Class of 2010 and 2011 Law Grads Face a Tough Road to Finding Jobs

Another year of disappointment for Law School grads is predicted by the National Association for Law Placement.  Not only will the class of 2010 have a difficult time, NALP predicts that the market for 2011 grads will also be "very compromised."

NALP Executive Director Jim Leipold told US News and World Report US News and World Report , "The Class of 2012 will be the first class for which we might see some kind of uptick in employment," Leipold says. "I'm not making a prediction that it will recover in 2012; I'm saying it probably won't recover much before then." 

Summer associates get a foot in the door because those positions often lead to jobs after graduation. The market is toughest for graduates without this experience, NALP reports that in 2009 only 3 percent of firms reported recruiting students who had not worked as summer associates, down from 25 percent in 2008.  US News reports some firms have cut summer associate programs in half, and quotes the dean of the University of Virginia Law School as noting that "this was the most difficult year that Ive seen in 20 years," forcing graduates to work significantly harder to find positions.