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Center for Career Strategy
and Advancement
Levy Mayer Hall, Room 124
357 East Chicago Avenue
Chicago, IL 60611-3069

Phone: (312) 503-3498

Market Trends

Welcome to the Center for Career Strategy & Advancement’s Market Trends webpage!

Our goal is to provide our assessment, as well as third party information regarding overall hiring trends in the legal marketplace, and to link to recent articles providing detailed analyses and updates.

What we are seeing
The market for legal services continues to increase as a proportion of the GDP. Click here for a graph which shows the steady growth in legal services revenues over the past ten years. Additionally, the market for attorneys continues to experience steady growth across all regions of the country. There appear to be some minor regional variations with hiring on the East and West Coasts slightly outpacing hiring in the Midwest. In terms of practice areas, as economic growth has slowed down, so to has corporate work, particularly M&A and commercial real estate. Changes in the marketplace have caused a cutback in mortgage-backed securities practices, with related attorney layoffs at some firms. Expect bankruptcy and general litigation practices to pick up. Law firm mergers are again on the rise, as is global expansion, particularly in Asian markets.

While there has been overall growth in attorney hiring, law firm hiring for summer associate programs has remained healthy but fairly stable for the past few years. Most of the recent law firm growth has occurred through lateral hiring, though recent trends suggest a cool down. This fall, larger employers increased the number of schools they visited and went “deeper” into the class in terms of GPA. Mid-sized firms have focused more on recruiting new lawyers from local schools and in some cases, decreased visits to schools outside of their geographic region. Law school applications have decreased nationally and law schools are not increasing class size; thus employers are once again experiencing a more competitive market for second-year students. Over the past two years, while the number of law graduates from the top schools has remained the same, the number of associate hires by NALP employers has increased which is good news for students. Click here. Furthermore, most large law firms around the country, including those in Chicago, have increased their starting salaries for first-year associates. Starting salaries among the large firms in the larger markets have risen to $160,000 to match the starting salaries in New York. The salary increases at the largest firms put financial pressure on mid-sized firms.

As we enter 2008, the legal market is still strong, though a slowdown in response to economic factors may be expected.

Diversity
The overall percentage of ethnic minorities of the 255 largest U.S. firms (209 respondents) jumped to 12.4 percent from 11.3 percent in 2006 and 10.4 percent in 2005 according to The Minority Law Journal's Diversity Scorecard. The percentage of minority partners, however, is only up slightly from 5 percent in 2006 to 5.7 percent in 2007. The individual law firm with the highest percentage of minority attorneys, 25.3 percent, is Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison ( New York) . Diversity in partnership is increasing, with 11 percent of all new partners being lawyers of color. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has the highest percentage of minority partners, 15.1 percent, and Greenberg Traurig reported the highest total number of minority partners, 58. -- The Minority Law Journal, 5/1/07

Geographic and Practice Area Briefs

Southeast, February 2007  Real Estate, September 2007 
Northern California, March 2007   
Los Angeles, April 2007   


Recent News

Salary & Market:

Associate Salary Spikes Pinch Partner Profits, Recorder, February 27, 2008

D.C. Associate Bonuses 'Fairly Healthy' This Year, Legal Times, February 4, 2008

Leaner pay, bonuses may be reality in 2008, National Law Journal, January 7, 2008

Rich Lawyer, Poor Lawyer, American Lawyer, December 18, 2007


Firms:

Lessons of The Am Law 100: Is the Golden Age Over?, American Lawyer, April 30, 2008

Top Law Schools Tighten Their Hold on NLJ 250 Firms, National Law Journal, April 14, 2008

As Deals Plummet, Law Firms Focus on New Opportunities, New York Law Journal, April 10, 2008

Thelen Lays Off 26 Associates, 85 Staffers, Recorder, March 20, 2008


Summer Associate/Associate:

Summer Associate Hiring for 2008 Wilts, National Law Journal, March 24, 2008

Big-Firm Associates: Why They Go and How to Keep Them, Corporate Counsel, February 29, 2008

Summer associates, think fast, National Law Journal, February 18, 2008

10 Survival Tips for New Associates, Texas Lawyer, December 11, 2007


Diversity & Lifestyle:

Attorney's Mission Is to Erase the Stigma of Depression, New York Law Journal, March 24, 2008

Law Firms Opening Up to the Idea of Attorney Re-Entry, New York Law Journal, March 7, 2008

Some Law School Grads Don't Go the Firm Route, Recorder, February 4, 2008

Younger Female Lawyers Play by Their Own Rules, Legal Times, January 22, 2008


Clerkships:

Clerks in Paradise, American Lawyer, January 9, 2008


Geographic Markets:

San Francisco Bay Area Law Firms Float on Turbulent Waters, Recorder, January 10, 2008

Texas Firms Interested in Golden State, National Law Journal, January 10, 2008

Large Firms' Billing Rates Continue to Climb, National Law Journal, December 11, 2007

Building a Better Legal Profession - Boston, LSBBLP, October 10, 2007


Student & Bar Issues:

Study shows gender, racial disparity of post-law school debt, National Law Journal, May 5, 2008

Minority Enrollment at Law Schools Is Faltering, New York Law Journal, February 6, 2008

N.Y. Bar Exam Takers to Get New Software in Wake of 2007 Malfunction, New York Law Journal, January 3, 2008

ABA Moves to Tighten Bar Passage Standards, National Law Journal, July 10, 2007


Public Interest & Pro Bono:

The 2008 NLJ Pro Bono Awards, National Law Journal, January 7, 2008

Sonnenschein Builds Interest in Pro Bono Through Scholarships, Legal Times, July 26, 2007

Bills Would Ease Student Loan Payments for Public Sector Attorneys, National Law Journal, April 16, 2007

Am Law 200 Firms Still Have Way to Go on Pro Bono, American Lawyer, July 10, 2006


Corporate & Client Issues:

Firm Lawyers Jump Ship for Quality of Life In-House, Fulton County Daily Report, July 27, 2007

General Counsel Keep Close Watch on Associate Pay Hikes, Fulton County Daily Report, July 12, 2007

Executives Rank Law Firms on Service and 'Arrogance', Connecticut Law Tribune, July 9, 2007

Citigroup's New Hires to Take Long Route to Law Department, National Law Journal, October 12, 2006

 
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