Any class of 2012 students still unemployed? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Firm fired me just after I started so I've been unemployed for a long time now. Just curious if there are any lost souls out there. Thankfully my debt is manageable. Consider this my letter in a bottle. Maybe someone suffers just like me.

[Anonymous User]

Firm fired me just after I started so I've been unemployed for a long time now. Just curious if there are any lost souls out there. Thankfully my debt is manageable. Consider this my letter in a bottle. Maybe someone suffers just like me.

fired? or laid off. Thats horrible, Good luck and hope it gets better.

[Anonymous User]

Firm fired me just after I started so I've been unemployed for a long time now. Just curious if there are any lost souls out there. Thankfully my debt is manageable. Consider this my letter in a bottle. Maybe someone suffers just like me.

Had a deferred start date that turned into withdrawn offer. Went from biglaw-bound to zero prospects, and haven't worked since graduation. About $200k in debt.

[Anonymous User]

Firm fired me just after I started so I've been unemployed for a long time now. Just curious if there are any lost souls out there. Thankfully my debt is manageable. Consider this my letter in a bottle. Maybe someone suffers just like me.

fired? or laid off. Thats horrible, Good luck and hope it gets better.

OP here. Fired. No one on the Internet likes to hear petty disputes so I will spare everyone the details, except to say there is substantial evidence it was financial and not performance. Of course, I was told it was performance and at the risk of sounding arrogant, I find that very hard to believe. Gave me a single week of severance. I have since moved to a rural part of the state so I can afford my expenses. I make money from plasma and medical testing. I also sold my car and run up credit card debt.

[s1m4]

Why dont you take a non-legal job to pay the bills ? Wouldn't even working at a restaurant be better than going further into debt?

Firm fired me just after I started so I've been unemployed for a long time now. Just curious if there are any lost souls out there. Thankfully my debt is manageable. Consider this my letter in a bottle. Maybe someone suffers just like me.

fired? or laid off. Thats horrible, Good luck and hope it gets better.

OP here. Fired. No one on the Internet likes to hear petty disputes so I will spare everyone the details, except to say there is substantial evidence it was financial and not performance. Of course, I was told it was performance and at the risk of sounding arrogant, I find that very hard to believe. Gave me a single week of severance. I have since moved to a rural part of the state so I can afford my expenses. I make money from plasma and medical testing. I also sold my car and run up credit card debt.

[Anonymous User]

non-legal work, service industry work, etc., can be a trap for the JD. Either (1) you remove JD and have a three year gap; or (2) "you're a lawyer?!?"

[Anonymous User]

Firm fired me just after I started so I've been unemployed for a long time now. Just curious if there are any lost souls out there. Thankfully my debt is manageable. Consider this my letter in a bottle. Maybe someone suffers just like me.

fired? or laid off. Thats horrible, Good luck and hope it gets better.

OP here. Fired. No one on the Internet likes to hear petty disputes so I will spare everyone the details, except to say there is substantial evidence it was financial and not performance. Of course, I was told it was performance and at the risk of sounding arrogant, I find that very hard to believe. Gave me a single week of severance. I have since moved to a rural part of the state so I can afford my expenses. I make money from plasma and medical testing. I also sold my car and run up credit card debt.

man thats bummer, Im sorry to hear, and it shows that legal market while improving, its still pretty bad, and is it a v100? Its really bad if its v100

[reasonable_man]

The legal market is improving? Surely you jest. Who told you that? A law school career services office? The market has improved slightly for attorneys with experience. The market for new attorneys is non-existent.

[hiima3L]

I was class of 2012.

A handful of my close friends are still unemployed or very underemployed. Either they gave up looking, decided they didn't really want to practice, or have been, at best, working shitty temp legal jobs.

It's unbelievable idiots are still enrolling in law school.

[iliketurtles123]

This sucks. Sorry to hear guys.
Without trying to sound insensitive, what kind of school/grades did you guys have?

Reason I ask is because I'm wondering if there is a huge difference based on school/grades or if this is mostly a problem for those who barely snagged a biglaw job in the first place. I mean, getting let go can happen to anyone. It would suck if a top 10% at CCN was let go and couldn't find a new gig afterwards.

[patogordo]

if you get laid off early it is pretty hard to bounce back. i know first years who got laid off at dewey/howrey and couldn't get any legal job at all, much less biglaw, despite having good grades from H. one has given up law entirely and another finally found a PI job in another country after like 2 yrs unemployed. there are 100 CCN top 10%ers graduating every year so once you fall out of the normal biglaw hiring cycle you're just not on their radar.

[Anonymous User]

This sucks. Sorry to hear guys.
Without trying to sound insensitive, what kind of school/grades did you guys have?

Reason I ask is because I'm wondering if there is a huge difference based on school/grades or if this is mostly a problem for those who barely snagged a biglaw job in the first place. I mean, getting let go can happen to anyone. It would suck if a top 10% at CCN was let go and couldn't find a new gig afterwards.

I was around top quarter at lower T-14 (I'm the one who was deferred and then had offer pulled). I mean, I have decent grades, but there are enough recent grads and 3Ls who are also unemployed with a grade/school combination at least as good, so the time off really hurts. Plus, they've known they would be in this position so they've been able to prepare a lot better by doing more substantive things in 2L, 3L, and post graduation.

[Anonymous User]

I recently met a guy that got laid off as a first year when the financial crisis hit, and has been a doc review/contract attorney ever since. And no, the firm wasn't Latham, and it wasn't one of the ones known to have fired first years.

It's basically the worst possible outcome in all of this BS. I definitely feel for you, OP. You got screwed (and same goes for the poster with the withdrawn offer).

[iliketurtles123]

if you get laid off early it is pretty hard to bounce back. i know first years who got laid off at dewey/howrey and couldn't get any legal job at all, much less biglaw, despite having good grades from H. one has given up law entirely and another finally found a PI job in another country after like 2 yrs unemployed. there are 100 CCN top 10%ers graduating every year so once you fall out of the normal biglaw hiring cycle you're just not on their radar.

Dude this is terrifying.
This is kind of contrary to what I've heard. I hear that if you hustle, you'll land something decent eventually. There are ~100 top 10% CCN-ers, but I'm guessing only a very small portion of them are looking for a job (if at all).

I mean if you hustle your ass for a while (networking, resumes to every firm out there, etc.), it's probable you'll land something sometime right..? right??

[patogordo]

if you get laid off early it is pretty hard to bounce back. i know first years who got laid off at dewey/howrey and couldn't get any legal job at all, much less biglaw, despite having good grades from H. one has given up law entirely and another finally found a PI job in another country after like 2 yrs unemployed. there are 100 CCN top 10%ers graduating every year so once you fall out of the normal biglaw hiring cycle you're just not on their radar.

Dude this is terrifying.
This is kind of contrary to what I've heard. I hear that if you hustle, you'll land something decent eventually. There are ~100 top 10% CCN-ers, but I'm guessing only a very small portion of them are looking for a job (if at all).

I mean if you hustle your ass for a while (networking, resumes to every firm out there, etc.), it's probable you'll land something sometime right..? right??

these were c/o 2010ers which is the "lost class" that just got completely wrecked by the recession. so it's probably a little better now. but people still slip through the cracks. it's really hard to catch back up when there are tons of fresh law grads being pumped out.

[Skump]

OP here. Fired. No one on the Internet likes to hear petty disputes so I will spare everyone the details, except to say there is substantial evidence it was financial and not performance. Of course, I was told it was performance and at the risk of sounding arrogant, I find that very hard to believe. Gave me a single week of severance. I have since moved to a rural part of the state so I can afford my expenses. I make money from plasma and medical testing. I also sold my car and run up credit card debt.

Jesus Christ. There should be an official horror story compilation thread on this board. It would be a great place to send all of the special snow flakes contemplating law school against all other evidence and reason.

Maybe we could even do a public service YouTube video in the style of those old anti-drug ads:

"Nobody ever says... I want to be a blood plasma donor and medical test subject when I grow up..."

[happy187]

Just wondering what is stopping OP (or anyone in this type of situation) from just hanging a shingle. I know it isn't free to open your own shop but it can be done on a shoe string budget. At least it is some kind of income, probably better then selling plasma.

[Skump]

Honestly, if the OP's only legal experience is law school and a summer associate gig, I'd have reservations about whether he could perform solo work without committing malpractice. Granted, that hasn't stopped plenty of others, but still...