Well, we’re still in it. The “Great Recession” is undergoing a painfully slow death. Yet, our polling of law firms around the state and the country indicates that law firms are doing reasonably well by learning to do more with less.
Headcounts are basically flat after the downsizing that began in 2008-2009. Associate starting salaries are flat and are expected to remain so for the near future. There are many lawyers on the market who graduated at the beginning of the recession who are willing to work for salaries offered to recent graduates. This means that first-year hiring will be more competitive and that we should expect an even greater decline in law school enrollment.
