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...Then the economic crisis set in, and as legal work across the country has dried up, many large and mid-sized firms have turned to a surprising cost-cutting strategy: paying incoming first-year associates - whose starting annual salaries at Manhattan firms is $160,000 - not to show up. So far this year, Marshall and hundreds of other third-year law students at prestigious schools have seen their job start dates pushed back anywhere from just a few months to a full year, leaving those affected scrambling to find other options to fill the time off. "To get my stipend...
...never materialize - nearly 5,000 veteran attorneys have been laid-off since last September, according to industry website Lawshucks.com. "I'd love to take the money and go backpack around Thailand," says David Kirchblum, who graduates from Boston College's law school next week and had the start date for his job at New York firm Milbank Tweed pushed back to January 2010. "But if I suddenly have to find a new position, that gap is going to be difficult to explain...
...Some firms are forcing deferrals on incoming associates while others are taking a choose-your-own-adventure approach. Stroock & Stroock & Lavan in New York has offered incoming associates three options: start in January 2010 and get a $10,000 stipend, start in January 2011 and get $50,000 or agree not to come at all and get $75,000. Which sounds great until you remember that finding another firm job or any post-graduate work at all at this point will be next to impossible in this economy. (See 10 ways your job will change in the future...
...associates who start their jobs a year late, the delay could have consequences in terms of earning potential and making partner, which is generally an eight-year war of attrition among the group of lawyers who start working the same year. "This will definitely be a setback for the classes of 2009 and 2010, who are now on a collision course," says James Leipold, executive director of the Washington-based National Association for Law Placement. "They'll find themselves competing for jobs and money the rest of their careers...
...sure, the start-date delays have been a boon for public interest organizations around the country. Research shows that some 80% of legal needs go unmet among low-income Americans, and organizations that serve such clientele, such as the Legal Aid Society, now have their pick of top law school graduates - most of whom will arrive with a paid salary and health benefits attached. But the public-interest groups still have to finance the infrastructure required for an extra person on staff. Many nonprofits have seen their own revenues fall in recent months and undertaken layoffs themselves. Just finding...