Just in case you needed more proof that the legal industry is pretty fuckt

http://abovethelaw.com/2010/03/statistics-about-the-lost-generation/

1) Summer 2010 (for class of 2011... ME!!!) is half of what it used to be, and the worst EVAR
"The median number of offers by U.S. law firms for 2010 summer associatepositions was seven, according to statistics released Tuesday by theNational Association for Law Placement. That was down from 10 offers in2008 and 15 offers in 2007.
In fact, the offer rate was the lowest NALP has reported since theorganization began gathering offer statistics some 17 years ago. Only36 percent of interviews last year resulted in summer associateoffers, compared to 47 percent in 2008 and 60 percent in 2007."

2) Even if you had a full-time offer, you don\'t get to work! (I know ofa class of 2009 graduate who\'s starting work in Jan 2011. NINETEENMONTHS WITHOUT A PAYCHECK, and constantly in fear of the offer beingrescinded)
"Students who had already accepted job offers in 2008 with plans tobegin working last fall were hit with significant start-date deferrals,NALP reported. More than 60 percent of those 2009 graduates who wereslated to start working at large law firms were deferred. Thattranslated into between 3,200 and 3,700 new attorneys whose start dateswere delayed beyond Dec. 1."

3) Summer jobs no longer automatically lead to full time offers.(Before ITE, there used to be threads on message boards that werecommitted to outting+shaming firms that DARED to break the unspoken100% offer rule)
"Those numbers confirm the feeling that a) getting a permanent job onceyou had a summer position used to be a foregone conclusion and b) thatit has never been this terrible before — 69% is the lowest offer ratesince NALP began collecting the data in 1993."

4) And if you didn\'t get a summer job as a 2L, or you were among the 31% that didn\'t get a FT offer after summer, ur life is OVR
"What happened to those who did not get permanent offers? Nothing good —only 10 of the 300 firms NALP surveyed gave offers to 3Ls."

5) ANd the nature of the legal market is such that "oh it doesn\'tmatter where you start; it matters where you finish! just as long as Iwork hard!" kind of an argument doesn\'t really fly.

Seriously, stay away from law. They say things will get better afterclass of 2012 graduates. That\'s 2012 OCI. That\'s for kids entering lawschool in 2011. And that\'s "getting better", not "back to what it usedto be". And even back in the day, if you weren\'t going to a top 10 lawschool, it was FAR from a sure thing.


[Why law school was a shitty idea even before the lost-generation-effect came into effect.
https://gall.dcinside.com/list.php?id=foreign_university&no=62727
of course, assuming you went to a decent school and had alternatives.Regardless, probably not something you should think of as an "ultimategoal".]

[By the way, a refresher why "big firm" is really the only way to go:
http://www.elsblog.org/the_empirical_legal_studi/2007/09/distribution-of.html ]