Class of '11: Things are Looking Up!

I put up a poll (to the right) recently.  I neglected to include a couple of categories.  Maybe I'll do it again and include an option for "Legal Employment-JD not required" and "Part-time" and "Government."  Sorry I left y'all out.  But feel free to comment here and tell me what you're doing.
So, with a little over a week left on the poll, I've noticed that most of my readers are unemployed--still looking for a job and hopeless.  That's a whopping 30%!  The next biggest category is Employed in a field unrelated to the law with 25%.  I can't believe that over 50% of my readers aren't currently employed as attorneys.

Well, I was forwarded this article.... entitled "Class of '11 will see slightly better jobs outlook."  Promising, right?  Well most of the article discusses undergrads.  For BIDER readers, there is no good news:

...Interest in graduates with associate, master's and professional degrees like medical, law or veterinary is expected to fall, with the exception of Ph.D.- and MBA-level students.

How can it fall any lower?  Well, with 45,000 new law grads on the market in May 2011, it's not really a surprise.
And I don't buy that things will get better for college grads either.  I have a good friend who has an undergraduate degree in.. I'm not sure.  She's nearly 40, so at this point her degree is meaningless.  But she has experience as an office manager of a law firm and a PR firm.  She's versatile, I suppose.  When she combs the Internet for admin level positions in New York and New Jersey--she finds plenty o'jobs.  Problem is that most of them pay $10/hour.  How is anyone to survive on that?  What about rent?   What about transportation.  This is New York Shitty!

Unfortunately, the fodder for this blog is never ending.  I don't see an end to this recession.  Do you?

Georgetown University: Help or Employment Manipulation

Found this article and thought I'd share:

With many graduates struggling to find jobs, the Law Center has announced that it is extending its program, giving stipends to graduates participating in internships for public interest organizations.

The program provides students with $4,000 so that they can participate in law-related volunteer programs, according to Barbara Moulton, assistant dean of the Office of Public Interest and Community Service at the Law Center. Started this summer, the program has now been extended for three more months in order to aid graduates still unable to find jobs.

The program is not advertised on the Law Center’s website, but has been announced to Law School students via an email. Currently it is only available to members of the Class of 2010 who are unemployed.

OPICS will only distribute the stipends to students whose internships with the volunteer organizations last for at least three months. The graduate must also continue to look for permanent employment in order to receive the stipend.

The program comes at a bleak time for law school graduates: While 88 percent of law school graduates of the Class of 2009 were employed by May 2010, 25 percent of the jobs reported are temporary, according to The National Association for Legal Career Professions, a higher percentage than earlier years. Another 10 percent of the jobs reported are half-time. 

*****
Wow. Those employment stats are dire for such a reputable law school.  I would like to think that Georgetown is giving these stipends out of the kindness of their hearts, but I know better.  I'm sure that the stats are coming due for the Class of 2010 and the numbers aren't looking good.  This stipend, a drop in the bucket, is enough of a carrot to make the little Hoyas jump at the "opportunity" and count themselves as employed.

This plan is reminiscent of Duke's little ploy.   If any Georgetown Administrators come to this site, let me be clear.... STOP ACCEPTING STUDENTS.  The only way you can ensure your employment stats improve is to limit your class size and cut your budget.  Unless you want to walk over homeless Georgetown Law Grads on M Street, quit pumping them out.

Honesty is Refreshing!

The Lost Generation--that's you, folks!  Crain's put out an article spelling out the cold, hard truth:

Young lawyers in New York are not supposed to have to wait tables or string together temp jobs until they get their big break—that kind of seat-of-your-pants lifestyle used to be reserved for aspiring actors.

Not these days. The traditional career path—which assured law students that if they studied diligently and racked up good grades, a decent legal position would await them at the end of law school—has been all but washed away by the financial crisis, which has caused the New York legal industry to contract by 10% over the past year.

Waiting tables.  Stripping.  Working as a barrista at the local Starbucks.  Finally, the truth.  Being a lawyer isn't all it's cracked up to be.  Namely, it's not even being a lawyer.

“We're being called the lost generation,” says Shorav Kaushik, a 2009 Brooklyn Law School grad. Despite interning with the New York Attorney General's office, finishing in the top half of his class and winning a fellowship at the New York City Environmental Control Board, Mr. Kaushik has been unable to land a full-time law job.

Boo hoo, Shorav.  How many of BIDER readers went to better schools and finished in the top quarter of their class, and still don't have a job?  What about those that GOT a job, and because of stylish deferments, still don't have a job.

Indeed, 22,000 law jobs disappeared during the year ending in May. The 88% employment rate for the class of 2009 was the lowest in nearly two decades, according to the National Association of Legal Professionals. 

I hate the NALP for citing this figure.  88%?  That's a statistic that certainly includes all of those in the private industry, such as those working at Banana Republic and Johnny Rocket's and those working as Independent Contractors for shitlaw firms.  It's no wonder that bloggers and our sympathizers are called "whiners" with bogus stats such as this. I wish it was 88%.

Ramit Singh doesn't need to be told. The 28-year-old finished in the top 25% of his class from New England Law and came to New York nearly two years ago to pursue entertainment law. He tried volunteering at entertainment law firms, with no luck. He has strung together freelance positions at a music-licensing company, a part-time stint at a social media company and a volunteer gig at the New York State Supreme Court. He also does freelance document review. “It's a lot of really small irons in a big raging fire,” he says.

While he doesn't regret becoming a lawyer, “I didn't think I'd be hustling like this,” he says. “I had three jobs last month.”

That's what it comes down to, hustling.  Hustling is certainly what I've been doing to get by. You hustle your ass off.  Some months, you make it.  Some months, you don't.  Your savings decrease. Your credit card balances increase.  You're exhausted and you don't have health insurance, so you just hope that something stable comes through.  I'm a hustler.  Chances are, so are you--or:

Some new lawyers have responded by doing the unthinkable—working for nothing.

After graduating from New York Law School last year, Alyssa Farruggia ended up volunteering nearly full-time for the Staten Island courts. “You have your sights on the job at a big firm, but when that doesn't happen, you've got to do something else,” explains the 25-year-old Staten Islander, who lives at home. “The most important thing was keeping my résumé going.”

Most of the city's law schools last year started working with the New York State Unified Court System, channeling grads into its Volunteer Attorney Programs, so local courts are now flooded with young lawyers looking for experience and something to do. 

Working in New York, I've actually run into bunches of these kids.  If I represent a creditor, they represent the debtor.  They lifelessly argue their *extremely* valid points in the halls of civil court.  Their  eyes are dead, their clothes are dirty and torn, they look broken. I feel for these young lawyers, but it's not bunches better for this older lawyer.

People think that the legal industry goes in cycles.  By all accounts, we've been hit by several "bad" markets: the eighties, the dot.com bubble burst, post 9/11 economy and now this.  The lemmings who just started law school last week, are convinced that hiring will miraculously pick up in 2013.  However, this isn't a slump--it's a sputter of a dying engine.  The legal industry is shot.  Only when people believe that, and refuse to mortgage their futures on the chance that things will get better in three years, will we have any chance of salvaging our crippled industry.

You're not being smart going to law school. It blows to start off at the bottom rung of any company because you "only" have a college diploma.  But you're better off than you will be if you do the responsible thing and go on to get an advanced degree.

Underemployment: 28.4% for Ages 18 to 29

Has anyone here been to a Third World Country?  I've traveled quite a bit before I hit rock bottom and one thing always struck me: Third World Countries represent Capitalism in its purist form.  If you're rich in Abu Dhabi, you're a king.  You're probably richer than God. If you are poor in India, you eat rats for dinner.  There are no boundaries to your wealth if you make it in a third world country.  Here, taxes will eat away at your earnings and you can't enslave people to serve your every need.  I guess you need to go to Mauritania for that.  That's against our social conscience here.

I firmly believe that India is not becoming more like America, but America is becoming New Bombay of the West.  So, long intro, but I just wanted to draw a comparison between something that has been a part of life in third world countries for a long time--and what is happening in our backyards.

When I was in Egypt with friends, we had an on-going joke.  Everyone that we ran across, the guy who sold meat on the street, the taxi driver, the man selling fruit on the street--they all claimed to be lawyers and doctors hard on their luck.  We naturally assumed they were full of shit.  It didn't make any sense to us.  Why would you be driving a cab if you were a lawyer or an engineer?  Why would you be selling me falafel if you were a doctor.  Not everyone can be so hard up, right?  Is it possible?

Even in my Third Country of origin, I have many cousins and second cousins who became extremely educated with B.S. degrees and Ph.Ds--only to sit home for years before securing a job.  My mother and I would tisk, tisk at them and question whether they did well in their programs or whether they were lazy in trying to get a job behind their backs.

So, now it's happening to us.  Can you believe that stat?  Nearly 1/3 of youth are underemployed.   With the cost of living at an all time high, that's essentially the same as being destitute.  It won't be long before your cabbie is a Harvard grad.

Americans aged 18 to 29 had easily the highest underemployment rate in July of any age group, at 28.4%, including 11.8% who were unemployed and 16.6% who were employed part time but wanted full-time work. Among all U.S. adults in the workforce, a higher percentage of women than of men are underemployed.

Yah. You don't have to tell me that more women are being affected than men.  I'm living it and I'm in the next age group.

I firmly believe, that a decent salary and benefits will not be forthcoming unless you make it happen yourself. In other words, in the years and decades to come, wealth in America will center around those who are born into it, and among large business owners.  Fewer and fewer companies will pay you a decent wage.  You will have to figure out a way to get it on your own.  When I graduated from law school, nothing was scarier than the thought of NOT having a regular paycheck.  I wish I wasn't raised to think of regular pay as a goal.  Maybe I would have been more enterprising.  Maybe you ought to be as well.  Invent your own way. If you see an opportunity, grab it.  Don't sit back and wait for anyone to hand you anything.  When the dust settles, I'm hoping that BIDER readers and I will come out unscathed.

I have a neighbor and, judging by his obliviousness, I'm positive that he will not read this.  Even if he does, he won't get my point.  He drives a beautiful car, a Z.  I love it.  He's in grad school.  He gave me a ride once and I asked him.... "You know, you're already driving a Z and you haven't graduated yet.  Where do you go from here?"

"I can't wait," he said.  There are no words.

ShitLaw Primer: My Life and Your Experiences

Have you ever felt really alone?  I'm not talking about the loneliness you feel when you're in a room by yourself.  No, I'm talking about the loneliness you feel when no one understands how bad you have it at your job.  Part of why I endeavored--with Hardknocks--to publicize the law school scam, was to show people they are not alone in being unsatisfied with their lack of job prospects and the amount of money that they owe.  I'm trying to reach out to a different crowd now.  I'm reaching out to the shitlaw associates. You know who you are.

You graduated from law school during a recession, much like myself.  I graduated during the dot.com bubble burst.  But you managed to find a job.  It's a small firm. You won't be earning much money.  You're not going to have health care.  But your mother is beaming because you are going to be a real attorney.  You know the job isn't forever, but you're happy to have an opportunity to gain experience under the wing of a talented and experienced solo practitioner.  You are one of the lucky ones and you're not about to look a gift horse in the mouth.  

This is how I felt when I got my first job out of law school (post-clerkship).  I was earning $50K, which was not horrid at the time, but not terrific.  My boss hired me because we clicked and I was a good student from a good school and a "go-getter."  I am notorious for ignoring my initial gut feelings and trying to think with my head.  I had a bad feeling when my future boss said, "You must be in the office by 8:30 and you can leave the office at 7:30 p.m. and to go to court during the day, but not for lunch."  Hmmm. I thought.  That's weird. I thought I was a professional that was paid to accomplish tasks, not work by the hour.  But, I thought, this would be a nice place to work.  He said he would never ask me to work weekend, so long as I put in my 11 hours a day during the week.

Update From a BIDER Reader...

Success!  She will be one, that is, since she decided not to go to law school.  You may remember, our anonymous reader whose mother was dead set on her attending law school.  I advised her against it and even explored some options with her on gchat.  She sent me an update:


Angel,

I hope you are doing well.  I am writing to update because I sent you a letter you posted on your blog.  I asked for advice for dealing with my immigrant mother who desperately wanted me to go to law school.  After taking the LSAT and researching schools, I found the scam blogs and decided against law school.  Instead, I found a new job and I will start in a couple of weeks.  My new employer offers a higher salary than my old job, better benefits and will fully fund my education if I decide to pursue a degree at night.  I have a couple of friends taking the law school plunge this fall, but I am glad I will not be joining them.  They will leave jobs in order to pursue JD's at second tier schools in the hopes their career paths will be much betterafter obtaining a JD.  I sincerely hope it works out for them, but knowing that they're taking out 60k+ in loans at least within the next few years, I am not envious of their position.

In my previous e-mail I mentioned my cousin who just graduated from a third tier school and how my mother was convinced she would have a great career after graduation. My cousin is now working at a small law firm and only gets paid when there are cases for her to work on.  She goes weeks with any paychecks and has to quickly learn how to drum up business to stay afloat.  After learning about this situation my mother has quieted down a bit about my decision to skip law school.

I want to give a thank you to the scam bloggers for getting the word there.  I'm sure that pursuing a J.D. is a great thing for people who end up having great luck, but as for me, I consider myself lucky to have a job with a decent salary, minimal debt and the prospect of a free graduate degree if I decide to pursue one in the future.

Best of luck to you,

Anonymous

Best of luck to you BIDER reader.  You, unlike me, certainly did do everything right and I'm sure you will shine in your industry and rise to the top.  Maybe you should take me out to dinner when you're in my area, since I sure as hell can't afford to treat you!!!