Stuck in the law firm ‘doughnut hole’

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It’s a great time to be an associate, or hiring one. There are so many eager young lawyers out there it’s hard to choose one. If you can get a job as a summer associate, you’ll likely get an offer because the firms want you to succeed and will help you do so. They will provide you with one, two or even three mentors to guide you and lots of training.

That is, if you’re one of the relatively few who will get a job as a summer associate with a large firm, then get an employment offer and be on your way to shareholder status. And if you’re a recent law grad and didn’t graduate in those bleak years post 2008 until pretty recently. The year 2011 had the highest unemployment rates since 1994, according to the American Bar Association.

If you graduated in those years, you might be trapped in the “doughnut hole,” which you might have thought was about Medicare Part D. In this context, it refers to would-be associates, especially those from 2008 and 2009, who were not-offered or told that their offer was on hold, said Jodi Stankde, CEO of Talon Performance Group.

Or they may not have been hired as a summer associate. They are indeed in a hole. In many instances, when firms were ready to hire again in about 2012, they went to the class of 2012, leaving the students from the two earlier classes stranded like wallflowers. Those young attorneys ended up working anywhere, and then got the feedback that they had no law firm experience, Standke said.

‘Lost generation’

Some call the graduates from about 2008 to 2011 the lost generation. They have to work hard to catch up. “The ’lost generation’ has to work hard to avoid gaps in their resumes. They have to work hard to stay positive. And they have to work hard to create the opportunities to impress others with the quality of their work, sometimes in a volunteer setting, Lisa Brabbit, a senior assistant dean at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, told Minnesota Lawyer, a sister publication of the Wisconsin Law Journal, in an email.

“If you are applying for an associate position, and you are two or three years out from law school, and you’ve never (yet) worked in a legal environment, employers might see the words ‘picked over’ somewhere in your application materials. Graduates have to work hard to avoid that,” Brabbit said.

Law schools and law firms should be exploring solutions, Brabbit said. “These post-2008 grads are talented and smart, and in too many instances continue to press their noses against the front window of a law firm or other legal employer. But they never get (back) in the door. Why won’t an employer think of them as a viable associate?” Brabbit said.

Law schools should give special attention to the lost generation, Brabbit said, going above and beyond to support students and graduates with professional readiness and job search. “How can law schools bring the profession closer to legal education? How can law schools create the opportunity for students to feel the ‘ache in the belly’ of a lawyer representing a client even before they graduate?”

Non-traditional jobs best option

So things appear to be going swimmingly for the summer associates who make the cut under the “new normal” class size. What about the rest of the associates?

“It’s tough,” Standke said. A few patches of places need associates, such as in the transactional areas that were hit hardest by the recession. Corporations have picked up some of the openings as well, she said.

“Non-traditional jobs are the best option for the young unemployed lawyer,” she said.

Most of the time that means a corporation, not a firm, because regulation, compliance and procurement are areas picking up JDs, she said. The problem there is that many of the corporations don’t think they have to pay the lawyers well, she said.

The other options are smaller firms or hanging out a shingle. Opening a practice is challenging for a new lawyer and doesn’t necessarily mean that the lawyer can make a living. “It depends on how fast they can get clients,” Standke said.

Some law firms are moving toward evaluating their lawyers using “competency models,” rather than years of practice. The lawyers move up depending on their legal and interpersonal skills, as measured by their experiences. If lawyers can maintain their competency levels, they may be able to move to a firm.

But, Standke said, “The majority won’t ever look like lawyers looked before 2008. We’re in the start of a new age.”