Consumer Law

Law students, lawyers, the economy?A silver lining for consumers?

By Richard Alderman

It?s clear that the ongoing economic crisis is affecting job markets in every city and every profession ? and the consequences for the legal profession and graduating 3L?s are profound and troubling. Jobs are difficult to find, offers are being rescinded, and start dates are being pushed back.

To assist our students, the University of Houston Law Center has initiated a program providing up to $500,000 to support the newest graduates. Foremost among the new proposals is an expansion of our Public Interest Fellowship program that was launched in 2006. For a period of three months following the bar exam, the Law Center will provide a stipend of $6,000 to any new graduates selected for a Public Interest Fellowship. We are also offering three-month Research Fellowships to members of the Class of 2009 who assist our faculty with research projects. In addition, new graduates will receive a 50% scholarship for Fall Semester if they are admitted to our LL.M. degree program, and they can register without cost for specialized classes and UH continuing legal education courses.

And there may be a silver lining for consumers in all of this. The Center for Consumer Law recently held a free CLE program entitled, ?How to Start and Manage a Successful Consumer Law Practice.? I expected 30 people; we had over 85, including several graduating third-year students. It seems that as jobs get harder to find, and new clients become more important, lawyers are discovering consumers. The fact that most consumer law statutes have fee shifting provisions does not hurt either. It is too bad that it takes an event like the economic downturn to get lawyers thinking about consumers, but I won?t complain about the result.

Full post as published by CL&P Blog on May 08, 2009 (boomark / email).