- law.dawg
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Corrected
For those of you who haven’t yet seen it, the Las Vegas Sun is featuring a story today called “Law school graduates face flooded job market.” If you’re scared of hyperlinks, heres the website:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/jul/28/law-school-graduates-face-flooded-job-market/
The article cites heavily to a State Bar of Nevada survey published last month, which was put together by two local attorneys: Ryan Works, an associate with the law firm McDonald Carano Wilson, and Layke Stolberg, Boyd’s recently appointed career services director.
Here are just a few of the highlights:
According to the article, “Boyd, which had 153 first-year students last school year, saw 93.2 percent of its 2010 graduates get jobs within nine months of earning their degrees.” Not bad, considering that there was a reported 94.3 percent job-placement rate for 2009 Boyd graduates.
However, these fresh Boyd graduates’ “average starting salary was $71,456, according to the law school.” That’s “roughly $3,500 less on average than what Boyd’s 2007 graduates earned in their first year out of school,” four years ago. Ouch. And, thats especially painful news considering that according to the study, the median student loan debt for Boyd all surveyed law school graduates is currently $60,001 to $70,000.
As for laterals looking for work, Stolberg claims that “we’re seeing a lot of firms seeking attorneys with one to five years of experience,” although “attorneys with expertise in bankruptcy law have a better chance of finding work than those who specialize in real estate deals, which have been pummeled by the recession.”
Finally, for those of you who have been practicing less than five years, consider yourself fortunate if you are making more than $85k/year, as the survey is reporting average ranges from $80,001 to $85,000, compared with $90,001 to $95,000 for that same demographic in 2007.
Comments from the peanut gallery?
News flash! It's tougher than it used to be to get a legal job in Las Vegas.
In other stunning news, Reno is still geographically north of Las Vegas.
The market's hot for 1-3 year laterals from solid firms. Anything under or over, it's going to be very rough.