| Fewer employers will descend on Texas law schools this year for the annual tradition of conducting on-campus interviews, say career services officials at seven of Texas' nine American Bar Association-accredited law schools.
Typically more than 70 employers participate in the on-campus interview (OCI) program at South Texas College of Law in Houston, says Reginald Green, assistant dean of career services. By July 1, the school normally has about 60 employers signed up for interviews, he says. But last week, Green said that number was fewer than 50. Green says more employers will sign on before interviews begin on Aug. 24, but he adds, "I think we will fall short of where we've been in the past."
The volume of employers participating in OCI is a barometer of the job market. Fewer employers mean fewer job opportunities, Green says. Employers can sign up to conduct on-campus interviews through the month of August -- many small and mid-sized firms register in late August to conduct September interviews -- but school officials say they have a good sense of the number of interested employers by early July.
The bulk of the interviews are for second-year students looking for 2010 summer jobs. At this point, it appears that there will be fewer interview opportunities on campus for second-year students and for third-year students looking for full-time employment after graduating in 2010. Meanwhile, more students are bidding (or submitting résumés) to each employer registering for the process.
"We have seen a trend, because the market has tightened up, of students dropping résumés for 30 employers versus just 15 employers," Green says. The employers review the résumés and select students for the 15-, 20- or 30-minute on-campus interviews.
The prospects may be even tougher this year for third-year students. Green says that normally about one-third of the interview slots available from the more than 70 employers in the school's OCI program are for third-year students. So far, those slots represent only about one-fourth of those available, he says.
At Texas Wesleyan University School of Law in Fort Worth, the career services staff have started calling employers who participated in OCI in the past and have not yet signed up for the interviews that begin Aug. 25, says Arturo Errisuriz, assistant dean for career services. He says the school will not have data available about employers involved in the OCI program until early August. In the past, employers automatically returned to participate each year in OCI. This year, Errisuriz says he and his staff are working harder to get employers to return.
He says some mid-sized firms and government agencies have indicated they will be interviewing, but have not yet registered for the OCI program. "We know it is going to be tough," he says. "I'm not panicking just yet."
The school also is talking with employers about externship programs for students, where the students earn academic credit rather than money while working during the school year. "Instead of getting paid they get law school credit," he says. "It provides practical legal experience that makes them more marketable and gives them an opportunity to network."
He says his office helps students put together search plans for summer and after-graduation employment, but it has been warning students that employment may not be immediate. "This is a generation that is used to getting results quickly," he says. "We have to teach our students to be a little patient."
Errisuriz notes that of the 75,000-plus lawyers working in Texas, only about 7,000 work at large firms. "There are a ton of other lawyers and firms out there that might be looking" for new hires, he says.
About 90 employers, 15 less than in previous years, have signed up for OCI at the University of Houston Law Center, says Rhonda Beassie, assistant clinical professor and assistant dean of career development. Beassie says that as usual the majority of the employers are coming to hire second-year students for the summer of 2010, with 27 employers indicating an interest in interviewing third-year students.
She says traditionally only about one-third of the school's students find jobs through OCI, with the rest of the jobs obtained through contacting employers directly, working part time during the school year in a job that becomes full time at graduation, or through networking. This year she says about 80 percent to 85 percent of the school's students will find jobs using methods other than OCI.
Although large firms represent the majority of the employers involved in OCI, most lawyers in Texas work for small or medium-sized firms, Beassie says. According to data compiled by the State Bar of Texas in "State Bar Members: Attorney Statistical Profile (2008-2009)," there were 75,087 licensed lawyers practicing in Texas as of Dec. 1, 2008. Of those licensed lawyers, 46,279 were in private practice; of the licensed lawyers in private practice, 30,143 worked at firms with 10 or fewer lawyers.
"We're really working very hard with small firms now," Beassie says. "That's where more of our students are going to be working."
According to the Above the Law blog, third-year students at the University of Texas School of Law recently received a message from the career services office indicating that the number of employer-reserved interview rooms for third-year OCI is down 45 percent compared to last year.
David Montoya, assistant dean for career services at UT law school in Austin, writes in an e-mail that there are fewer employers registering for OCI at UT. "Historically, the majority of participating employers are seeking 2L summer clerks," he writes. "A much smaller number of employers who participate come to interview 3Ls for post-graduate associate work. As expected, the number of employers participating is down generally at this point, but in particular, there's a greater drop in employers seeking 3Ls. The number of employers seeking 2Ls, while down from last year at this point, is nonetheless encouraging."
Montoya writes that the school has two fall OCI programs, with the first in mid-August. Employer registration for the second session in October does not close until September.
Asked about the Above the Law report, Montoya writes, "The numbers are a snapshot in time and already different as employers add, drop and change room reservations."
Heather Creed, assistant dean of professional development and student relations at Baylor University School of Law in Waco, says 30 percent fewer employers signed up for her school's upcoming OCI program. "We usually have several of our employers who register rather late and so some of these we have not yet heard from," Creed says.
She believes the gap between the number of employers registering for OCI and those who registered last year will decrease later in August. "We don't believe that it will be that big of a difference, but for right now it's about 30 to 35 percent less," she says. "The interview sign-ups for OCI are available to students now so they can see who has signed up. They know, as of today, who is planning on coming on campus."
It's difficult to predict the number of employers that will register for OCI at Texas Tech University School of Law in Lubbock, says Julie Doss, assistant dean for career services. "So many come in at the last minute because they are smaller firms," she says. Doss declines to release the number of firms that usually recruit on campus. She says the number of employers signed up to interview third-year students is lower than it was at this time last year -- with one-fourth to half of the usual number of employers registering to interview third-year students. "We are still going to have a lot of firms register later, the small to medium-sized firms," she says.
At St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio, Faye Bracey, assistant dean for career services, says it is too early to be certain about the number of employers participating in the school's OCI program, but she expects the number of employers coming on campus will drop compared to past years. She declines to say how many employers normally participate in the school's OCI program.
Bracey says she is implementing a fall recruiting plan to get students in front of potential employers. She is contacting potential employers and offering to collect and screen résumés of students who fit the employers' selection criteria and then set up appointments for those students at employers' places of business. "In this market we really do have to be creative," she says.
This is the first year that Texas schools have begun OCI programs in August rather than September, says Karen Sargent, assistant dean and director of career services for Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law in Dallas. She says that increasing numbers of schools have begun the earlier interviewing process and Texas schools are joining that group this year to stay competitive with schools in other parts of the country.
Sargent declines to say how many employers participate in OCI at SMU. "The Dallas firms are very good to us," she says. "Everyone who has come in the past is coming back." The large firms will conduct interviews in August and the small and mid-sized firms will interview students in September, she says. "They are still signing up, through August, for September."
Donna David-Gregory, assistant dean of career services at Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law in Houston, did not return a telephone call seeking comment before presstime on July 2.
Dallas-based Gardere Wynne Sewell usually schedules second-year interviews during the OCI program at several Texas law schools including UT, Texas Tech, UH, SMU and Baylor, managing partner Stephen D. Good says. The firm has not yet determined how many summer associates it will need for 2010 and is not sure whether it will schedule interviews at all of the Texas schools it has gone to in past years.
"We will be interviewing students for the summer of 2010, to start [as full-time associates] in the fall of 2011," he says.
Gardere is one of several large Texas firms that laid off lawyers for economic reasons earlier this year, as did Baker Botts, Winstead and Andrews Kurth. Winstead also canceled its 2009 summer associate program. And Fulbright & Jaworski and Vinson & Elkins have delayed some new associates' start dates from the fall of 2009 until January 2010.
Thomas H. Yang, the recruiting partner at Dallas' Haynes and Boone, says the firm has reduced the number of schools it will visit for on-campus interviews from 36 to 20. Those cuts include some Texas schools, which he declines to name. He says Haynes and Boone may hire students from schools the firm doesn't visit, because it is still accepting résumés from those schools' students.
Houston-based V&E intends to hire a 2010 summer associate class of about 95 to 100 students, says John C. Wander, a partner in Dallas and a member of the firm's hiring committee. He says the firm plans to visit the schools it normally visits including UT and other Texas schools in cities where the firm has an office.
"We're shooting for roughly the same size group," he says. "We think our acceptance rate [from 2009 summer associates] will be higher this year and that may impact what we do when we're on campus."
