Desert Fox wrote:ATL is a scandal sheet. Unless something fundamentally changes in the legal market, hiring has to pick up eventually. Firms hired about half as many SA's for 2011 as they did for 2009. The market for legal work done hasn't been halved.
Investment banks (who got slammed worse than law firms) are already being to ramp up hiring.
Thought people should remember, outside the T14, even during the boom, there weren't big law jobs for anyone who wanted one. Median at WUSTL wasn't getting big law even in 2007.
Quoted for truth.
There is actually a lot of evidence that there will be an increase in hiring. Firms have requested deferred associates back, firms have published strong profit numbers, deals are picking up, litigation is picking up, regulation is picking up, lobbying is picking up, deferral programs are ending so there's not a double-glut, offer rates were high, firms report being understaved, lateral hiring is picking up, more firms have registered for fall OCI than last year, firms that canceled 2010 summer programs are recruiting for summer 2011.
Now - none of that evidence is
conclusive and the overall economy has issues. But really there isn't anything that suggests the legal market will get worse or fail to improve. I - like hopefully all others - are being extremely cautious and assuming that it won't recover (quickly). But the evidence is all pointing towards recovery, we just don't know how strong that evidence is yet.
I challenge somebody to provide one piece of evidence suggesting fall OCI will be as bad or worse than last year. The best people have to go on is "ITE AHHHHH DEAD BIGLAW AJHHHHH" and look, I'm screaming too and nobody should go to law school and debt and doom. But there isn't much concrete suggesting that things failed to turn the corner.