It’s been hard not to notice the tough job market that prospective law graduates are facing these days. Debbie Foley, Director of Career and Student Services at Mississippi College School of Law, says that summer clerkship and entry level associate positions at law firms have been “cut back dramatically” in the past couple of years, and some firms have stopped interviewing altogether. “I think they are waiting to see what the market is going to bear,” Foley said.

Karen Britton, Director of Admissions and Career Services at the University of Tennessee School of Law, explains that the “large firms on both coasts” are once again leading the trends, first with the rapid expansion of summer programs, associate hiring, and associate salaries of several years ago, and now with “the elimination of positions through layoffs, reduced summer programs,” and the deferral of start dates for new associates. The “trends in the large cities have had a trickle down effect” on the legal markets in the rest of the country, she said.
According to a recent report published by NALP, the national association of legal career professionals, these changes are indeed being felt nationwide, with law firm recruiting for summer positions and law firm job offers to summer program participants on a “general downward trend.” NALP attributes the drop-off in legal hiring to the continued effects of the economic recession.

Steve Orlansky, who recently served as chair of the recruiting committee at Watkins & Eager, points out that the legal community in Mississippi has been dealing with “a double whammy because the recession came on the heels of tort reform.” Tommy Shepherd, chair of the recruiting committee at Watkins Ludlum Winter & Stennis, agrees. “Tort reform and the economy have adversely impacted the availability of jobs for young lawyers, particularly in litigation,” he said. Orlansky notes the reduction in hiring resulted in a “scaling back of clerkship programs.”

Watkins & Eager has four law clerks this summer, Orlansky said. Nina Fitch, recruiting manager at Butler Snow reports that nine 1L’s will work for the firm this summer in its Jackson and Gulfport offices, as well as two “new 2L’s.” She explained that six 2L’s who clerked at the firm last summer are returning for a two-week stint. Shepherd reports that his firm will have twelve students participate in its summer program. This is more than normal, he said, but this year the firm “received a number of strong applications from students at out-of-state schools,” including Harvard, Vanderbilt, and Texas. Shepherd agreed that this influx of applications is a reflection of the increasingly competitive environment among law students seeking summer jobs.

Debbie Foley is cautiously optimistic. She says she has seen a real difference in “the past three months,” with “firms of all sizes” beginning to call again “on a regular basis” looking to hire laterals or student law clerks. While she says law students “are having to widen their net and consider non-traditional avenues of employment” and reckon with “a longer period of time to find employment,” perhaps this is the first tentative sign of a change for the better.