Note: Law Week’s editor, Don Knox, responded Oct. 28 to controversy generated by this report. Click here to read it.

By Matt Masich, LAW WEEK COLORADO
DENVER — In 2009, more people passed the July Colorado bar exam than in any other year this decade. But the boom in the number of new lawyers is happening during a bust in the job market.
Consequently, Colorado’s two law schools are looking for new ways to help their recent graduates find work, or at least weather the downturn.
The people who earned J.D.s this year are less likely to have had jobs at graduation in May, and the number with jobs has been slow to rise since. About 35 percent of the University of Colorado School of Law’s class of 2009 had jobs at graduation, down from 55 percent the year before. The University of Denver Sturm College of Law didn’t have complete employment at graduation numbers available as Law Week Colorado went to press.
“I think that we have out of necessity had to rethink our role in career development,” said SuSaNi Harris, assistant dean for CU law school’s Office of Career Development.
Most law schools no longer have traditional “placement offices” that line students up with jobs, she said.
“We got away from that because no office is staffed to place, one by one, each of their students. But what we’re exploring here is sort of a pseudo-placement effort.”
Harris said that while the details are still in development, her office will modify its existing system to identify students or alumni who match the criteria that specific employers are seeking. The office has also contacted national legal search firms to see if they have temporary jobs for recent graduates.
CU says it is arranging for more networking events. The law school has hosted two or three brownbag lunches every week, bringing practicing lawyers from the public and private sector to the law school to talk to students.
Harris is also encouraging students to venture out of Boulder to network. The law school’s student fee committee granted money for the career development office to host four new networking events, one in Boulder and three in Denver.
Law firms continue to hold on-campus interviews, but said they won’t be hiring as many students as they have in the past. Casting a net beyond the legal sphere, CU hosted events to discuss career options for people with law degrees other than being a practicing lawyer — a strategy DU has adopted as well.

DU committee still forming
While DU doesn’t have specific employment statistics, “There are definitely fewer students who had a job lined up at graduation this year compared to last year,” said Misae Nishikura, assistant dean for DU law school’s Career Development Center.
“Graduates feel like they’re competing with people with a lot more experience and with a lot more people from out of state. They aren’t seeing enough job postings,” she said.
In the absence of listed jobs, DU is also pushing its students and alumni to network.
DU Law’s Alumni Council created the Alumni Career Committee to aid graduates who are struggling to find work.
“This committee is tasked specifically to provide mentoring and guidance about employment to students as well as alumni who are searching for jobs or who have lost their jobs due to the economy,” Nishikura said.
However, the committee is not fully formed and hasn’t made any official actions. Another plan, still in the fundraising stage, would create fellowships for graduates to intern with state judges.
In the absence of posted legal jobs, DU is also pushing students to network.
“I think one-on-one counseling is extremely important,” Nishikura said, “but I think bringing in external speakers to a law school is just as important because the connections and relationships students make with these attorneys are going to be really beneficial when they go out and look for a job.”
Panels of lawyers come to speak to students about many topics, though the focus usually ties back to the economy, Nishikura said. The U.S. Department of Justice and CIA have held on-campus workshops. The career office also organizes dinners and brunches for DU alumni already established as lawyers to meet the school’s new lawyers.