To some students at the nation’s elite law schools, landing a job at a big firm is a natural and desirable move. For others, it’s more like debtors’ prison: you have to stay at least long enough to pay off your loans.
But now, the New York Times reports, the debtors may need to find a different form of servitude. “In what is shaping up to be the most wrenching job search season in over 50 years,” those big firms are hiring half as many new associates as last year.
At Yale, the Times notes,
students accustomed to being wooed by Big Law’s glittering names — like Baker & McKenzie; Milbank, Tweed, Hadley, & McCloy; and White & Case — were stunned when those firms canceled interviews in New Haven this month.
UPDATE: On September 1, the Times posted the following correction:
An article on Wednesday about a cutback in hiring by law firms misstated several firms’ recruitment decisions involving Yale Law School. Two firms — Baker & McKenzie and Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy — did not register for the program in 2009; another, White & Case, registered but dropped its registration before scheduling any interviews. None of the firms “canceled interviews in New Haven.”
Law School spokeswoman Jan Conroy says the Times reporter never contacted the school for information before publishing the article.
