Legal News

Cory Booker to Law Grads: Celebrate the Recession?s Opportunities!

By Ashby Jones

Newark mayor Cory Booker last night dispensed some advice to, well, a fairly narrow group of people: those law students who have recently graduated from law school and who have jobs at big firms, but whose start dates have been deferred and will instead do stints at public-interest organizations.

In any event, though its anticipated audience is relatively specific, we thought the advice was interesting. His basic message, according to the American Lawyer: “Stop looking at it as a deferral. Start looking at it as an opportunity.”

Booker, a Yale law alum and former Skadden fellow, answered questions Wednesday at the deferred associate job fair in Newark.

After describing his work as a Skadden fellow (he did some landlord/tenant law in New York, among other things), and taking what we took to be a dig at Sarah Palin (calling community organizing “really popular in Alaska”), Booker was asked if he had any advice for the deferred associates. He answered:

Stop looking at it as a deferral. Start looking at it as an opportunity. Start looking at it as an advancement in many ways. Here’s a chance where you can get powerful experience. The difference between going to a law firm and doing public interest law is that sometimes you can actually go before a judge more quickly in public interest work than you would at a corporate law firm. I remember getting 40 cases thrown on my desk right after signing up to do landlord/tenant law. So, it’s a tremendous opportunity to hone your skills, to develop as a lawyer, and make a powerful impact on the community. I mainly celebrate the opportunities that have come from the challenges of this economy.

LB Readers, whaddya think? Anyone want to weigh in on Booker’s glass-half-full optimism?

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 09, 2009 (boomark / email).