in significant

ways.

By the time you are in law

school, your law electives

may look like this

And what was once a

lawyer’s good “hunch” is

now

Smart pre-law thinking

starts now.

Would I choose a law school

based on rank or

scholarship? Should I even

go at all? I heard an MBA is

better. What is a litigator?

What major is best? Do I

need legal internship

experience? What does the

application ask for? Is the

LSAT like the SAT? How bad

is the job market now, really?

Is there anything I can be

See you in the Fall.