University of Maryland, Baltimore Law School

While many law school students can still count on employment when they graduate, a growing number of new lawyers are struggling to land the jobs they want.

Employment rates have held steady from the University of Maryland, Baltimore graduate school, with between 93 and 94 percent securing a job within nine months of graduation per year since 2008, according to the law school’s statistics. However, students and experts in the field said the nature of the job market is shifting, and the number of students employed full-time and in private practice employment has decreased.

In 2008, 88 percent of positions obtained after graduation were full-time, a figure that dropped to 81 percent last year, according to UMB’s law school annual reports. Graduates employed by a private practice dropped from 40 percent in 2008 to 29 percent last year.

Charlie Zhu, UMB’s Business Law Society’s vice president, said although it seems employment for law school graduates has remained stable, fellow students seem to be facing more limited options for jobs.

“I don’t see there are a lot of people graduating but not finding jobs,” Zhu said. “It seems like people are finding jobs, but probably not their ideal jobs.”

Matthew Swartz, a hiring partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP in McLean, Va., said he predicts the tough job climate is here to stay for a while.

“I think it’s both related to the economy and to the law profession,” Swartz said. “I think clients have become more cost-conscious.”

Some legal job opportunities have grown incrementally since 2008, including in government jobs, academia and judicial clerkships, according to the reports. In addition, while 83 percent of jobs in 2008 required bar admission, only 64 percent of jobs last year required students pass the bar.

However, Zhu said the climate is still not ideal for most students who have recently left law school.

“There is no reason that one would think that in this point of time, this is a particularly good time to attend law school,” he said.

UMB law student Joey Kroart said at 39, he decided to enroll in law school. But the now-41-year-old is not attempting to practice law— he is keeping his options open while pursuing a business degree through a joint-degree program at John Hopkins.

“A law degree provides opportunity,” he said. “There’s a lot you can do with a law degree; it’s sort of a calling card of sorts.”

Kroart said he wanted to differentiate himself from his peers with a master’s of business and that finding his specialty was critical in the market in which he’s seen some peers struggle.

“That gives me an edge, it defines me, so I might as well try to use that to my advantage,” he said. “I’ve put myself in a better position than I was in, but the bottom line is that it’s still a very tough market and it takes a lot of hard work.”

UMB Business Law Society President Juliana Neelbauer said in a changing job market and unstable economic climate, it is essential for law students to change their perspectives on what it means to have a law degree, which includes looking outside the jobs they originally thought they would seek. Neelbauer owns a consulting firm, but decided to pursue a law degree after she realized she was referring many of her clients to outside attorneys and thought she could expand her skill set to help them.

“I felt like I could do an even better job because I just understood this niche industry so well,” she said. “You have a responsibility to find out which one of those [areas of law] not only are you interested in, but what you can find employment in.”

Swartz said that may be truer than ever before, considering the job climate.

“I think it certainly makes sense to be thoughtful about what demand there is,” he said.

Although Swartz said law school might be a risk worth taking for some, it is important for prospective law students to realize the potential costs and benefits of pursuing their degrees.

“They just have to realize they’re taking a bigger risk than they would have been if they had gotten out of law school eight years ago,” he said.

Kroart said he does not doubt the value of going to law school, a field he said is “intellectually delicious.” However, prospective students must be aware of and ready to address the economy as well as the job market, Kroart added.

“I wouldn’t recommend that they do it or not do it; what I would recommend is they do their due diligence to really find out what the return on their investment of time and tuition would be,” he said. “You have to have a realistic plan in place.”

kelley@umdbk.com