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Permanent, Full-Time Law Jobs Remain Elusive for Three Job Seekers
Texas Lawyer
June 29, 2009
Linda Nguyen, University of Houston graduate
Matt Smid graduated from Texas Wesleyan University School of Law.
In these turbulent times, when firms and layoffs go together like law school and student loans, Texas Lawyer talked to two recent graduates and one soon-to-be grad -- one from the University of Houston Law Center, one from Texas Wesleyan University School of Law and another from Baylor University Law School -- who do not have full-time, permanent law jobs yet. Their stories show that no matter which school you go to and what grades you get, the search for a law job in 2009 takes patience, persistence and some luck.
LINDA NGUYEN
Linda Nguyen graduated in May from the University of Houston Law Center ranked in the middle of her class.
After her second year of law school, Nguyen was a summer associate at 114-lawyer Clark, Thomas & Winters in Austin. But of its half-dozen 2008 summer associates, the firm extended offers for full-time associate positions for the fall of 2009 to only two of them, even though in previous years it hired the majority of its summer associates, says hiring partner Jay Breedveld. "Our hiring is need-based, and we didn't need as many," he says.
Without an offer from Clark Thomas, Nguyen began a job hunt in earnest, sending 50 letters to firms listed with Baylor's career services office and three or four to lawyers she knows personally. No jobs surfaced.
But the connection to Clark Thomas has paid off for her nonetheless. Nguyen contacted Breedveld in August 2008 after she learned that she was not going to get a full-time offer from the firm to ask if he would keep her in mind if he heard about any energy-related jobs, and he did. This spring, he told her about an opening as a project manager with Houston's Entergy Texas Inc., recommended her for the position and she got the job. Nguyen will start after she takes the Texas bar exam in July.
At Entergy Texas, she'll help review customers' written requests for products and services before they are sent to the legal department. The work does not require a law degree. She already has begun repaying her student loans, so the paycheck will help, says Nguyen, who graduated from Rice University with a degree in economics, psychology and management,
"I'm taking a pretty positive outlook," says Nguyen, noting that many of her friends who accepted offers as associates at firms have since found out that their start dates are deferred until January 2010.
One fellow law school grad is clerking (unpaid) for a federal judge by day and waiting tables by night until his job at the firm begins.
MATT SMID
Last month, Matt Smid graduated from Texas Wesleyan University School of Law in the top 10 percent of his class. But he doesn't have a permanent, full-time law job yet.
In law school he labored to distinguish himself with the job market in mind. "I worked hard to get some of the best grades," he says. During law school, he also worked as a paid intern at the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office. After he takes the Texas bar exam in July, for which he now spends most of his time studying, he's going back to the DA's office for another stint as a paid intern -- but with no promise of a full-time, permanent position.
"My main hope is that I will get hired by the DA's office," says Smid, who earned his undergraduate degree in marketing from Texas A&M University.
But there are no guarantees, he says. "I've been contacting various criminal-defense firms and other prosecutors in North Texas. From what I can tell, only a handful of people got jobs," he says of his May 2009 graduating class.
Arturo Errisuriz, assistant dean for career services at Texas Wesleyan, says this year has been tough for new grads looking for law jobs, despite the law school's efforts to help.
To boost his job chances, Smid says he regularly checked in with his school's career services office and spent as much time as possible at the DA's office so he could network and get to know other lawyers.
As far as income, Smid says, he doesn't need to start repaying his student loans until December, so he is living off the loan funds and what he earned as an intern.
CINDY YEN
For Cindy Yen, the job picture appears cloudy. This August, Yen will graduate from Baylor University School of Law in Waco ranked in the middle of her class. Her dream job is to become a litigator at a large law firm.
"My very first choice would be to work in litigation related to the health-care field," she says. But she hasn't found that job yet. So she has come up with two backup plans. If no ideal job materializes, she says she'll seek work as a contract lawyer. If that doesn't pan out, she'll look for a nonlegal job with a government agency -- which is how she earned a living before she went to law school.
After earning her master' degree in health science from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Yen worked for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services administering Medicare and Medicaid programs. But she wanted to go to law school in Texas where her family lives.
After her second year at Baylor law, Yen had two different law-related summer jobs: She worked at an East Texas firm during the first half of the summer of 2008, and for the second half she clerked for U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeff Manske in Waco.
Yen says she has put forth tremendous effort to find employment. The firm where she was a summer associate told her it's not hiring due to the economy. So she started calling Baylor law school alumni who've been working at Texas firms for a few years.
"I haven't quite reached all of them," says Yen, referring to the alums. When she reaches someone, she tries to keep the questions "more informational." For example, "Do they know of any firms hiring?" She says she doesn't directly ask him or her for a job "because then they don't feel the pressure."
