"For those already in the pipeline, is there any hope?"

Hope for a Colorado law grad? Doubtful.

Hope in Obama's era? Impossible.

Mission Accomplished!

If Louisiana had mountains, it would be called Colorado. Go people watching at any mall or shopping center in the state sometime and you'd agree.

NUMBER 5 BABY!!!

.... WTF? "I hear it is beautiful country out there"?

DAVID.!!! ELIE is shitting over the reputation of your blog again.

Way to rip off WSJ Law Blog Elie! Wheres the cite to them?

This wouldn't have happened if you had CHECKED YOU EMAILS

I love the Lord of the Rings quotes. You have a great way of putting them in posts on totally unrelated topics.

Anyone that goes to a law school that routinely places only half its students into jobs sort of deserves what they get. Must be bloodshed over at University of Denver....

LOTR would have been a lot better if Peter Jackson had stuck to his guns and left out the deus ex machina that were the Dead Men of Dunharrow. What a cop out.

-The Guy Who Was in LOTR and Played the Heroin Addict on Lost

SuSaNi?

Look at the states on the CO bar and you'll see lots of grads from outside Colorado taking the CO bar -- a substantial increase this year. I was there. Lots of people from Thomas Cooley and all sorts of TTT schools taking the CO bar hoping to get a job there because their home state legal market was so bad. The result, of course, is a flood into Colorado that's not good either.

Cardozo law school chick here offering moustache rides!

LOTR quotes rule. ATL and Zeppelin both have a knack for dropping them appropriately. I might even try and work one in tomorrow at oral arguments.

How many of today's ATL posts are merely re-posts of the WSJ Law Blog? This is at least the second today.

JaKe and PE haven't weighed in on anything yet today.

PE, perhaps your firm could hire some of these poor Colorado law grads to work in the mail room or on the janitorial staff.

JaKe, perhaps you could give a pro bono seminar style presentation to these students on the importance of coming from obscene wealth, working hard, a preeminent, peer educational pedigree, and not being dilatory/inane.

Currently a 3L at CU Law.

Currently contemplating a job as a caddy or a really over-educated landscaper.

I don't understand. Are things so bad that people are trying to get a job in a boulder? That just doesn't make ANY sense.

At 18 --

I think you mean "under-educated" landscaper. Maybe there's hope for CU Law grads as paralegals?

I can tell you that things are no better for the law school graduates in Oregon. I heard it was 25% placement including public interest.

Mystal is the Walrus!

Mystal - can you place your throbbing wanker inside my quivering mound of hairy pudding?
-Cardozo 3L

When I read these types of articles, it makes me appreciate the fact that I will be leaving this profession very shortly. The value of a JD is sinking fast. When I became a lawyer, an LLB was the key to the kingdom. Kids today cry about a $160K/year salary. When I joined this profession, I was barely making $16K a year (1/10 of what kids think they deserve today). I was able to buy my first home outright with no mortgage within 3 years of becoming a licensed attorney. I had no student loan debt and I was financially secure within 5 years from passing the bar. Folks, the sad reality is that the dream is dead and has long been dead for decades. I recall a normal partnership track being 5 years. I remember being mentored and groomed, not hectored or humiliated. Times have changed and if you still signed up for a JD today, then you are truly a masochist. Kids, do yourselves a favor and go to a trade school. Mechanics and refrigeration technicians will earn more money than you and will serve a function in society. I never thought I would be alive to see the value of a JD being equal to a diploma issued by the Sally Struthers School of "Fill in the Blank." That is all.

"no country for old law students"

god Elie, that is awful.

i had a job with the FEDDLE GUMMIT that was yanked at the last minute.

That John Denver is full of shit.

Somebody explicitly post a true account of banging a hot chick in law school...

Bravo, Partner Emeritus, bravo. You have proven once again what a visionary you are.

On an unrelated note, I would like to once again offer you my services as your lawn boy. While I am not a graduate of a peer law school, I nevertheless feel that my JD degree will enable me to understand the liability-forming aspects of lawn care better than the average Hispanic peon. Moreover, you may well enjoy watching me toil in your lawn on a hot summer day while you enjoy a refreshing drink on your balcony.

I once banged this chick in Atlanta who had graduated from Penn law school. She must have done pretty shitty because she was earning a pittance at a second-rate firm defending slip and fall cases... How low must you have been in your law school class at Penn to end up with a second-rate job?

Similar statistics could be cited for many law schools. Even Emory's class of 2009 is 50% unemployed. This is not news.

Yeah but Emory is a TTT school that thinks it is better than it is. Too bad for them that they paid boatloads of money to go to a second-rate institution!

The public option should be reintroduced into the health care bill, and pass.

A majority of America now favors it, and it is the only way to keep the insurance companies honest.

At 20 -

If you were trying to actually correct me, you're an idiot and should remove yourself from the gene pool.

And I think I'll do more as a paralegal scraping shit off paper than you will being... well... you. In other words, your life is a waste, quit while you're behind.

The chick. Was she from U. Penn St. or another TTT?

No - she was from UPenn. Seriously - and she was an associate at a crap firm...

The ship be sinking...

When will people quit going to law school? What will it take?

They could always double-down and get LLMs from American University's Washington College of Law.

University of Colorado 1ls listen closely. You are wasting your time and your money. Drop out today. If you are ambitious, pick up the science courses you need to get admitted to a midwife, LNP, or PA program. If you are not, think about trade school--plumbing or hvac or certificate programs (radiology, sonography, etc.) or start buying parking lots. The legal job market is non-existent and you have no chance. 2ls, unless you are top 1/3, you should do the same. You may think that you are half way through so what the heck. But you are wrong. You will find yourselves in June 2011 with a worthless piece of paper and no option but to go back to school again or hustle like a 12th Century English peasant for 30k a year.

@18 - if you caddy at a nice enough country club, you will find plent of opportunities to network! Maybe get a sweet in house job!

40 nailed it

#4, only douchebag tourists like you and local knuckle draggers hang out at the malls in colorado. the rest of the people here spend their free time doing shit in the mountains that you've probably only seen on extreme sports shows on tv, and dreamed about doing were it not for your love of boneless wings, milkshakes and pizza and the huge gut hanging over your belt. when i'm not doing that, i'm banging my rock hard girlfriend. our weekends are what douche holes like you save their vacation time and money all year for. piss off.

The way I see it, the lost class of 2009 has until May 2010, or so, until they must give up on the legal profession. At that point, the already tight market will become flooded with new blood, all fighting like a pack of wolves over a few crumbs (jobs).

The ship be sank.

#43 - is your girlfriend hard as a rock?

As one who knows ... both CU and DU have admitted too many people to their law schools over the past 20 years.... It's Rocky Mountain High time for both to cut their enrollments drastically, so that their future grads have a chance at a halfway decent position when they graduate.

DU should consider dropping its law school altogether if it can't provide either much cheaper tuition or much greater scholarship money. As it is, tuition paid by DU law students looks like money wasted....

Just like investors flocked into the stock market and the housing market at the height of the bubble, students are flocking to law school right now. They are going to get burned! Here's a great article on the phenomena:
http://thelegaldollar.blogspot.com/2009/10/buying-law-degree-at-height-of-bubble.html

The ship be sunk, pirates!!!

the funny thing is that i was up in the mountains with your rock hard girlfriend just this weekend. although her thick strong hands make her look a bit mannish, she did mention something about how your relationship was essentially boneless too. performance anxiety from too much tweak maybe. our love, on the other hand, is extreeeeme.

in all seriousness, the mountains are beautiful, but most of the people (even in denver) and "sportsmen" are difficult to tolerate. i'm sure the legal community is different, with more educated cultural types. but 3.2 beer?!? wtf.

I don't think it's ethical for CU to admit these students, ask them to commit 3 years, and spend an insane amount of money when it pretty much knows that jobs don't exist for graduates. A professional school places professionals right?

Top 10% here, still unemployed.

Colorado's the skinniest state in the nation, btw. We're all much better looking than the rest of you shits.

CU is actually a quality law school, but Colorado is a smaller market & a lifestyle market. It's just a killer supply & demand issue.

Put a school of CU's quality combined with the beauty of Boulder near Chicago or New York and it thrives. But near Denver, not so much.

51 - how are the chicks? Do they put out?

Why hasn't this story been accredited to the WSJ?!

For most overinflated law school that beats out Duke as douchiest - Emory.
Plus the chicks at the law school are fugly.

43 = win

so many damn pessimists on this blog. In 5 years everyone will be flooded with money again like they were in the 90s and doin coke of strippers ass cracks. and we'll all be gainfully employed, as long as we didn't fuck up our lives in the meantime.

I declare #43 the victor in this spar. Good day gentlemen.

57, not if osama/obama has anything to do with it.

59 - you make as much sense as the used tampons I recirculate off the vulvas of my employees.

Now I'm wondering about my (old) LS, Montana. It's 9 up from the bottom on this http://tinyurl.com/yzmnvn2
It's below CU, with a placement of "94%" LOL.

So it's got to be much worse than CU, right? Not that anyone will get it out of them. They just opened a new enlarged school because the need for *justice* is so great.

Isn't that where Mork and Mindy live?

Please moderate 58 and 60. Even a legal tabloid site such as ATL deserves a certain level of dignity.

Please moderate 58 and 60. Even a legal tabloid site such as ATL deserves a certain level of dignity.

Please moderate 58 and 60. Even a legal tabloid site such as ATL deserves a certain level of dignity.

#'s 63, 64, and 65:
You don't need to repeat your nonsensical blatherings. I add to the level of dignity and elevate the conversation. Now go back to being a scutmonkey.

PE is right about one thing. When I started practicing, I was paid $17K as a first year associate, and that was considered great money. Today, the practice of law has gone to the dogs. You law students and recent law grads best take a hard look at Colorado. Every state is opening new law schools as fast as they can find a good spot for them, and getting suckers to pay the ticket price is easy as pie. The problem, of course, is that the entire legal profession is on the front end of huge change, which is being sped along by the recession and credit collapse, but bad things would be happening anyway. There will be fewer and fewer good paying jobs for first year law grads, and what consitutes good pay is going to be dropping like a rock. You guys best consider another line of work.

57, you are wrong as wrong can be. In 5 years, the economy will be in the shitter, much worse than it is today. You best get used to the idea. Obama's hope and change means a huge dick up your ass, and that's about it.

43 = champion of the day.
and to the 3.2 beer guy - it's only in the supermarkets. You have exposed yourself as a tool who buys beer in the supermarket. we all laugh at you in line and don't bother to tell because we already know what a douche you are.
I am a 2008 DU grad with a nice job in a midsized firm. So, to all the haters, eat it. In a small state like colorado DU grads are taken more serious than douchebags from the ivy league.

Isn't the real story here that CU is actually being truthful in their statistical reporting unlike some law schools situated in the NY city area?
Also the degree of the CU/DU divide is not as great the USNEWS ranking might suggest as far as reputation among the firms in state.

At least the ski season has started - so unlike those other unemployed people - colorado grads are at least unemployed with 40+ days down

43 is spot on.

Just to give you East-Coast pricks a visual to contemplate while you're shoveling Chinese take-out down your gullet at your desks:

http://commentsfromleftfield.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/fattest-states-2008-big.gif

Boulder is so early to mid 90's.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!

- CU Law Student

#58: sorry you weren't cool enough to get into Duke or Emory. All us Douches really wish we could have added you to our network of successful people with jobs.

Douche.

CU is having the same problems any other school has, it just happens to be in a small, niche, market where people want to live, so its very competitive for the few jobs there are. That said, the dean of students needs to be fired, (you know who you are, and you are terrible.) and the dean himself should probably go too. No excuse to not be ranked higher and to let the job situation get this dire.

#58: sorry you weren't cool enough to get into Duke or Emory. All us Douches really wish we could have added you to our network of successful people with jobs.

Douche.

CU is having the same problems any other school has, it just happens to be in a small, niche, market where people want to live, so its very competitive for the few jobs there are. That said, the dean of students needs to be fired, (you know who you are, and you are terrible.) and the dean himself should probably go too. No excuse to not be ranked higher and to let the job situation get this dire.

I meant 55. sorry 58.

LAW SCHOOL RECENT GRADUATE EMPLOYMENT DATA SHOULD BE REGULATED BY STATE LAW, i.e., compulsory disclosure and accounting.

I graduated from CU in 2006, back when there were jobs. When I started in 2003, tuition was $5K a year. The law school was in an old dilapidated building where you could bring your dog/bike/etc. After class, go for a run in the Flatirons. Nothing had changed since the 60's.

Then the administration did something crazy - they actually tried to get the school's accreditation pulled in order to build a huge new law school. They actively lied to the current students and the undergrad population by saying the class-size would stay the same, when in fact it would get significantly larger. Now they have a beautiful new law school, the class size is larger, and in-state tuition is something like $26K.

The CU law "career center" is famously bad. When I was there it was run by a guy with incontinent dogs who worked from 10-3 if that. Not sure who runs it now but the alumni postings are howlingly funny.

The sad part is CU should be Berkeley, but instead it's U. Tenn. of the West.

As a recent grad of CU I may have some insight into the situation. As one comment pointed out, CU is truthful in its reporting because, as one high-level administrator said, "we don't care about rankings." Additionally, CU's admin is terrible across the board with the exception of the Registrar, she could do the other administrators' jobs more capably than they can.

To the person suggestion the removal of the Deans...cheers!

As I see it, there are two main problems leading to the horrible employment statistics: first, the Career Development Office is horrible. It's staffed with people that do not have any idea what it requires to place students in jobs. As Clayton stated in the article, that's not what the office is attempting to do. When you figure out what they're doing, let me know.

The skills just aren't there; what you have is multiple people with young kids unwilling to put in the extra effort it takes to find jobs for people or help enable them to get jobs. Combine this with the fact that Boulder is about 25 minutes from Denver, the location of the majority of the jobs, and you've got a recipe for disaster.

Additionally, CU must be one of the worst schools at leveraging its alumni. While there are schools like IU Bloomington that get alumni to hand-feed jobs to students, CU alumni are almost non-existent, aside from the 1-2x they show up a year for some lame event that does nothing but clog the parking lot. This is a definite edge for DU, its alumni are much more active and given DU's proximity to the jobs, they stress networking and alumni contact infinitely more than CU.

CU's second major problem is the student body. For too long CU has been the big school in the Rockey Mountain West, not counting Utah schools, and the entire school along with the students became complacent. Students (no differently than people in Boulder generally), have an extreme sense of entitlement. It's rather shocking how little students are willing to work or pursue opportunities on their own. Students waited for jobs to fall in their laps, regardless of their class ranks and g.p.a. I know of a few recent grads that have secured jobs once they decided it was in their best interest to actually work to find something.

The best thing that could happen for CU is a clean sweep in the Career Development Office and a paradigmatic shift in how jobs are pursued and how alumni are leveraged.

Too many god damn lawyers, and law school costs too much god damn money. They need to shut down law schools for a year and cut faculty by 50% and tuition by 66%.

If you are going into debt to go to law school you are a fool.

I think the problem is the group of CU students posting on here who talk about CU like it could/should be a top 10 school (CU should be Berkley? WHAT!) Basically, if take a generically qualified incoming class and send them into a market with a few jobs, some of which will be taken by people from good national schools, of course you will have placement issues.

You go to a genericly unimpressive public school in a small market.... that's why you don't have good placement. Its not career services fault folks....

We need to bomb rock hard girlfriends back to the stoneage!
-DOJ Secure

Yep CU's career service office is terrible. I find it really irritating that they are claiming to be looking for all these alternative careers now. They used to be downright rude to students who were interested in alternative careers. 6 months ago they couldn't even bother to post accurate application instructions for the alternative job listings section.

At 81: I think the Berkeley comment (and I could be wrong) was not meant to imply anything about where CU should be ranked, etc. but simply a comment on the environment here. It used to remind me of Berkeley (years and years ago before law school) even if it couldn't compete with Berkeley academically. Now it definitely does not.

35% had jobs, but WHAT JOBS. Jobs as attorneys? Jobs capable of paying back their student loans?

Law schools should be required by the ABA to report employment statistics that only count people who are actually making use of their J.D. as something more than a sweat rag and/or toilet paper.

WORKERS UNITE!

79,

Top 10% at CU is equivalent to winning a bronze medal in the Special Olympics, so please, STFU

and 51,

read comment above to 79. Blame career services and your pathetic alumni all you want, but at the end of the day, a JD from CU makes you, at most, qualified for a job as a Wal Mart greeter.

Harvard associate in Denver

As a CU Law 2008 Alum, I'd rather get kicked in the nuts by Mason Crosby than hear CU Law's dreadful employment stats. The news is totally depressing.

Really 85? Congrats on getting into Harvard and all, but come on.

I didn't go to Harvard because I couldn't afford it...I got in as well. CU gave me an option I could afford, and a great education. We had ivy league kids too who choose CU because they wanted to, not because they had to.

I hope you write "Harvard Law graduate" on your underwear just to remind yourself how important you are.

I spend a fair amount of time in Denver though I'm not licensed in Colorado. Colorado has long been a tough market for attorney jobs due in part, I think, to a very generous "waive in" rule that didn't die until the mid 1990s. Every yuppie lawyer in the country decided that Denver was the place to be. (John Denver, you know...) The "waive in" rule was finally replaced by a reciprocity rule but that still leaves the gate open for a lot of transplants. There are more than 19,000 active, resident lawyers in Colorado for a state population of just 5 million. One lawyer for every 260 people is just too many lawyers.