Biglaw or Bust? What are the other options? Forum

[tuffyjohnson]

Is biglaw the only real option after law school? What I'm hearing from people is that to have any chance at government or in-house work you must first have a few years experience in biglaw. Is this true? What about local DA jobs? What about local PD jobs? What about rural communities and smaller markets? I'd like to practice but I cannot do biglaw with children. I like seeing them and going to their birthday parties. I'd like to hear what the full range of options for JD's foregoing biglaw. Please, for a moment also forgo the obvious issue of debt repayments so that I can at least see what's out there.

[Gunnar Stahl]

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3&t=189981

[rad lulz]

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3&t=189981

[thesealocust]

Ballpark figures:

45,000 law graduates, 5,000 entry level biglaw jobs and a smaller number of clerkships represent the pool of "obvious" jobs for graduates. Many other places - public interest outfits, a small number of corporations, small and medium sized firms, local and federal governments, etc. will hire recent law graduates, but (a) for substantially less salary on average and (b) with much less consistency. There are also much less desirable jobs such as temporary doc review available.

Recent estimates suggest there are only a total of maybe 25,000 to 30,000 entry level jobs for law graduates at all, so a substantial portion will fail to find legal employment.

[tuffyjohnson]

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3&t=189981

yo, bro, there is no delete button and someone already pointed this out. but, thanks.

[2LsAPlenty]

I hear Burger King is hiring.

[kryptix]

I mean it really depends on what your background is... There's people who are in bank compliance departments who go for their JD part time, or even full time and end up going back for close to biglaw starting pay and much better hours (issue being that the pay doesn't go up as quickly). There's people who go into consulting etc. What are your salary demands? That really drives the search for what you'd find acceptable.

For me personally, it was either biglaw, MBB or probably something non-legal as none of the other traditional options would keep my family in a life style that we would find acceptable. You need to make the decision for yourself.

[shotsfired12]

I mean it really depends on what your background is... There's people who are in bank compliance departments who go for their JD part time, or even full time and end up going back for close to biglaw starting pay and much better hours (issue being that the pay doesn't go up as quickly). There's people who go into consulting etc. What are your salary demands? That really drives the search for what you'd find acceptable.

For me personally, it was either biglaw, MBB or probably something non-legal as none of the other traditional options would keep my family in a life style that we would find acceptable. You need to make the decision for yourself.

So Kryptix, how did you end up faring? Did you get big law, MBB or something financially lucrative but non-legal? Also, where do u go to school?

[005618502]

Ballpark figures:

45,000 law graduates, 5,000 entry level biglaw jobs and a smaller number of clerkships represent the pool of "obvious" jobs for graduates. Many other places - public interest outfits, a small number of corporations, small and medium sized firms, local and federal governments, etc. will hire recent law graduates, but (a) for substantially less salary on average and (b) with much less consistency. There are also much less desirable jobs such as temporary doc review available.

Recent estimates suggest there are only a total of maybe 25,000 to 30,000 entry level jobs for law graduates at all, so a substantial portion will fail to find legal employment.

These kinds of numbers still baffle me. I am at a lower T14 and it seems like EVERY 2L had their pick of multiple biglaw jobs and every 3L is heading to a market paying firm. I guess its just that those people are more vocal about what they are doing

[mephistopheles]

I guess its just that those people are more vocal about what they are doing

exactly.

[thesealocust]

I guess its just that those people are more vocal about what they are doing

exactly.

Yep.

Even at schools with high percentages in biglaw, a lot of those people got exactly one offer.