This year, earning a professional degree in law may not be met with pomp and circumstance.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, a tightening job market is posing challenges to law school graduates.

The number of accredited law schools has increased by 11 percent since 1995 and the number of students earning law degrees has increased by nearly 6,000. As the pool of applicants grows, the slowing economy causes the job market to shrink, offering fewer employment opportunities to those fresh out of college.

The majority of the students affected by the tightening market come from middle- to lower-ranked schools. Top law schools such as Cornell, Harvard and Yale universities have yet to feel the crunch.

John DeRosa, assistant dean for student and career services at Cornell’s Law School, said the school’s post-graduation placement average of 98 to 99 percent has remained steady through the years.

The dip in employment opportunity is partly attributed to big firms pairing up with high performing, big-name schools. This leaves third and fourth tier schools, like Syracuse University’s College of Law, at a potential disadvantage.

While the larger, big-city firms fill up, medium and smaller firms are hiring fewer and fewer people. The slowed economy has also lead to a decline in the average starting salaries in many of these smaller firms.

Jennifer Walters, director of professional development and career opportunities at SU College of Law, is not as concerned with employment opportunities.

‘At this point, we’re very familiar with the things that are happening with the market in general,’ Walters said. ‘Eventually, it may affect us, but we recognize it will always be a competitive market, and we’re confident that our students will be prepared.’

While SU did not make the U.S. News and World Report’s top 100 law schools, Walters notes there are specific strengths going for the program.

‘We are a very competitive law school,’ she said. ‘We do a lot of unique things to prepare our students, such as the Law Success Program.’

The program is mandatory for all first-year students and teaches academic skills as well as skills to prepare students for a career in the field. The program covers everything from case studies and cover letter writing to getting clients, networking and interviewing techniques.

A few students raised concerns about the job market, Walters said, but the number of students coming into her office hasn’t increased from past years. She stressed that she does not think students should be concerned.

‘We give them a lot of resources like bringing alumni in to the program. We’re doing everything we can to make them successful,’ she said.

Statistically, SU has faired well in past years.

An employment survey for the SU class of 2006 found that 92 percent of graduates were employed nine months after graduation. The average starting salary reported for firms of 100 or more was $113,000, while the average salary for private practice was $72,600.

Second-year law student Angela Klemack said she feels the pressure of the job market, but remains optimistic about her employment opportunities. She said law students start to worry about post-graduation employment as early as July, two months before the start of their second year.

Summer jobs, Klemack says, are key.

‘Being offered a summer associate position means you’re very likely to be offered a full-time associate position post-graduation,’ she said. ‘In other words, you’re not just interviewing for the summer job. It’s for your real job when you graduate – the beginning of your career. So setting yourself up, play by play, is the goal.’

Klemack’s worries about employment are less focused on finding a job and more on finding one in a location she likes and practicing the concentration of law she enjoys.

As for getting internships and opportunities, Klemack said she hasn’t had many problems.

‘I’m not a student in the top 10 percent of the class, or top 25 percent for that matter,’ said Klemack, adding she was offered a job in a medium-sized east cost firm, which she found through Career Services’ on-campus interview process.

In response to the opportunities available to top-tier law school students compared to lower-ranked schools, Klemack said: ‘You go to law school to equip yourself with lawyering skills: ‘thinking like a lawyer,’ so to speak, and the legal training that will qualify you to sit for the bar. It is an education that is relatively uniform whether you’re at ‘Cuse or NYU.’

Ryan McCarthy, who graduated as an SU undergraduate pre-law major last year and who now attends the University at Buffalo Law School, had a different reaction to the tightening market.

‘I’m very concerned,’ he said. ‘I really don’t have any idea what kind of job I can get and I don’t have many connections either. From what I hear, (the Career Development Center) helps but right now, it’s all a little overwhelming.’

Published on October 23, 2007 at 12:00 pm