Better to join small firms in case the big companies stop campus recruitments
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published October 13, 2008
Stony Olsen
Lots of anecdotes are filtering in now about how summer class sizes are being severely limited. Top students are doing fine at most schools, but offer amounts and interviews in general appear to be way down.
Some markets, such as San Francisco, are not doing well at all. Most firms there, if they have any space, are busy picking up Heller Ehrman attorneys at fire sale rates.
So what can you do about this situation if you don't have any offers now? It might be time to bite the bullet and go for the smaller markets and even local firms.
This makes sense if you think about it. Let's take an example small city: someplace in Nebraska — Omaha, let's say. Now, the current difficulties are based on large banks, giant New York firms that toss billions around and are failing, etc. What, exactly, is the market in Omaha like? Think there are many law firms dependent on business from Morgan Stanley? Of course not.
So, it's a great time to apply to the midsize or smaller firms in local markets. The pay may well be lower, but it's a heck of a lot better to be making $60-80 thousand a year than it is to be making nothing. The cost of living is much lower in the Salt Lake Cities of the world as well.
The downside is prestige, of course, but it's much more prestigious to be working at Jones Waldo Holbrook in Salt Lake than it is to be working in Idaho on Aunt Mabel's farm.
And don't forget — if you can't get a joboffer — to think about internships and governmental organizations outside of clerkships. They typically need lots of legal aid, and working or even volunteering for a local or state government agency may well provide you with more legal experience than you would get summering for a top ten law firm.
So don't lose hope if you didn't get anything from your on-campus interviews. A lot of law firms aren't hiring right now — at least not from interviews — but networking, going more local, and looking for smaller firms where the financial crisis isn't much of an issue should produce results.
Try overseas as well, especially if you speak another language. Despite the horrific carnage in the US economy, other countries are even worse off, so a US-connected law student will still be in demand.
In any case, best of luck! Remember, if all else fails, you can start your own practice. It's been done a lot, and lots of people have been quite good at it.
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