Prospects Improve for HLS Graduates

After a dip in hiring rates amid the financial crisis, Harvard Law School graduates’ employment prospects are steadily improving.

According to the Office of Career Services, 95 percent of the class of 2010 secured employment by graduation, a figure in line with the office’s  predictions and consistent with Law School employment rates from the last 15 years.

As a result of the financial crisis, many recent graduates received “deferred” start dates—generally 6 months to a year after graduation—from their employers. Although Assistant Dean for Career Services Mark A. Weber said deferrals are expected to drop this year, the backlog from previous years has left fewer spaces for new graduates.

“Imagine there was a snowstorm at Logan Airport a few days ago. Now it is sunny outside, but the passenger is being told it will take several days to get out because of backlog,” Weber said. “That’s exactly what has been happening in the marketplace right now.”

But not every firm is experiencing the deferral domino effect.

“Our pipeline is completely clear,” said Michael J. Summersgill, the chair of the hiring committee for the Boston office of law firm WilmerHale.

All of the 25 summer associates at WilmerHale’s Boston office received offers of full-time employment without deferral.

Last year, firms nationwide extended offers of full-time employment to only 69 percent of their summer associates, according to the National Association for Law Placement. In 2005, the “offer rate” was 90.6 percent.

Weber said he believes the percentage will rise this year, primarily because firms are simply taking fewer summer associates. According to Weber, the number of summer associate positions offered this year was down about 44 percent nationally.

“Before the financial crisis, [hiring] was overly inflated. Jobs were being given out like candy,” said second year Law School student Sarah E. Davis. “Now hiring is at a more realistic level.”

Clerkship applications have also risen over the past several years as students attempt to delay the job search process in the hopes that the market will improve.

The biggest spike in clerkship applications is among recent graduates, not current students. According to Law School Professor David B. Wilkins ’77, alumni may look to clerkships as an exit option in the case that corporate firms begin declining.

A clerkship is an extra credential, and “credentials are a way to protect yourself against uncertainty,” Wilkins said.

According to Weber, the challenging job market is something law students will have to get used to, at least for the time being. “This is just what the new ‘normal’ will look like for the next couple years,” he said.

After a dip during the recession period, starting salaries also appear to be creeping back up. In 2008, some firms scaled back their starting salaries—for example, from about $160,000 to $145,000 at a large corporate firm—to avoid cutting additional positions. This year many of those firms are returning to their original starting salaries, perhaps in an effort to remain competitive employers, according to Wilkins.

Along with higher salaries, Wilkins also predicts that summer associates and new hires will likely be expected to work more hours per week than in the past.

“[Prospective students] have to be a little more careful about their decision to go into law school because a job isn’t as much of a guarantee as it used to be,” Davis said.

—Staff writer Zoe A. Y. Weinberg can be reached at zoe.weinberg@college.harvard.edu.