I'm sure that many of our readers may disagree with my colleague Brian's statement yesterday that salary is not the only driving factor impacting a young lawyer's decision to join a law firm.  I'm not a lawyer, and I didn't go to law school, nor did I carry a huge amount of debt upon my graduation from college, but I was fortunate enough to graduate with an Economics degree and a minor in Finance when the job market was considerably more robust than it is today.  I entertained no fewer than six job offers out of college, from Wall Street Investment banks to commercial banks.  And it's the absolute truth when I tell you that I took the job with one of the lowest salaries because they offered a perk that no other company came close to matching...

Very few firms today are 100% utilized. Almost all attorneys within a firm have free capacity, and depending on the firm, this can be a large cost. With profits dropping, layoffs and delayed start dates for first year associates have been seen as a short term solution to increase profits. This may be an effective way to address utilization concerns and bring profits back up to levels that law firms have experienced over the last five years, but it may also have some long term effects related to production.