New Lawyers Are Asking, 'What's Next?'
Laid-off Associates Seek Temp Jobs, Pro Bono Work, While Grappling With Bleak Future
By Rebecca U. Cho
Daily Journal Staff Writer
As an associate at O'Melveny & Myers, Anthony Arnold tracked the legal blogs. He had read that Latham & Watkins laid off 440 people on a bleak Friday morning. So he was prepared on the following Tuesday in early March, when an O'Melveny representative broke the news to Arnold that he would be let go from the firm.
Now out of a job, Arnold found himself faced with a question he had not expected so soon in his young career: What next?
That is a question hanging on the minds of hundreds of bright young attorneys who have been left out in the cold after an unprecedented restructuring of law firm ranks in recent months. In February alone, at the peak of the layoffs, about 4,900 legal workers were let go from their positions. And as firms continue to shed attorneys, sometimes in stealthy unannounced moves, young associates such as Arnold have been left to grapple in a lean job market with little experience to offer prospective employers and a mountain of law school debt.
These attorneys, some from the most prestigious firms, are adapting to the dire economic environment through forging unorthodox paths for recent graduates of top law schools, such as seeking pro bono assignments allowing them to continue honing their legal skills, interviewing at temporary placement agencies or hanging out their own shingles. Some are even thinking of a career change.
"A lot of people in my generation haven't had to encounter this before. It's usually been very easy for people coming out of a good law school, they go to a good law firm, coast there for a few years," said Arnold, who was a second-year associate in O'Melveny's Los Angeles office. "Now that you're forced out, it gives you a chance to be more creative, thoughtful, reflective and see what's a better fit for you."
Arnold, who graduated from Harvard Law School in 2007, got in touch with a former law professor who was running a pro bono clinic in Compton. That professor, sole practitioner Luz Herrera, started Community Lawyers Inc. in January and was looking for a volunteer attorney to help manage some of the legal issues her clients face. This way, Arnold said, he can continue to gain legal skills doing good in his community, while searching for a paying gig.
Arnold, who left O'Melveny three weeks ago, said the number of opportunities are sparse. He said he's hoping his corporate experience will help him snag a job that blends transactional and litigation work, such as bankruptcy law.
He continues to pay off his law school debt, which he is able to afford thanks to his severance package from O'Melveny and the fact that he aggressively paid down his loans in his first year out of school. That forward thinking, he said, has given him the luxury to reflect on his next steps.
Others are not as fortunate. Those looking to earn a living while seeking full-time employment have turned to temporary, or contract, legal work that allows them to work on three- or six-month projects, or longer. Nora Plesent, a founder of Lexolution, a temporary legal staffing firm, said in the past two months, she has seen a significant rise in interest from young attorneys, many of whom have been laid off in the down economy. These attorneys are changing the profile of the typical contract attorney, which in the past has included attorneys who chose contract work over a high-powered legal career for the flexibility and quality of life it provides.
"We have lots and lots of very talented, skilled lawyers - the kinds of people who would not normally be available for temporary assignments," Plesent said. "We have people in the database generally who attended the top law schools, but the difference [now] is they had very consistent careers. They went to a top law school and went directly to a top firm. These people have the traditional lawyer on the path to senior associate to partner kind of backgrounds."
Jodie Taylor, a regional vice president in Southern California and Arizona for Robert Half Legal, a legal consulting and recruiting firm, said demand for contract attorneys is up at firms as they seek to reduce staff.
Like other lawyers laid off from Latham, Brian Chamberlayne is benefiting from a generous severance package that has bought him time for soul searching. After graduating from Cornell University Law School in 2007, Chamberlayne started in Latham's corporate practice. His plan had been to work at a big firm for several years before launching into a career as an entertainment attorney, he said. But in late February, two Latham partners walked into his office and informed him that, due to fiscal realities, the firm would be letting him go. He was given until the next week to pack up.
"It was disheartening because it was not exactly the way I was expecting to start off my career," Chamberlayne said. "But at the same time, I understand it's an unprecedented time."
With his original plan thwarted, Chamberlayne revived his interest in creative writing while he began searching for his dream job in entertainment law. Then he expanded his search to transactional jobs. But with 40 resumes sent out and no replies for an interview, Chamberlayne said, he will broaden his search even more and possibly switch practices.
"I was a corporate associate, and it looks to me now that I'll probably have to end up taking a job in litigation because there are not that many transactional opportunities out there," Chamberlayne said.
Several young lawyers also are entertaining the idea of hanging up their own shingles. Arnold said two of his friends are planning to start their own practices, one in family law and the other in insurance and health care law.
But Holly Fujie, president of the California State Bar, said these young attorneys are at risk of unintentionally exposing themselves to disciplinary action, for example, if they make errors in handling client funds or filing a case, due to their inexperience. One way the State Bar is trying to help is by offering, "The California Guide to Opening and Managing a Law Office," a book which came out in January. The guide outlines steps to finding office space and points out personnel issues that may arise that are not taught in law school, Fujie said.
Young associates may face a battle ahead when the job market begins to improve, Fujie said. She said rather than hire associates, law firms will turn back to hiring from law schools in order to re-establish their ties with those schools.
"I think it's terrible. I've never seen it this bad in my 30 years of practice," said Fujie, a partner at Buchalter Nemer in Los Angeles. "It's particularly difficult for young lawyers who are a couple years out and who get laid off. If they can't find another job, even when the economy gets better, it will be more difficult for them to move into the positions they were in before."
She said she advises laid-off attorneys to find opportunities to build up their skills in the law or business, such as in volunteering or taking a job at a pay cut in order to avoid a gap in the resume. She said some laid-off attorneys even are considering new ways to use their degrees instead of practicing the law.
"If there's anything that can be said that's good about this recession, it might make people think twice about whether they really want to be lawyers," Fujie said. "If you went into law because you were out of college and couldn't think of anything to do, maybe you can say this really isn't what I want to do."
