This is a good article from The Times on an increasing trend of law firms cutting back, in some cases quite severely, on the number of new hires of lawyers fresh from law school. This is relevant to me because I had seriously considered law school not too long ago, and settled on a one-year program at a community college in paralegal studies. My job search hasn't exactly been firing on all cylinders; I have a full-time job so it makes it difficult to look for another job (although this job is at a box store, so I know I can't have that as my primary source of income), I am trying to get an organization off the ground (I have a Meetup on forming a transition society from a fossil fuel based society to a localized society, scheduled for Sep. 10), and articles like this tend to make me not want to look.
But it does make me kind of happy that I didn't go down the law school path. I think that we are in a time where there are radical, ever-lasting changes being made in the economy, and not the temporary "recession" that everyone else seems to think that we're in. There is going to be a contracting number of jobs in particular job markets because the demand just isn't going to be there, and I think that law is one of those areas. This has affected me, as I had sent my resume to my county DA for an internship (unpaid, mind you) and I received a letter back stating that my application could not be reviewed due to the "unprecedented" amount of inquiries made.
Well, better to be a failed paralegal with around 2 grand invested (not counting the student loans for my B.A., BTW) then a failed lawyer with 200 grand in student loans. Ouch.
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