''We found out during the recession that there was an oversupply of lawyers,'' said Stephen Younger, the president of the New York State Bar Association. ''With [legal] employment down 10%, that tells you how much work there is out there.'' Younger is also a partner at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler.
Summer associate programs have taken quite a hit throughout the recession, with many of the major law firms such as Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom cut ting nearly seventy summer associate positions this year. Likewise, Weil, Gotshal & Manges lost more than 75 summer associate positions.
Legal government jobs have been under attack recently. In early August, the U.S. Postal Service announced that they would be freezing hiring and promotions to all administrative positions. Legal jobs were among those to take a hit in the decision, which affected nearly 8,000 jobs.
''This is about managing the size of the organization and making sure we match resources to workload,'' said the USPS' executive vice president for human resources. ''As the organization shrinks, it all shrinks, not just the part that delivers the mail.
In a recent report out from Robert Half Legal, job experience trumped education for legal professionals odds of success within an organization. 56% of lawyers surveyed reported that professional experience is the greatest indicator of career potential. Education background came in second, though with only 17% of the response.
The next three indicators for a candidate's success were (1) a referral from a current employee or member of your network with 15% of the lawyers,(2) Intelligence with four percent, and the remaining 8 percent were undecided.
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