Font Size: 
Looking for Opportunity in Crisis at NALP's Annual Conference
Special to Law.com
April 07, 2009
Image: Digital Vision
Every spring, law school career services professionals join their law firm counterparts in recruiting and professional development throughout the U.S. and Canada for the Association for Legal Career Professionals' Annual Education Conference. Last year the discussion at the 3 1/2-day event featured conversations about attorney attrition and managing millennials. Those days are over.
This year in Washington, D.C., the agenda's 100-plus sessions included titles for more austere times, like "Responding Nimbly to Economic Change," "Associate Deferrals and Public Interest Placements" and "Managing Student Expectations." But in spite of the anxiety over continuing law firm layoffs and the difficulties law students now face in finding a job after graduation, the event put on by NALP (the group is still known by the acronym of its former name, the National Association for Legal Placement) managed to find a few hints of optimism.
The conference opened with a highly anticipated plenary discussion about the information revolution, featuring David Lat, founding editor of Above the Law -- the blog the legal community seems to love to hate because of its daily (sometimes hourly) coverage of layoffs, dissolutions, bonus cuts and salary freezes.
"Don't Fight the Web: Surviving and Thriving in a 2.0 World" allowed esteemed members of the legal technorati to share their perspectives on communication in the age of instant information. With over 500,000 unique monthly visitors (most of whom are law students and law firm associates), there was a universal acknowledgment that ATL has had a dramatic impact. "Above the Law has changed the way we all do business," said co-panelist Mark Weber, assistant dean for career services at Harvard Law School.
Still, Lat faced questions about the "salaciousness" of the postings, purported inaccuracies of the content and accusations that it fosters an environment of panic. To his credit, Lat, a former associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, answered every question from the audience of 900 or so honestly and with a sense of humor. "Lawyers have a hunger for gossip," he said. "Sometimes the saucy stories offer a window into a firm culture."
The counterpoints came from Weber, who acknowledged that "[t]he web is where our students are getting all of their information." He cautioned, however, "The information is moving at a frenetic pace and sometimes that can cause a panic." Lat got the room chuckling with his response: "I fan the flames of panic for a living."
ADDRESSING THE EMPLOYMENT CRISIS
Attendees seemed to recognize the pervasive anxiety in the legal world at the moment, but speakers at the conference encouraged them to take collective responsibility for helping address the employment crisis in a meaningful and proactive fashion. "I suspect that everyone here is awfully glad to have a job and equally glad that their organization thought enough to send them to the conference," remarked Cybele Smith, director of public service and public interest programs at the Michael E. Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University.
The consensus of the plenary was that although technology is helping students and associates make better career decisions, law schools and law firms are more measured in their communication, which is not necessarily benefiting their constituencies. In a closing comment from the audience, Lou Helmuth, assistant dean for career services at California Western School of Law noted, "This is a time for opportunity -- for the legal profession to take stock. We need to look at how we can reform what we have been doing and respond as a professional organization." In that remark, Helmuth set the stage for the most powerful theme of the conference: seizing the opportunity to renew the legal profession in a way that will empower students and strengthen law firms. He also highlighted the distinction between how the economy is affecting the top law schools and the Am Law 200 versus its impact on lower-tier schools and smaller to midsize firms, which are increasingly viewed as more stable.
