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In a Downturn, Who Gets Priority?

By Carolyn Elefant

There are three lawyers in a lifeboat built for two: a partner, a third year associate and a new grad. The partner stays because it is his boat. Who gets the remaining seat? Though this hypothetical sounds like the beginning of a really bad lawyer joke, it also depicts a reality that law firms now face in the downturn. As Crain's Cleveland Business (H/T ABA Journal) reports, several Ohio firms cut their summer programs realizing that if they needed to hire in 2011, they would have access to a huge pool of legal talent -- plenty of experienced lawyers who had been downsized by their firms. As Christopher Carney, chairman of the hiring committee at Brouse McDowell explained, at this time, "there's no reason to hire entry level lawyers" with so many associates on the market. Of course, this kind of strategy shifts the burden of the down economy to new grads who, without experience or contacts and in serious debt, are least able to cope with unemployment. As The New York Times summed up the situation earlier this week, law firms' decisions to cancel or downsize summer programs is having an impact even at top tier schools, where firms...

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on August 28, 2009 (boomark / email).