By Matt Masich, LAW WEEK COLORADO
DENVER — For many new lawyers of the class of 2009, the months since graduation have been a period of professional limbo.
Students found job offers were scarce while they were in school. Those who did get offers sometimes saw them deferred or rescinded in the face of grim economic forecasts. Anecdotally, May graduates with jobs are outnumbered by their classmates without jobs, though Colorado’s two law schools have not yet released official employment data.
The archetypal law student career path — on-campus interview begetting summer associateship begetting first law firm job — still worked out for a number of law grads. But a lot of new lawyers have accepted that it will take longer than they had expected to begin their legal careers, or have entered the law by alternate routes like volunteer or contract work.
In the weeks after the Colorado bar results were released in October, Law Week Colorado spoke with four members of the University of Denver Sturm College of Law’s class of 2009 to get a snapshot of the world facing today’s new lawyers.
Success story
Heather Joyce recently started as an associate at Jackson Kelly’s Denver office. She got her job offer in fall 2008 after working there as a summer associate.
“I love my job, I am thankful for my job, but I am also keenly aware that my situation is akin to winning the legal employment lottery,” Joyce said.
While she recognizes her good fortune in landing a position at a firm and not being deferred, Joyce put in plenty of effort to make that happen. She did paralegal work during her undergraduate and early law school days, later working as a legal intern for then-U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar and for Judge Sean Connelly of the Colorado Court of Appeals.
When it came time for on-campus interviews during her 2L year, Jackson Kelly was the only firm Joyce wanted to talk to. She signed up for the first interview slot.
“I got to the interview early and when I got there I began moving the comfy-swivel chairs into the interview room for the two attorney interviewers so they could be comfortable during their long day of interviews,” Joyce said.
Demonstrating her resourcefulness to her potential employer, she also tipped off the attorneys to the free coffee in the dean’s suite (which is off-limits to students). Joyce made it to the next round of interviews.
The night before her second interview, she went to a Jackson Kelly reception where she chatted with Denver office Managing Partner Laura Beverage about her career and firm culture. After a successful second and third interview, Joyce got the summer job, leading to a job offer. She started as an associate in October after passing the bar. But many of the graduates she knows don’t have jobs as lawyers.
“I know a graduate working at Target, and several others who work at restaurants even after passing the bar, and some still cannot find non-legal work one year after passing the bar,” she said.
Indefinite deferral
Another ‘09 DU grad, “Blackstone” (not his real name), was also hired by a firm after his 2L year. But he wasn’t as fortunate. Midway through his final exams, his start-date was deferred — indefinitely. While some of this classmates found out they were deferred at the beginning of their 3L year, his firm didn’t tell him until May.
Blackstone built a solid resume as a student. He interned with two state judges. After his summer associateship ended, he continued working for the firm throughout his final year, even during his final semester when he interned with a state Supreme Court justice.
He signed a written agreement with his firm, complete with bonus plan, health plan, a 401k and gym membership. It came as a shock when his firm told him he would be deferred until February 2010, then until later, then until maybe-never.
“Everything was good up until then,” Blackstone said. “They told me, and of course I was really angry, I figured I’d given them so much.”
Ironically, he said he chose this job with a small Denver firm “because I thought there would be security, it would be personal — there wouldn’t be all the drama of a big firm.”
The firm assured him the deferral wasn’t a reflection of his performance.
“I don’t think there’s any malice there,” he said. “They’re just not busy. Some of the partners don’t have work.”
After taking the bar exam, Blackstone set up a flurry of interviews with firms around town. He was able to get a $10-an-hour job as a research assistant at DU, but a few weeks after getting his bar results he still had no immediate prospects of working as a lawyer. With $160,000 of student loan debt and payments coming due, he interviewed for a job as a server at a restaurant downtown. “I don’t understand,” he recalls the interviewer saying. “Why would you want to work here? You’re a lawyer, right?”
He didn’t get the job. If his economic situation doesn’t improve soon, Blackstone said, he might have to move in with his aunt. He said his predicament isn’t uncommon.
“The minority are those who have something. The vast majority of us — nothing. Nothing lined up,” he said.
“We were at the mandatory CLE we have to take to get admitted [to the bar], and one of the speakers was so nonchalant about it, and said, ‘These things are cyclical. Just calm down.’ And I was like, really? What do you mean calm down?”
But even if he isn’t comforted by assurances that the job market will improve, Blackstone seems to be taking it in stride. He continues looking for an opportunity to start his career, one interview at a time.
Contract work
From the time he was a child, Drew Hintze wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps as an attorney.
“I think my expectations were like most students, to hopefully have a job waiting for me once I graduated, to work hard through school to always try to make myself the strongest candidate for a position,” Hintze said.
He got an undergraduate degree in business finance and a master’s degree in legal administration in hopes of becoming a business lawyer. While in his 1L year in law school, Hintze worked as a bookkeeper at a local law firm. After his 2L year, he interned with Judge Gloria Rivera in Denver District Court and continued there through the beginning of his final year of law school. During his final semester, he worked there for Judge Michael Martinez.
“I was hoping to stay on board and find a clerkship with one of the other judges, but that January was when the hiring freeze took place,” he said.
Hintze focused on graduating and studying for the bar, beginning his job search in earnest after the exam. He scoured listings on the Internet, including DU’s career Web site.
“I would check that multiple times throughout the day to see if anything was posted,” he said. He applied to a listing he found on that site, a contract position with Lerman & Associates, and got the job. He began working about 40 hours a week after he passed the bar.
“I feel pretty lucky compared to some of my friends who are still looking for jobs and striking out,” Hintze said.
Summer dreams fade
“Megan” (not her real name) was a law clerk with a 30-lawyer Denver-based firm after her 2L year.
“I was hoping it would lead to something,” she said. “But as it turned out, they didn’t hire anybody for their Denver office. There was a good amount of work and then … in November things really slowed down.”
Megan did some networking while studying for the bar, then spent some time living with her family after the exam. She started devoting “110 percent” of her time to the job hunt when her bar results came back.
“I’m positive but also realistic,” Megan said in October. “I don’t expect to have a job by the end of the year, that’s for sure.”
She said her classmates in similar situations seem to be dealing with it well.
“I don’t know anybody that’s freaking out because I think people realize that it’s out of their hands.”
