Job market gloomy for many law grads, but sun shines here

National stories make it look as if the law is no longer such a popular career.

For new law school graduates, jobs are harder to get, salaries have dropped drastically, and fewer say they should have gone to law school.

National Law Journal, citing law school admissions consulting firm Veritas Prep, wrote this week that fewer law school students would apply to law school. One year ago, 81 percent said they would apply to law school. This year, only 68 percent said they would apply. “The bloom is coming off the rose for prospective law students,” the headline declared.

So I went looking for a negative local story. Instead, I found a positive one.

While nationally law students are finding it tougher and tougher to find jobs, graduates from the Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, are bucking that trend.

Since 2007, the placement statistics show that 93-94 percent of Boyd graduates are finding jobs, even in these ghastly economic times.

Nationally, the class of 2010 has the lowest employment rate since 1996 with only 68 percent of graduates landing jobs. That makes Boyd’s
93 percent employment rate look pretty darn good.

A few people are holding on to judicial clerkships longer, but the statistics between 2007 and 2010 don’t show a lot of change, said Layke Stolberg, the law school’s director of career services.

Out of 146 Boyd graduates in 2010, only two are unemployed and looking, and seven are unemployed and not looking. More than half are in private law firms. Nearly 20 percent are in judicial clerkships, nearly 9 percent work for government, and 5 percent work for public interest or nonprofits.

Consistency locally doesn’t sound like much of a trend, but if it’s bucking inconsistency nationwide, it’s a positive trend.

A recent woe-is-me national study said that the class of 2010 showed a 20 percent drop in salaries and that the national median salary was $63,000 for new lawyers.

The average salary for a new Boyd graduate is pretty stable. It’s dropped about $4,200, but the $70,517 average in 2010 is not a drastic drop from $74,769 in 2007. The private law firm starting average was $80,500 in 2010 while the government and public interest starting attorneys averaged $68,800.

Nationally, the number of law school applicants dropped, and that holds true at Boyd, said Frank Durand, dean for student advancement.

The law school applications were 1,755 in 2008 and stayed about that for the next two years. In 2011, applications dropped to 1,381. So yes, fewer are applying to Boyd.

“That’s not affecting the quality of our students,” Durand said. He said the current class has the highest test credentials of any class so far, including the Law School Admission Test.

“The good news here is that the tuition is still fairly reasonable,” he said. In California, the cost of a state law school for a California resident is $40,000 a year.

Boyd was $20,000 a year last year, and with the tuition hike, it’s $23,400. The less expensive in-state tuition may play a role in attracting brighter students. “Relatively speaking, we’re doing well,” Durand said.

Boyd opened its doors in 1998 and by 2011, U.S. News and World Report included it on its annual list of 100 top law schools in the United States, ranking it No. 75. Not bad for a newbie.

I went looking for a bad news trend story and ended up realizing the facts showed Boyd is bucking some of those negative national trends.

Perhaps instead of reading every negative national story and assuming the same holds true in Nevada, the facts should be researched and challenged more often. Maybe everything isn’t always as bleak as we think.

Just something to consider by those perpetually looking at life through a negative viewfinder.

Jane Ann Morrison’s column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Email her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call her at (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/Morrison