Tom Nosewicz interviewed with about 15 large law firms during Stanford Law School's recruiting season last fall. He heard promises of big money, engaging work, and a shot at full-time employment once he completed his law degree.
But Nosewicz, who just finished his second year at Stanford, decided against filling a slot at one of the big firms that courted him. Instead, this summer he took a job without pay at the federal defender's office in New York, where he says he'll get "on-the-ground training" not available to a summer associate at a megafirm.
In opting out of the summer associate track, Nosewicz is part of a faction of law students at top schools who are rejecting big firms' advances for what they say are more meaningful summer jobs. Although the majority of law school graduates continue to take jobs in the private sector, the percentage that take jobs at private firms-particularly large ones-has declined each year since the class of 2001.
"Many students are concerned about increasing billable-hour expectations and high attrition rates at large law firms," says Andrew Canter, cofounder of Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession. The organization of more than 100 law students from top schools has called on big firms to reduce billable hours requirements and to implement balanced-life programs, at reduced pay to associates, if necessary. Canter also recently completed his second year at Stanford Law School. "Firms can reach out to more top law students by addressing high attrition rates and setting sustainable billable expectations," he says.
Among students in the 2005 graduating class at law schools accredited by the American Bar Association, 55.8 percent went into private practice, according to statistics collected by NALP, an association of legal career professionals. But among 2001 graduates, the percentage of jobs taken in private practice was 57.8 percent. The percentage of jobs accepted in firms with 101 attorneys or more has fallen from 42.6 percent in 2001 to 37.3 percent in 2005, while jobs at smaller firms of varying sizes went up modestly. Also increasing were the number of graduates taking jobs in the public interest sector, which grew from 2.9 percent in 2001 to 4.8 percent for the class of 2005, NALP found.
Ellen Wayne, dean of career services at Columbia Law School, points to a couple of factors contributing to the numbers. Many schools, including Columbia, now offer a stipend to students who take an internship with a nonprofit legal organization. Law school pro bono requirements often inspire students to choose a public interest career path. Loan repayment assistance programs also have allowed more students to take public interest jobs.
Large firms entice graduates with lavish starting salaries, as much as $160,000 plus bonuses. Undercutting the financial incentive offered by the firms, however, is their worsening reputation for assoÂciate dissatisfaction. According to NALP, by the time associates are in their fifth year of practice, nearly 80 percent have left large law firms.
"You can't pay me enough to be unhappy," says Amanda Marzullo, a student at the University of Pennsylvania Law School who recently finished her second year. This summer, she will be working at Kairys, Rudovsky, Epstein & Messing, a small criminal defense and civil rights firm in Philadelphia. Marzullo, 28, interviewed with two large law firms last fall, but chose to take a different path this summer, despite having "moments" when the uncertainty of her future created stress, she says.
Before law school, Marzullo worked briefly as a paralegal at a large law firm. She felt as if she was working in a vacuum, she says, void of client contact. "You never see what's going on," she says.Susan Robinson, assistant dean for career services at Stanford Law School, says that while she has not seen a noticeable decline in the number of second-year students taking big-firm internships, she does get more inquiries from students considering alternatives. She also says that students who accept full-time jobs at large law firms are staying for a shorter duration. "Ten years ago, you went to a firm and stayed three to four years. Now students are looking more in the one- to two-year time frame," Robinson says.
Kaitlin Cordes, who just finished her second year at Columbia Law School, says that it is "really, really tempting" for students at her school to sign on with a big firm for the summer. According to data complied by our sibling publication The National Law Journal, last year 69.6 percent of Columbia graduates took jobs at one of the nation's 250 largest firms-the highest proportion from any ABA-accredited law school. "All of my friends going to firms will make in [two weeks] what I'll make in the entire summer," says Cordes, 25.
Despite the temptation, she has accepted a summer job with the Brennan Center for Justice, a public policy and law institute.
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