...

[Is the summer associate market really bad or is this all in our heads?]

Is the summer associate market really bad or is this all in our heads?

I have at least one offer

 54 (72%)

I go to a T14 and have no offers

 4 (5.3%)

I have no offers

 17 (22.7%)

Total Members Voted: 75

[ScoobySnacks]

T10. No law review, pretty good grades. 22 screening interviews. 15 callbacks. Did 9 of the callbacks. 5 offers, 1 post-callback ding, 3 outstanding.

[Jets]

T10 transfer from T25. Top 1%, law review and skills boards there so I thought I'd be fine without leaving and only left for personal reasons but--as it turns out--I have a lot of similarly situated friends who have really struggled. Not sure what to make of that.

20 screens/16 callbacks/12 attended, 8 offers, 2 dings and 2 pending.

[juliemccoy]

Top 20 transfer from T50 (law review at the old law school, journal at the new law school), good grades. 20 screening interviews, 7 callbacks. Did 6 of the callbacks. 3 offers so far, 3 outstanding, no dings yet.

[thorc954]

DC hiring is terrible this year.

[MauveAvenger]

Anyone want to take a stab at whether this is the job market, a glut of lawyers, or some combination of that? Think it'll be better in 3 and a half years?

[NeverTrustKlingons]

Things are not good.  But even if we're going to make comparisons to the Depression, it's not like that was felt evenly throughout the country.  The bottom line is that as the market for lawyers drops, there won't be as many jobs but there will probably be just as many kids who mistakenly think law school (any law school) is a golden ticket.

The caveat is that the T14 (or even moreso, HYS) graduate a very small number of lawyers in proportion to the available pool.  Even in the worst economy foreseeable, someone has to have the good legal jobs taking care of the high-paying clients.  Someone has to judge and teach.  Guess who?

Lots of T3/T4 schools are placing high percentages of students "in businesses and corporations" (see ABA data).  That doesn't mean they're at the Office of General Counsel.  ;-)  It might mean they're at a high-paying job in some cases (doubtful), but in all probability they have just spent a sizable sum on a JD for an entry-level job that they could've got with a BA/BS and a little effort.

[thorc954]

Anyone want to take a stab at whether this is the job market, a glut of lawyers, or some combination of that? Think it'll be better in 3 and a half years?

my bet is the economy will rebound in the next year, and, for the 2Ls now, the 3L hiring prospects will be a lot better as firms attempt to compensate for the underhiring they had done.

[thorc954]

I agree... but I think that not getting a summer gig anywhere is going to still keep it tough to find 3L gigs.  Some firms are going to be oversubscribed this summer, some clients will go under, some firms will not do so well, and so there will be plenty of top students job hunting for 3L year.  Also, lots of people aren't thrilled with where they're winding up this summer.  I think that it'll shake out a bit, but it won't be some some sort of job free-for-all, and people without firm gigs will be at a huge disadvantage.

definitely agree.  It will still be hard for everyone next year, but I dont think it will nearly be as hard as it was for the 3Ls this year.

[Zam]

What do you think the fate of someone is if they have a callback, or many, and just simply haven't heard after two weeks or so?

In my personal experience offers come within a week of the callback, but I have friends who have no offers and have been waiting in purgatory for two weeks or so for any kind of response. They are primarily looking in DC and NYC. I know the market is wonky so I'm sure that's having an effect, but do you think firms are waiting to see if the market crashes? Or is it simply that the people who aren't hearing back after call backs are on waitlists/going to have a rejection eventually?

[bearma0]

From what I hear, a lot of the firms are playing the 45 day window a light tighter this year.