What Doesn’t The Media Get About The State Of Law Hiring?

Columnist Renwei Chung offers his thoughts on the latest job data from the ABA.

“I know that everything that glitters ain’t gold / I know that it ain’t always good as it seems / but tell me until you get it how could you know?” J. Cole

On Wednesday, the American Bar Association published data revealing that the law school graduates of 2014 have been slightly more successful than their 2013 peers. According to the ABA, 26,248 graduates of the class of 2014, or 59.9 percent, were employed in long-term, full-time positions that require bar passage.

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that 2014 law school graduates did relatively better than their 2013 peers. As Bloomberg columnist Natalie Kitroeff notes, “[t]he class of 2014 had 6.5 percent fewer graduates than 2013’s, when ABA-accredited schools recorded the largest-ever graduating class at around 47,000.” Even if the demand for lawyers had remained static from 2013 to 2014, the supply of law school graduates between those two years was noticeably reduced.

I know 2014 law school graduates who have passed their respective bar exams and are still searching for legal employment. I know many law students in the 2015 class who are still hoping to find legal employment as well. Should these job candidates find comfort in the fact that fewer people are graduating from law schools?

The economy has been gaining steam. The stock market recently hit a new record high. Some areas of the legal market are as hot as they have ever been. Can this rising tide lift all boats? Should we begin to expect a higher demand for lawyers now that revenues are rising and profits are popping?

Yesterday, a news editor at LinkedIn asked me the following questions:

  1. Do you think law school was worth it? Why or why not?
  2. What doesn’t the media get about the state of law hiring?
  3. What were your aspirations before attending law school and have they changed?
  4. What do you think law schools need to do better, based on your experience?

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I am sure many of you received the same LinkedIn e-mail with these inquires as well. How would you answer these questions? Every week, people who are contemplating whether they should attend law school ask me similar questions. Would you consider it bad advice to tell someone law school is a good idea?

What doesn’t the media get about the state of law hiring? The legal market is quite diverse. For example, many law students are interested in public-interest law (e.g., nonprofit organizations, federal government offices, and public defenders). Law school students and graduates interested in public service often expect and face far different career prospects and opportunities than those whose objective is to work in the private sector.

As for the private sector, being employed at a Biglaw firm is much different than being employed at a small firm or running a solo practice. In fact, just by attending a certain law school, a student may effectively be prevented from, or have virtually no chance of, working at an Am Law 100 Firm. This probably comes as no surprise to anyone in the industry, but this information could be rather surprising for someone who is unfamiliar with the legal market.

Even if you attend a great law school, you aren’t guaranteed employment in the legal industry. Revenues may be rising and profits may be popping, but many in the legal profession are still struggling. For a lion’s share of graduates from select law schools, the legal market is thriving. For a significant percentage of graduates from various other law schools, the legal market is promising. For a substantial portion of graduates from the remaining law schools, the legal market will continue to be challenging.

What doesn’t the media get about the state of law hiring? That just like the economic recovery, it is a tale of two stories.

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Renwei Chung is a 2L at Southern Methodist University School of Law. He has an undergraduate degree from Michigan State University and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He is the author of The Golden Rule: How Income Inequality Will Ruin America (affiliate link). He has been randomly blogging about anything and everything at Live Your Truth since 2008. He was born in California, raised in Michigan, and lives in Texas. He has a yellow lab named Izza and enjoys old-school hip hop, the NBA and stand up paddleboarding (SUP). He is really interested in startups, entrepreneurship, and innovative technologies. You can contact Renwei by email at projectrenwei@gmail.com, follow him on Twitter (@renweichung), or connect with him on LinkedIn.