Is it impossible to find work as an attorney right now?

[Anonymous]

Law is the new liberal arts, can I get fries with that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a big law associate and can tell you this is a very difficult position. Your best shot is to do everything you can to find a job at a mid size or even a small firm with an excellent reputation; work your butt off; and then in 2-3 years you can lateral to someplace better. When you are 2-4 years out of law school, law firms fall over themselves to hire people. You need to try to find a way to position yourself for that. But I will be brutally honest that finding the initial job at a mid or small place isn't easy. I also don't agree with the advice that you should move unless you really have something lined up elsewhere. The reality is that in most geographic areas regional law school students can have a major influence on hiring and unless youbwent to law school in area and have the same alumni connections, it is going to be just as hard, if not even harder, to find a job. You should not pack up your car and drive to say Philadelphia because you went to a school with a better ranking than Temple and Villanova -- you will be very disappointed when you realize that most other people in Philadelphia went to Temple or Villanova and don't care about your school and its ranking.

The government is an option but the hiring freeze complicates that and being pegged as a government lawyer can also complicate things. It is MUCH harder to lateral from the government to a big law firm than it isn't to lateral from a small/mid size firm to a big law firm, unless you have some truly compelling government experience that frankly you probably won't have.

Contract work is a killer if you want to do real big law work, but it does pay the bills. It depends how much you need money soon.

As for policy jobs -- this is a huge misnomer. Why is an attorney who likely has a major aversion to stats, math, etc. more qualified to do public
Policy analysis at the very highest levels of such analysis in Washington DC than someone with a Masters or PhD who actually went to school to become a policy analyst (and is likely good with numbers)? It is total nonsense. I say this as someone who worked in a low
level job at a think tank before law school. The good jobs at a think tank -- and yes I would put ones that pay 60k in that category -- are highly competitive and nobody is going to hire an attorney who has never even practiced law for such work (unless you have something truly unique in your background)

Good luck.

I'm the PP suggesting he/she should move. No - I didn't mean move randomly without a job. I meant start applying for jobs in other markets and then go where you find one. Secondary markets like Philadelphia are really hard - they are very much biased towards Philadelphia locals, as evidenced by all the Temple, Nova grads. They won't care that you went to a school better than Temple bc often the hiring partners went to Temple and think it's perfectly fine; and if somehow they want grads from a hire ranked school, a small number of Penn grads remain in Philadelphia post graduation. I was thinking BIG cities - NYC, Chicago, LA/SF where they don't just get applications from regional grads.

OP - Thanks for your advice, I understand that a big firm is out of the question at this point. I also agree that policy could be a challenging path without prior experience in that field. Ideally, I would lay the framework to end up at a midsize law firm.

I realize that I am limiting myself geographically but it does seem slightly crazy to me that there are no options here. I also feel limited because I sat for the VA bar and the expense of investing in another state's bar is not the most attractive option.

You're just not going to find a paid job in the legal sector with benefits in the DMV area. Sorry. There are a zillion highly credentialed attorneys here. When they tire of their biglaw gigs, there are thousands of new grads from top schools who will take their place. And the former biglaw attorneys, who have made the dent they wanted to in their careers, then move on to the government jobs, in house jobs, association and nonprofit jobs, and other low-key jobs with lower pay jobs that provide better life satisfaction. The truly shitty jobs are filled by bottom 50% of the class new grads from T30 schools. You've been unemployed for almost a year and so you don't fit into any of these categories. Sorry, but this just isn't in the cards for you at this point. Look outside the DC area. Check down the VA corridor. Try and find a hourly job in a small law firm even if doing filing and stuff in a small VA town. Hustle and spin it to something a bit better down the road.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Law is the new liberal arts, can I get fries with that

Not quite though. I think a liberal arts degree from, say, Harvard isn't going to get you a job either, unless your parents spend $100k on propping up two years of unpaid internships in NYC.

A law degree from a T20 school, top 30-70% of the class (the number goes up the higher ranked the school is) is still a guarantee of a good job.

[Anonymous]

You should have taken the temp job! Be the best temp they ever had and network network network.
You are going up on a year of unemployment. You need to find a job, any job, in the legal field and make connections.
I would call them back tomorrow and hope to be at work Monday!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Law is the new liberal arts, can I get fries with that

Not quite though. I think a liberal arts degree from, say, Harvard isn't going to get you a job either, unless your parents spend $100k on propping up two years of unpaid internships in NYC.

A law degree from a T20 school, top 30-70% of the class (the number goes up the higher ranked the school is) is still a guarantee of a good job.

I think this thread demonstrates that this is not always the case.

[Anonymous]

What's you sense of adventure like? If it is solid, consider becoming qualified as a solicitor. It isn't that hard and you can do it in stages. That doesn't open up another state, that opens the whole wide world. Dual qualified US/UK attorneys are highly sought after all over the place. And even big law overseas prefers dual qualifieds who are US educated since there are three extra years of school involved.

[Anonymous]

Feels like 100,000 applicants for every one job opening.

[Anonymous]

OP - just go with a small firm or nonprofit to get your feet wet. Think of the turtle and the hare fable. It's not how you start, it is how you finish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Law is the new liberal arts, can I get fries with that

Not quite though. I think a liberal arts degree from, say, Harvard isn't going to get you a job either, unless your parents spend $100k on propping up two years of unpaid internships in NYC.

A law degree from a T20 school, top 30-70% of the class (the number goes up the higher ranked the school is) is still a guarantee of a good job.

I think this thread demonstrates that this is not always the case.

OP graduated from a t30 school not in the top 40 percent. op's situation has nothing to do with the statement above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - just go with a small firm or nonprofit to get your feet wet. Think of the turtle and the hare fable. It's not how you start, it is how you finish.

I don't think OP is going to get a paid job at a small firm or nonprofit in Dc. That's the issue. At this point, OP is competing with 2017 grads with similar credentials. OP will likely need to do one of these jobs unpaid or move to small town VA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's you sense of adventure like? If it is solid, consider becoming qualified as a solicitor. It isn't that hard and you can do it in stages. That doesn't open up another state, that opens the whole wide world. Dual qualified US/UK attorneys are highly sought after all over the place. And even big law overseas prefers dual qualifieds who are US educated since there are three extra years of school involved.

Terrible advice. Dual qualified US/UK lawyers are not highly sought after anywhere - I say this as a gainfully employed (biglaw) dual qualified lawyer. If you have no experience practicing law you also will not be able to qualify in the UK simply by taking the exams, you'd need a training contract which are as competitive as getting first jobs out of law school in the US, or to work for a couple of years at entry level and you would struggle to find a position. Absolutely do not do this unless you have found a firm in the UK who is going to sponsor you for a training contract.

[Anonymous]

OP - Thank you again for all the responses. There were about 450 of us so I will divulge that I went to GW. My class rank was between top-half and top-40%, I was just short of Thurgood Marshall scholar and I was devastated. I understand that some of the responses here may be the harsh truth, but I am committed to finding a job in the DMV at least until May - one year from graduation. Thank you to those who suggested taking whatever I could find as I need a push to accept an unpaid offer. I think that working for a judge could be beneficial to my career so that is my top choice at the moment.

[Anonymous]

Isnt the legal field going robotic in next 20 years or so?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My cousin has graduated from a similarly tiered law school in DMV at a similar ranking, could not find anything for a while.
Was eventually hired as an Assistant DA in a remote county of a flyover state, where her BF family lived.
At least her 50 K salary allows to live there somewhat OK.

Exactly my cousin's path. Asst. DA in a really crap small city. Eventually moved to a heavily advertised ambulance chasing firm, did not like that, now on second ambulance chasing job. But, she is working.

[Anonymous]

DOJ and its components sometimes hire non-paid attorneys. In USAOs these are called Special Assistant United States Attorneys or SAUSAs. If you can get by without a salary for a while, these positions often lead to future opportunities, either in the USAO, another DOJ component, or elsewhere (as the experience is coveted). Here's one opening:

https://www.justice.gov/legal-careers/job/uncompensated-special-assistant-united-states-attorney-32

While this position is in Souhern California, you would not need to take another bar. To practice at DOJ, you need only one active bar membership -- it doesn't matter where.