Status of South Florida Market?

[Anonymous User]

Please share what you know regarding firms hiring, booming practice areas, general reputation of firms, and any other observations.

[TLSlogin765]

Also interested in this.

[ymmv]

Don't count on biglaw even from great schools.

[Anonymous User]

Don't count on biglaw even from great schools.

yup. it's a trainwreck and a complete crapshoot

know multiple HYS classmates who struck out in Miami despite good grades and lifelong ties to s. fl

[Anonymous User]

the biglaw firms seem to recruit a lot of UM kids in the top 5% of their class; beyond that I also hear it is a crapshoot

[North]

.

[elterrible78]

The takeaway here is that nobody should plan to work in Florida.

Unfortunately, this is very true. I fell ass-backwards into a 1L SA down here and will be going back this coming summer, but also hedged my bets by mass mailing. At the end of 1L I was in the top 10% at CCN, have a lot of work experience, am fluent in Spanish and can at least read Portuguese, and have a pretty big-name judge on my resume, and I got one callback and a ton of silence and rejections.

Absolutely give it a shot, but absolutely have a backup plan (i.e. NYC).

[hous]

Please share what you know regarding firms hiring, booming practice areas, general reputation of firms, and any other observations.

There were a good number of us in the 2L thread (me included) that tried pretty hard to crack Florida at OCI and through mass mailing. We all grew up there, did UG there, and went to law schools ranging from Yale to WUSTL, but mostly T14 and good grades. Nobody landed a thing.

Of the recent grads from FL law schools that I know (not exclusively targeting biglaw), one got a job at a personal injury firm after interning there for two years of law school and working for almost a year after graduation as a law clerk. Another makes 30k at the AG's office. One (law review at FSU) is interning for free at a state agency. Another (also LR at FSU) is a part time law clerk with no hope of becoming an attorney at the firm. I know one guy who couldn't get a job at all and is now a sports equipment salesman. I know a handful more that are just unemployed.

The takeaway here is that nobody should plan to work in Florida.

2014 FSU grad here. No LR - but was on a secondary journal. Landed a gig in South Florida at around 70k a year. Been working here since I passed the bar. I didn't have much trouble finding a job, I had another offer from a larger firm in Boca Raton that I turned down.

[Pikappraider]

Please share what you know regarding firms hiring, booming practice areas, general reputation of firms, and any other observations.

There were a good number of us in the 2L thread (me included) that tried pretty hard to crack Florida at OCI and through mass mailing. We all grew up there, did UG there, and went to law schools ranging from Yale to WUSTL, but mostly T14 and good grades. Nobody landed a thing.

Of the recent grads from FL law schools that I know (not exclusively targeting biglaw), one got a job at a personal injury firm after interning there for two years of law school and working for almost a year after graduation as a law clerk. Another makes 30k at the AG's office. One (law review at FSU) is interning for free at a state agency. Another (also LR at FSU) is a part time law clerk with no hope of becoming an attorney at the firm. I know one guy who couldn't get a job at all and is now a sports equipment salesman. I know a handful more that are just unemployed.

The takeaway here is that nobody should plan to work in Florida.

Yup. It's a joke how hard it is. I feel really bad for the people who go to florida schools and pretty much have to stay in state. There's maybe 50 market paying jobs in the entire state. For example, akerman takes like 3 summers. They had 21 interviews alone just from duke, gtown and UVA through the on tour program. Add in the rest of the t14, southern regionals, and florida schools and I wouldn't be surprised if they interviewed over 100 people for 3 SAs

[Young Marino]

Personal Injury and Real Estate (definitely Foreclosures) are the hot practice areas right now down here

[Rararattlers]

That's interesting. I'm class of 2011, so most people I know are in the 2010-2012 graduating classes, but most of my friends from regional Florida schools have decent jobs. A lot of my 2011 friends have moved on from small/mid-law firms to big law firms in south Florida. So maybe the 2nd-4th year associate market is better than the first year market.

[Cicero76]

That's interesting. I'm class of 2011, so most people I know are in the 2010-2012 graduating classes, but most of my friends from regional Florida schools have decent jobs. A lot of my 2011 friends have moved on from small/mid-law firms to big law firms in south Florida. So maybe the 2nd-4th year associate market is better than the first year market.

There might be some truth to this. A lot of the firms I was interviewing with during OCI were doing interviews for mid levels. But that doesn't rescue the state of the market, which is still abysmal. It's just maybe another 100-200 jobs in the state

[Anonymous User]

HLs class of 2016, I had a few callbacks and at least two offers with GT and another firm which would out me if I specified. Akerman, white and case were the other call backs. Seem to be relatively easy to get a SA, but I also had strong grades and was born and raised in Miami

[Cicero76]

HLs class of 2016, I had a few callbacks and at least two offers with GT and another firm which would out me if I specified. Akerman, white and case were the other call backs. Seem to be relatively easy to get a SA, but I also had strong grades and was born and raised in Miami

*HLS*
*Born and raised in Miami*
*Went 2/4 on offers from callbacks*
*says getting FL SA is "easy"*

K.

[Anonymous User]

The takeaway here is that nobody should plan to work in Florida.

Unfortunately, this is very true. I fell ass-backwards into a 1L SA down here and will be going back this coming summer, but also hedged my bets by mass mailing. At the end of 1L I was in the top 10% at CCN, have a lot of work experience, am fluent in Spanish and can at least read Portuguese, and have a pretty big-name judge on my resume, and I got one callback and a ton of silence and rejections.

Absolutely give it a shot, but absolutely have a backup plan (i.e. NYC).

Idk, I graduated from a Florida state school this past year, and I work big law in Florida. A fair amount of my friends also work big law in Florida-- of course, a lot of my friends were from Law Review and fell in the top 10% grades-wise. During OCI, I had multiple offers in Florida big law in Tampa, Orlando, West Palm, Miami, and Fort Lauderdale. It's crazy, but I think a lot of Florida big law firms like the state school kids. I'm not sure why, but that seems to be a "thing." At my current firm, the hiring committee is largely comprised of state school grads. Could be something going on with that.

That being said, with your credentials, I'm kind of shocked that you did not hear from more firms.

[elterrible78]

The takeaway here is that nobody should plan to work in Florida.

Unfortunately, this is very true. I fell ass-backwards into a 1L SA down here and will be going back this coming summer, but also hedged my bets by mass mailing. At the end of 1L I was in the top 10% at CCN, have a lot of work experience, am fluent in Spanish and can at least read Portuguese, and have a pretty big-name judge on my resume, and I got one callback and a ton of silence and rejections.

Absolutely give it a shot, but absolutely have a backup plan (i.e. NYC).

Idk, I graduated from a Florida state school this past year, and I work big law in Florida. A fair amount of my friends also work big law in Florida-- of course, a lot of my friends were from Law Review and fell in the top 10% grades-wise. During OCI, I had multiple offers in Florida big law in Tampa, Orlando, West Palm, Miami, and Fort Lauderdale. It's crazy, but I think a lot of Florida big law firms like the state school kids. I'm not sure why, but that seems to be a "thing." At my current firm, the hiring committee is largely comprised of state school grads. Could be something going on with that.

That being said, with your credentials, I'm kind of shocked that you did not hear from more firms.

I think you're 100% on the money with this. Just looking through the bio pages of attorneys at big Miami firms confirms it, really. And I guess it makes sense, when you think of flight risk. I know that even for the two interviews I did for 1L (which were both prior to having any grades back at all), the dominant theme of the interviews was "Why do you want to be in Miami? Are you SURE you want to be in Miami? And how do we know you'll STAY in Miami?" The clear deficit in my resume is that I'm not from Florida and never went to school in Florida. I thought my current Miami address, phone number, and the fact that I was there for 1L summer would have made up for it, but maybe not.

In any case, I definitely agree that you're on to something with the "hometown advantage" thing.

[BigZuck]

HLs class of 2016, I had a few callbacks and at least two offers with GT and another firm which would out me if I specified. Akerman, white and case were the other call backs. Seem to be relatively easy to get a SA, but I also had strong grades and was born and raised in Miami

*HLS*
*Born and raised in Miami*
*Went 2/4 on offers from callbacks*
*says getting FL SA is "easy"*

K.

Also had *strong grades* from HLS no less

ljl what a wasteland

[crisgcia]

The thing with the SoFlo market is that mass mailings aren't nearly as effective as constant communication and networking. That's why I have more buddies who were able to find work here who went to UM Law/were strongly affiliated with the Miami area as opposed to T20s just stepping into the legal community after graduation.

[Cicero76]

The thing with the SoFlo market is that mass mailings aren't nearly as effective as constant communication and networking. That's why I have more buddies who were able to find work here who went to UM Law/were strongly affiliated with the Miami area as opposed to T20s just stepping into the legal community after graduation.

Bootstraps! Networking!