by Gabrielle Difabbio

Created on: January 21, 2010

While law schools certainly teach law students to "think like lawyers", law school is not the best training ground when it comes to teaching lawyers-to-be what to expect as new attorneys and the challenges they will inevitably face once they leave the comforting walls of academia.  After three years of law school, new attorneys can expect to know enough black letter law to pass their bar exams (if they study of course), they will know the ins and outs of how to write a persuasive legal brief, how to deliver an effective oral argument, and how to apply critical legal reasoning to any given scenario (oftentimes to the annoyance of family and friends).  

However, what many new attorneys do not know after graduating law school is what will happen to them after they pass the bar exam.  In today's economy, the big law jobs that were once guarantees for law students who clerked at firms in their second year summer, have evaporated.  Judicialclerkships , government jobs, in-house opportunities, and positions with private agencies have become increasingly competitive.  Consequently, an ever increasing number of students will graduate, terrified, and without a job.  Suddenly the premium education they paid for hardly seems to be providing the comfort and security it was guaranteed to deliver. 

And for those newbies fortunate enough to have a law job upon graduation day, it might not be at the level of pay anticipated, or even in an area of law that is of interest.  New attorneys are at the very bottom of the totem pole in virtually every legal position.  This comes as a shock to many and can often lead to a swift distaste for the law.  Attorneys who find themselves working in big firm jobs often struggle with the realization that law school did not train them for transactional work or for the practical aspects of working at a firm (e.g., how to manage time effectively, prioritization, how to write a contract, to negotiate a deal, to interact with clients, or how to maintain a work/life balance).      

Therefore, upon graduation, questions abound: How will I find a job when virtually every legal job requires experience?  How am I ever going to be able to pay off those massive student loans?  And once I have a job, how will I be able to apply the skills I learned to all kinds of legal work, not just litigation?  How will I find a job that I enjoy?  

This article will attempt

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