The legal "profession," now with 0.36 percent more presTTTige!

I'm still around, though not as active as I'd like to be. In a related matter, so is the legal "profession." BLS released statistics yesterday showing a gain of 4,000 legal jobs in the month of July. There was a year-over-year gain of 3,400 legal jobs (in the U.S.).

In and of itself, this isn't a bad showing compared to other industries. The problem is, what happened to the roughly 50,000 people who graduated from ABA and CBA schools in the interim? Did they merely replace lawyers who upped and died? Are they all clerking for the 2nd, 9th, and D.C. Circuits? Getting LLMs in Space Law? Rooting for Scott Bullock's permaban from TLS (more on that in another post one day)?

Seriously, I've previously asked where are all the lemmings going? There is no room for them in the "profession." With a net gain of essentially zero jobs, the only way in is if someone else leaves and is replaced. Realistically, what you're going to see is both graduates of non-elite schools fighting over scraps and a compensation race-to-the-bottom. You can't network your way into jobs that don't exist, and can't hang out a shingle to serve an unmet need that doesn't exist.

I've said it before, 0Ls and 1Ls: Get out now. Pride is good, but the legal "profession" is fucked and you will be, too.


http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm

Not seasonally adjusted	July	2010	1,123,700
	May	2011	1,109,500
	June	2011	1,121,800
	July	2011	1,124,900	1,200
Seasonally adjusted	July	2010	1,111,200
	May	2011	1,113,500
	June	2011	1,110,600
	July	2011	1,114,600	3,400
Change from June 11-July 11				4,000