Ann Israel is the legal profession's Dear Abby. A New York legal recruiter since 1979, Ann is a past president of the National Association of Legal Search Consultants. Advice for the Lawlorn is updated every week.

Q: I am a third-year law student, and I was a summer associate at a BigLaw firm in New York this past summer. At the end of the summer, I received an offer in the department that I wanted. However, a month later, I received a devastating phone call stating that my offer has been rescinded due to the economy.

After many sleepless nights, I started aggresively participating in OCI at my school. Nothing came of it. Since then, I have e-mailed over 90 resumes to law firms in New York, only to get a mountain of polite rejection letters.

I am in complete panic mode, and don't really know where to turn. I keep thinking that this was not suppose to happen to me, but now that it has, what are my options? What can I do to secure a job upon graduation? And what are my chances of ever landing at a BigLaw firm? Many thanks.

Sincerely,
Beyond Discouraged

Dear Beyond: What can I say to you to make you feel better? I just don't know. I suppose it doesn't help much to know that you aren't the only one in the same position. No, I knew that wouldn't do the trick.

I know this wasn't supposed to happen to you ... not in your scheme of how the world was going to work. After busting your butt to get the grades that would allow you to get a summer job at a BigLaw firm in New York, everything has fallen apart with one lousy phone call. It stinks, doesn't it? But panicking does not help and there is no point in getting crazy. Eventually -- when I don't know, but certainly eventually -- this will work itself out and you will someday find yourself at a BigLaw firm and complaining on a Greedy Associates board with the rest of the unhappy associates (oh, don't we yearn for those good old days?).

But for now you need to figure out what to do upon graduation. The first thing you need to do is accept the fact that you may not be working at a New York BigLaw firm right out of law school. You need to continue to send out your resumes but not only to the New York BigLaw firms but also to firms in the tri-state area and firms of all sizes. And you need to start looking at alternatives to law firms.

This week it was announced that we are now officially in a recession. Unless you were at the top of your class from a top law school, I suspect that you may continue to have a difficult time finding a job for this coming September. Or maybe just not the job of your dreams. What you need to do is accept the reality of the situation of the times and then do whatever it takes to get yourself hired somewhere.

I was contacted this week by a very enterprising individual. He (or she -- I was not told his or her gender) is unemployed but decided not to feel sorry for himself and vowed to find something useful to do during this time. So he started a website appropriately called www.unemployedlawyers.com. I love his spirit and what he has put together. It is a wonderful site, filled with lots of good information and valuable links along with some sharp references to great movies. Talk about turning lemons into lemonade ... this one knows just how to squeeze out every last drop!

So, stop being beyond discouraged because there is no percentage in it. ... I know it is a wicked world right now -- it's nasty out there and who knows when it is going to get nice again, so for now you need to do anything and everything you can to keep up your spirits and continue to send out resumes and meet with people and network and bug your law school's career services office and do anything and everything you can.

What else can I tell you? I would love to hear from the readers of this column who were able to find a job after learning that their 2L employer no longer needed them after law school graduation. How did you do it and what did you do in the meantime to keep from being discouraged? Best wishes to you!

Sincerely,
Ann Israel
President, Ann Israel & Associates