Fledgling legal eagles: new lawyers struggling to find employment.

• Author: Coon, John

Earning a law degree does not immediately translate to a high paying job--that is one of the first lessons Heidi Leithead instills in her law students attending the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University.

"When I went to law school, there were a lot of people who came into law school feeling that way," Leithead says. "They were going to come out of law school and all of the sudden they were going to have these great high-paying jobs. And it wasn't true even then. It was true for a section of the class, but it wasn't true necessarily for all the graduates. There's always been a bit of a misconception."

That particular lesson feels more pertinent now than at any other time in the legal industry.

Oversupply and Diminished Demand

No industry is immune from the impact of a slumping economy--including the legal profession. Recent national employment trends suggest a law degree does not automatically open doors to landing a job and securing a six-figure income with the speed and frequency an average person might expect.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a job growth rate for lawyers of 10 percent through 2020. One problem new law school graduates are discovering, however, is current demand for legal services cannot meet the supply of available lawyers.

A July 2012 study released by NALP (The Association for Legal Career Professionals) revealed that 85.6 percent of 2011 law school graduates obtained employment within a year of graduation. This represented a drop of 6.3 percent compared to the employment rate among 2007 law school graduates.

Among employed law school graduates, only 56.7 percent held a permanent full-time job that required the graduates to pass their state bar exam.

The NALP study also revealed that just 49.5 percent of 2011 law school graduates obtained jobs in law firms, marking a sharp decline from a rate of 55.9 percent of 2009 law school graduates.

A significant percentage of graduates who have already secured employment are actively looking to upgrade to a better job elsewhere. The NALP study found that 24.6 percent of 2011 law school graduates were already seeking to change jobs. This represents a 2 percent increase compared to 2010 graduates.

Leithead has witnessed these trends manifested locally while serving as president of Parr Brown, a Salt Lake City firm. Just at Parr Brown alone, over the past three years a noticeable uptick of resumes and applications have poured in from recent law school...