2009 marks the worst year for lawyer headcount in 30 years. At the top 250 firms alone, the number of downsized attorneys rose by nearly 5,300 … even more if you calculate all the stealth firings and downsizing at smaller firms. But you already know the bad news. What isn’t generally known, is that a [...]
FOR THE WEEK BEGINNING MAY 10:
“It’s still a tough time, and the recession has hit the legal fields very hard. But we have hit bottom,” Dean Matthew Diller, Benjamin Cardozo School of Law (quoted in New York Law Journal)
“The job market is the tightest in recent memory, but the idea that there are no jobs [...]
Rachel J. Littman, Esq.
How to stand out in a buyer’s market? You can spend a small fortune on job-finding books, but the assistant dean of career development at Pace Law School sums it up for you with 11 simple tips:
1. Be flexible – You may not be able to secure the job of your [...]
Jill Backer, Esq.
In this brief Q&A, Brooklyn Law School’s associate director of career services, offers some obvious and NOT-so-obvious job-finding suggestions in the roughest job market in a half-century:
Q. What do you see for the legal job market when the economy recovers?
A:I think the legal job market will bounce back, but I doubt it will [...]
Former criminal defense and in-house lawyer Taisha Rucker used to wonder what else she could do with her law degree. Now 13 years later, she’s answered the question, and is working on a book to help law students, new grads, and burned-out lawyers who are just beginning to ask. As part of Rucker’s research, she [...]
Nearly 10 million people are collecting unemployment benefits, up from 2 ½ million two years ago. How many are lawyers? It all depends on what blogs you read. But SOME of those thousands of out-of-work lawyers and new grads should be using this downtime to re-assess their practice … even their career in law. To [...]
FOR THE WEEK OF August 10
“In the old days, (law firms) didn’t get to pick and choose, but now they are (only) holding on to the strongest performers. They’re primarily focused on productivity.” – Hildebrandt consultant Lisa Smith, on the factors that determine which associates are more likely to be caught up in The Great [...]
Sunday’s New York Times had a terrific article on what is – and is not – appropriate to say when someone close to you becomes a member of the newly unemployed (“Navigating a Delicate Subject: The Layoff of a Friend”). Reporter Alina Tugen writes, “First, hold off on the platitudes. (If) someone has lost their [...]
So far this year, more than 3,000 lawyers and staff find themselves with some unexpected time on their hands, and that doesn’t count all the new grads and 3L’s whose summer gig has vanished in these troubled times. So how do you go from fired to fired-up? It’s easy. Do some good in the world. [...]
This month marks the longest recession since the 1930s , and the worst legal job market in decades. It’s scary out there, but Sheila Nielsen, a Chicago law career consultant and former federal prosecutor, has some suggestions for the newly unemployed. Nielsen spoke at a recent Chicago Bar Association event, and we present a few [...]