Big law firms used to recruit new lawyers early to lock in the best students. But with the recession drying up business, the legal profession has had to rethink its old way of doing things
American Public Media reports on the ways in which recruitment practices are changing at the Big Law firms in the USA..
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KAI RYSSDAL: Just as students across the country are settling into their classes, right around now new lawyers at big firms are settling into their first jobs. Most of those first-year associates have known for at least a year, and some of ’em even two, where they’d be working. Big firms start recruiting way before graduation so they can lock in the best talent. Or that’s the way it used to work until the recession hit.
With business drying up, some firms have found they can’t afford to hire everyone they had promised jobs to. And so the legal profession is rethinking its old-fashioned way of doing things. Ashley Milne-Tyte reports.
ASHLEY MILNE-TYTE: Bill Urquhart is a partner at law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver and Hedges in Los Angeles. He went to Harvard Law School in August to recruit students for his firm’s 2010 summer associate program. But Urquhart says he didn’t have the usual competition from rival firms. Those that did show up interviewed fewer candidates. He says for the first time in years, law students, even from the country’s top schools, can’t guarantee their futures.
BILL URQUHART: They’re freaked out. The whole situation is uh, something that they can’t get their hands around and don’t understand completely. They’re very frightened.
They’ve seen what happened to the class of 2009. Many of those students had jobs set up, only to be told their firms couldn’t afford to take them on this fall. Many firms have deferred start-dates to next year or beyond. Others have put new associates on half pay and asked them to do pro-bono work.
Orrick is a global law firm that works with financial institutions and other big companies. CEO Ralph Baxter says when the economy fell apart, Orrick’s business dropped quite a bit. So the firm didn’t hire any new lawyers this year. And it probably won’t hire any in the U.S. next year. He says the bad economy is forcing law firms to re-think the way they do things: including the practice of committing to young associates almost two years ahead of their start dates. And locking in raises.
Full story at??? http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/09/23/pm-recruiting-lawyers/
