03/16/2011
The University of Minnesota Student Legal Service last week held its annual Careers in Law Forum. The forum gave interested students a thorough idea about employment opportunities that are available in the legal sector.
This year’s forum also offered access to a range of informative representatives.
The Director of USLS, attorney Mark Karon, said that aside from the 15 law schools that are in attendance, 35 other agencies were also represented, including those from the offices of various politicians and law enforcement agencies.
The holding of the forum is very timely. At present, there is a raging debate nationwide over the alleged erroneous data in law recruitment.
The main issue is that law schools are accepting students while trumpeting the myth that job opportunities for new Doctor Degree graduates are exceedingly optimistic.
The fact is that when “The Great Recession” hit, the bottom fell out of the market. Based on the data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the legal market has got rid of over 55,000 jobs from 2008 to 2010.
This depressing situation has left law students with gigantic debts and a measly chance of being able to pay these loans off.
Forbes revealed that the average law graduate have unpaid student loans amounting to $100,000. This is in addition to the lost opportunity of not being able to have a job throughout the school year for three years, as well as having to work in low-paying internships during summer.
Lawyers, paralegals, legal assistants, and others who belong to the legal industry, have been “required to take a hack in their earnings, renounce their bonuses or were just laid off because of funding cuts and a low order for work.” This was according to Paralegal Today, an independent magazine that discusses paralegal profession.
