When Jose Ancer starts work at a law firm this fall, he’ll join a U.S. industry that, like so many others, sees people of color disproportionately affected during an economic downturn. Ancer’s path draws praise among diversity watchdogs because of the historically meager ranks of Mexican-Americans in the legal workforce.
But amid lingering industry wide uncertainties, officials at some law schools are scrambling to ensure that underrepresented minorities get jobs, especially law schools not customarily tapped by the country’s largest law firms. In some of the more striking measures, a dean will troop out of town to specifically lobby employers, or schools may piece together meager funds to hire their own graduates for academic work — a stepping stone position designed to bolster graduates’ skills in further preparation for a legal career. These stepped-up efforts are in response to a tighter market in which only 88 percent of 2009 graduates got jobs, according to the latest statistical data available from the National Association for Law Placement (NALP). That figure is the lowest rate nationally since the last significant recession, in the mid-1990s.
“The feeding frenzy among employers is gone,” says Kevin Johnson, dean of the University of California, Davis School of Law. “The top 10 or 15 percent of the class can’t count on getting the best jobs anymore.”
In the midst of the recession, many firms dramatically reduced the number of schools they visited for recruiting purposes. Firms across the nation have delayed start dates for newly minted attorneys. Howard University School of Law officials say many graduates accepted deferrals of three months or longer, plus stipends and lower than agreed-upon salaries. Some firms required these graduates to work in the interim at a government or public interest agency.
Other firms have grown pickier about whom they hire, narrowing their recruitment choices to the most elite schools. It’s a move that tends to exclude minority students, who often come from lower-tier schools where tuition is more affordable and which are more likely to offer flexible night programs. “That’s accurate,” says Jason Murray, a lawyer for the firm Carlton Fields, describing the tough hiring landscape. “Lots of schools get left out. For some graduates, it’s like being a walk-on to a team rather than being a high lottery pick.”
This apparently holds true among graduates seeking employment outside the profession, too. Robert Lewis has had only three interviews for government affairs work in Washington, D.C., since graduating last year from Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law — even though he spent four years as a legislative aide for a U.S. senator and 18 months as a lobbyist prior to enrolling at Catholic. “Reputation is everything, and if you don’t come from a top-tier school like Georgetown, George Washington or American, it’s tough getting employers to look at you,” he says.
Pulling Back
