Go figure

Lawyer Pay

Law School Secret: Bad Job Market

Posted Sep 24, 2007, 06:04 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

The job market is tough for many recent law grads, who are pointing their fingers at law schools for failing to warn them about their dim prospects.

Top pay for new associates at the big law firms is $160,000, but most beginning lawyers make far less at the same time they are paying off tuition loans as high as $100,000 or more, the Wall Street Journal reports (sub. req.). Some newly minted lawyers are taking temporary attorney jobs that pay only $20 an hour.

Law professor Richard Sander of the University of California at Los Angeles told the newspaper that incoming law students are "mesmerized by what's happening in big firms, but clueless about what's going on in the bottom half of the profession."

Critics argue that law school job surveys are misleading. Tulane University, for example, found in a survey that its graduates entering the job market in 2005 took home median pay of $135,000. But the number is based only on the 24 percent of its grads who completed the survey—likely to be the top students, Tulane says.

Tulane's latest survey shows average new pay for its grads to be of $96,356, but the school's Web site does not reveal what percentage filled out the questionnaire.

Salaries are depressed because of a big influx of lawyers into a slowly growing legal market, which is expanding less than half as fast as the general economy. Almost 44,000 students graduated from law schools in 2005-06, an increase of nearly 6,000 since 2001-02.

http://www.abajournal.com/news/law_school_secret_bad_job_market/

Pre Term Labor

Ok, so I took the Bar exam in July and didn't past. I was absolutely DEVASTATED!!! It was almost as if there was a mistake because I was absolutely sure that through prayer, fasting, and a strong belief in God that I was going to pass. Not too mention the two months of studying like a maniac!

I really felt like my life was over... or at least at a temporary standstill and couldn't fathom what I was going to do next. My emotions ranged from shock, sadness, anger, feeling betrayed, and then depression-- all in a matter of hours. But thank God for grandmothers, particularly one with a "womp womp" spirit like mines! My grandma told me " I will not tell you don't cry and not to feel disappointed...today. But tomorrow you need to get up and make a plan. Baby, I want you to plan to work and work your plan!"

Seems coldhearted, I know, but really. What was I going to do? Cry until Feb comes? I don't think so.

So I did just that. I wiped my face off, told God thank you for this new test in my life and set forth to achieve my goal...

Ha ha, that sounded right, but then I realized that I don;t even have a plan. I don't really have any short term goals and my long term goals don't seem to be providing me with much of a road map.

I'm going through pre term labor and I'm not sure if I'm the fetus or the vessel. I feel like I'm ready to step out into the big, big world and stamp my mark of approval and change on every object within my destiny. But then again I feel like "Am I really ready for this?" Yes, I've graduated and yes I am of professional sound mind and body, but mentally am I ready? Do I realize what I am about to embark on? Do I possess the humility and clarity to undertake the real world? " Only God knows for sure, but I pray the next big step, the next big thing, the next leap of faith I undertake is my birthing day.

Womp Womp

Beaten but still beautiful

Ok, so I'm officially venturing into BlogLand, which is something I said I would NEVER do!

Why the change you ask? Well, mainly because I'm going through some things right now and don't really have anybody to share it with, or at least nobody that I care to share it with. Sooooo I guess spiling my guts to millions of people in cyberland is the better option. Hey, at least I am protected by the uncompromising wall of security that the internet provides, right?

My life in a nutshell can be summed up in pretty much two words "Womp Womp." Basically, that means "Keep it moving." For all those Showtime at the Apollo watchers, you know when the audience screams "Womp, womp" the Sandman is about to come out and bring out the next act.

That's me.

Not the lame-o on the stage, but the person in the audience who is just trying to have a good time and be happy. When the BS comes, I say "Womp, Womp!"- Keep it moving, Next!

Disappointment has been abundant these past few months- No job, just failed the bar, family issues, depression, etc.... Womp Womp!