Biglaw, Law Schools

Law Firm Associates Don't Know When Their Jobs Will Start, And Some Have Had Offers Rescinded

Welcome to the employment scene for entry-level law firm associates thanks to the coronavirus crisis.

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Do you have a job at a law firm, but you’re unsure of when you’ll be starting — or if you’ll be starting at all?

You’re not the only one.

Half of law firm offices with incoming first-year associates haven’t announced their official start dates. For offices that have announced start dates, 62 percent of them won’t be onboarding their incoming associates until January 2021. On top of that, 49 percent of law schools noted that some of their graduates had employment offers rescinded, with 85 percent of those schools reporting that those reneged job offers came from private practice firms.

This information comes from a new survey by the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) of 356 law firm offices and 167 law school career services offices, and it means that hundreds upon hundreds of recent law school graduates have been left out in the cold when it comes to the start of their careers in the legal profession. Thanks a bunch, COVID-19.

This time around, Biglaw firms are not wholly to blame for the rescinded offers. Per NALP Executive Director James Leipold, those have been “rare” and have mostly come from smaller law firms. Biglaw firms remember what happened after they decimated the ranks of their younger associate classes during the Great Recession, and don’t want to face another shortgage of midlevels in a few years down the line. Here’s some additional detail from Law.com:

“There’s a lot of uncertainty right now,” said … Leipold. “The bar exam is a moving target—even jurisdictions that have made decisions [about when to administer the exam] have had to make second and third decisions as the virus surges. So law firms are trying to plan start dates around when they can get licensed lawyers.” …

“The other piece of the puzzle is the uncertainly about the volume of work, and wanting current associates to have the work now,” Leipold said. “It seems that most firms that have deferred start dates have provided some sort of stipend—not a salary obviously—but some monetary compensation to help tide incoming associates over until January.”

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To that end, 69 percent of offices that have deferred start dates for first-year associates are offering a stipend or other cash payment as part of the deferral package. As for the other 31 percent of offices that have deferred start dates for first-years without providing some sort of assistance, allowing incoming associates to financially struggle during a pandemic sure is a nice welcome.

NALP will send out another survey to law firms and law schools at the end of July. With layoffs at hand, wonder what the employment scene will look like then…

Law Schools Report Rescinded Employment Offers, Law Firms Report Uncertainty About Associate Start Dates in Second Series of NALP Pulse Surveys [NALP]
Incoming Law Firm Associates Unsure When Their Jobs Will Start [Law.com]

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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