| If the four horsemen represent the last signs of the apocalypse for us earthly denizens, perhaps an early October onset of stories about the demise of the traditional law firm structure and compensation system for young lawyers is a sign that the world as associates once knew it is gone.
The Boston Business Journal offered up its doomsday scenario on Friday with a story about how firms see their long-held associate training and compensation models crumbling under economic pressures.
Outsize summer associate programs and first-year classes have led some firms to embrace widespread deferrals and discard future summer programs outright, reports the BBJ, with some firms like Nixon Peabody embracing alternative employment opportunities, such as apprenticeships, for their young lawyers.
Apprenticeships? Henry Blodget's Business Insider had some fun with that image. Who would have thought that law students might one day become the future blacksmiths, cobblers, and haberdashers of America?
Tamara Loomis, writing for The American Lawyer's Student Edition, wonders whether the economic recession has forever changed large firms and what that means for graduating law students.
The Recorder's Amanda Royal reports that Bingham McCutchen has joined the ranks of other firms revamping their compensation systems by adopting a "merit lockstep" formula that will keep base pay on a lockstep basis but introduce a merit component for those all-important associate bonuses. Petra Pasternak, also writing for The Recorder, a sibling publication, reports that the associate salary war is now officially over.
For those prospective associates fortunate enough to have been promised jobs but lingering in deferral-ville, The Wall Street Journal reports on how some of the deferred are taking on odd jobs to make ends meet.
The doom-and-gloom scenario isn't confined to the U.S. Canada's legal eagles are facing tough times, too. Valerie Mutton, writing for Canadian legal publication Lawyers Weekly, reports that more lawyers looking to burnish their resumes are heading back to law school for LLM degrees.
While we're on the subject, for those lawyers with some free time on their hands, we'll suggest heading to your local multiplex next month to check out the apocalyptic thriller 2012.
