I belive it is articles like this one in yesterday’s Washington Post that contribute to this pernicious myth that brand new baby lawyers are swimming in pearls and drowning in job offers.

This article makes it sound as if public interest jobs are low lying fruit - while in fact they are incredibly competitive and very hard to get. Legal Aid is not, contrary to what non-lawyers think, standing outside the doors of law schools begging law students to consider coming to work for them. In fact, they gets a zillion applications for every open slot (I exaggerate, but not by much).

I wish the Washington Post, the New York Times, and all these high-profile papers would write a little more about what normal law students and recent grads go through in their job search rather than focusing so heavily on this tiny minority of elite grads who do have these sorts of options open to them. Or at least would acknowledge that the choices elite grads struggle with - mightily, according to the article - are not the choices that most recent grads have. Graduates of low-ranked law schools are faced with the same high tuition and the same staggering loans - but are not “lured away from public service jobs” like the chick in this article. Those jobs aren’t open to them in the first place, unfortunately. (Not to toot my own horn, but I believe I wrote something about this not too long ago.)

In short: kids, don’t go to law school unless you have a realistic sense of what’s in store for you, or unless someone else is paying for it. And don’t try to get a sense of what normal life is like from the Washington Post.

posted by Arin at 2:32 am & filed under bloggy stuff, lawyers |