ilovesf wrote:Lasers wrote:finding anything legal for 2L summer isn't the point (that's 1L summer); the worth of a 2L summer job is finding something that can actually lead to a job after graduation. from my sources, TONS of 3L's, some of whom are in the top third or better have nothing lined up at all. the employment numbers don't lie, either. they are startling. the numbers are so troubling it's probably why so many rising 2L's transferred.
Yeah, people don't care about landing SAs just as a 2L summer job; it's about how it leads to long term employment. I'm not worried about finding something for 2L summer. I am worried about getting a full time job.
I get what you guys are saying, but I think it's based on a misconception that's propagated by websites like TLS.
The fact of the matter is that in the height of the market (people who were 2L summers in 2007, reflected in the class of 2008 statistics), less than 24% of all law students ended up with jobs that paid $160k. The majority of law students have always gone on to work for not-big-law, and the whole "2L summer is for finding a job after graduation" really only reflects biglaw hiring.
If you look at the statistics for Hastings grads ( --LinkRemoved-- ), we see that a majority of the graduating class of 2011 (207/411) ended up working in full-time long-term JD required/preferred non-solo-practitioner jobs (219 Full Time Long Term - 7 non-JD-preferred - 5 solo practitioners = 207). So even if we take the most pessimistic view of employment statistics (we assume that part-time or short-term jobs are worthless, and that no one wants to be a solo practitioner), the "average" Hastings student still ends up in a job that makes productive use of their JD.
This matches the experience of the 3Ls I know. A few had biglaw summers, but many more worked for firms in the 2-10 attorney range. Because of the small nature of these firms, it's usually impossible to make a job offer straight out of a 2L summer, but they also have their foot in the door and have some work experience going forward.
All I'm saying is that, if you want to actually practice law, you've got even odds of using your JD as a Hastings grad. But if you take the view that the ONLY reason to get a JD is to do biglaw, yeah, definitely go somewhere else. Because places like TLS tell us "BIGLAW OR YOU'RE SCREWED" over and over again, it's easy to lose sight of the way the legal job market has always operated, with most JDs never going into biglaw.
