Legal recruiting firms are confessing that this is by far the worst phase that they have experienced in the last seven decades. Their visits to prospective employment locations, be it companies with in-house legal departments or law firms, are proving futile and even though there are vacancies for legal jobs, they are not as abundant as they were earlier.
Even as the jobs continue to diminish the list of those desiring for a job continues to grow longer. This has enabled companies to be choosy and now they are more specific about the requirements and are asking legal recruiters to find candidates who exactly match their job specifications.
Grads fresh out of law school will be disappointed to know that firms are now insisting on employing only the top academics, which meant that even to be considered in their mix of employment musts, you had to be among the top ten in your class. Add to that, the inclination towards students from the bigger name law schools which meant that 2-teir or lesser known law schools grads could only hope for the leftovers.
Most employers said that they only wanted candidates with experience. Now where in the world would a freshly minted graduate get the experience until he landed a job - it is indeed a pity that a prejudiced, predetermined market dictates that worthy students would not get a job, simply because they did not go to a law school with the right credentials, or that their marks were not good enough or because they did not have relevant practice experience. Not really what grads, with years of hard grind behind them and a burgeoning student debt on their back would like to hear.
Legal recruiting firms say that they were staggered to hear many a prospective employer emphasize that there was a glut of legal job applicants and the only reason why they were paying hefty commissions to them for their legal staffing and attorney recruiting was because they wanted attorneys with specific skills and that too in a particular discipline.
Some law firms have even raised the bar further by making shortlisted candidates undertake two tests to test their intellectual ability, the first a logical reasoning test and the second a verbal reasoning examination. This apparently they do to ensure that the grads are really worth their degrees and the numbers on their report cards.
There is a famous adage that you cannot beat the market and that it will determine trend. There is yet another saying that when supply exceeds demand it becomes a buyer's market, whilst the reverse holds true when demand exceeds supply. Considering that there are two grads for every available job it is but logical to assume that the employers will adopt a dictatorial attitude and dictate terms. This is exactly what is happening to the legal jobs market today.
The Bureau of Labor says that 21,880 new legal jobs will be created each year, law schools across the country churn out 44,000 graduates during the same time - unless the schools shrink in size and enroll lesser number of students, unless they ensure that fees are drastically reduced so that the kids don't graduate with a huge 6 figure loans and until law schools put commercial interests aside, will sanity be restored and the legal profession will regain its original glory.
Jesica Croft write article for legal recruiting firms . Provides you with a deep level of insight into your career direction and career development.