Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2020-04-20)

◼ ECONOMICS Bloomberg Businessweek April 20, 2020

31

ILLUSTRATION

BY

ARNE

BELLSTORF

THEBOTTOMLINELawschoolgradswerepoisedtoenterthe

bestjobmarketin morethana decade.Butthepandemichas

cloudedcareerprospectsformany.

● Statesarecancelingbarexamswhilefirms

areshorteningsummerprograms

LawStudentsFace

AnUncertainFuture

Justa fewweeksago,AnneKarenTolbert,a third-

yearstudentattheUniversityofMississippi’slaw

school,waslookingforwardtograduatingthis

springandstartingthejobshe’dlinedup.Butthen

thecoronaviruspandemicputthatopportunity—

andherfuture—onhold.

NowTolbertischeckingoutonlinejobfairs

andwonderingwhenshe’llbeabletotakethe

Washington,D.C.,barexam,whichwasscheduled

forJulybutrecentlycanceled.“I’mjusttryingto

seewhat’sgoingonwiththatandfigureout,DoI

needtomovehomewithmyfamily?”shesays.“Do

I needtojusttrytogeta temporaryorpart-time

jobinbetween?”

Tolbertandherpeerswerepoisedtoenterthe

strongestlegaljobmarketinmorethana decade.

Now,oftenwithsix-figuredebtloads,they’refac-

ingreducedhiringandmajordelaysgettingtheir

careersunderway.“Ithinkpeopleareallpretty

consciousofwhathappenedtolawyersin2008,”

saysLaurelRaymond, a memberofYaleLaw

School’s 2020 class.“Wehavenoideawhat’sgoing

tohappenthistime,andnoonecantellus.”

Front of mind formany is that states are

postponing bar exams because of social distancing

guidelines. Last July thousands of law school grads

took the New York bar exam in the hangarlike space

of Manhattan’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. It’s

now serving as a 1,000-bed overflow hospital.

While at least eight states, including New

York, have rescheduled the exams for the fall, a

movement is afoot to allow 2020 grads to begin

practicing law without having been admitted to the

bar. An April 1 letter signed by the deans of the 15

law schools in New York state warned that a delay

in admission to the bar could cause students “pro-

found harm in a time already marked by suffering,

intensifying financial hardship and exacerbating

the unfairness of their plight.”

Molly Savage, a third-year student at Wayne

StateUniversityLawSchoolinDetroit,recently

helpedputtogethera petitionaskingMichiganto

waiveexamrequirements.“Tome,it’smyability

tousethisdegreethatI’vespent threeyears

working on,” she says. “I can’t get a law job if I

don’t have admission to the bar.”

But it’s not just the graduating class that faces

potential job woes. Large law firms typically recruit

rising third-year students as summer associates,

with a commitment to hiring them full time after

graduation. Although top firms are largely stick-

ing to that commitment for now, several have

shortenedtheir 2020 summerprograms,poten-

tiallydeprivingstudentsofseveralweeksofpay

atlevels equivalent to $190,000 a year. “My room-

mate will be going to Cooley this summer, and they

have already shortened their summer program,

and she will have to take out extra loans because

of that,” says Sara Fitzpatrick, a student at Harvard

Law School, referring to the 1,100-lawyer firm best

known for its work with tech companies.

Othersfirmsaretryingtoadapttothetimesby

runningtheprogramsonline.Thatmaylimitstu-

dents’opportunitiesformentoringandnetworking,

saysJamesLeipold,executivedirector of the National

Association of Law Placement. Andrea Rivers,

a second-year student at American University’s

Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C.,

says she was recently informed by Axinn, the firm

she’s scheduled to join as a summer associate in New

York, that it was considering running the program

remotely. “They told students to hold off making

housing arrangements in New York,” she says.

Beyond the career uncertainty, this year’s

graduating classes face more intangible losses.

Fitzpatrick says she feels fortunate that the clerk-

ship at the Alaska Supreme Court awaiting her after

graduation from Harvard appears secure. Still, the

thought of not donning a cap and gown to receive

her degree makes her tear up. “My family was going

to come for graduation, and it was going to be the

first time we all saw each other in four years—and

obviously, that’s not happening.” �Meghan Tribe,

Bob Van Voris, and Stephanie Russell-Kraft

“I can’t get

a law job if I

don’t have

admission to

the bar”