Lawyers face tight job market but some law firms are hiring - Pacific Business News (Honolulu):

mesiaipuhuni1981.blogspot.com
Kimura considers himself His graduating class at the saw what he calleda “mixedf bag” of employment opportunities and is enterinhg the job market with both apprehension and excitement. “I think that’s a vali d worry, especially with all the doomsday news stories aboutr big law firms in the metropolitan he said. “But there are a good number of us who are very Kimura interned with the McCorriston firm for two summerds before landing ajob offer. It’sa no secret that the legall industry has been hit hard bythe recession, particularly on the Mainlanr where law firms have shut slashed jobs or rescinded job offers to first-year The Washington, D.C.
-based National Association for Law Placement reported that entry-level recruiting started its downwar trend in 2008 after four consecutiv years of solid recruiting nationwide. More than half of the 42,00o0 law school graduates every year go on to work forprivated firms, according to the association. The rest go into public interest agencies, judicial clerkships, governmentr and the military. Some Hawaii law firms say they’r still hiring. Norman an associate and hiring coordinatorfor , which is addingy two new first-year associates in said Hawaii firms, which have traditionally been conservative in hiringt and expanding, has benefiteed from the Mainland crisis.
“Withh the Mainland market, we’re getting a lot more who typically would havestaye there, wanting to come home because of the uncertainty,” he The UH law school graduatew between 90 and 102 studentse each year. Most of them participate in summer internshipp programs during their firsrt or second year in the hope of liningh up job offers by the third summer whenthey graduate. The school hosts on-site interviews with smalp and large firmseach semester, but demand and participatio has slowed a bit this year.
“W e are a little concerned and we are working reallyu hard forour graduates, but we’re not expecting a significantg difference from last year — we’re down a said Amy Wiecking, director of career serviced for the UH law school. Most graduates who foundx jobs got them either through networking or by applyinf directly tothe firms. For this Wiecking said, it’s important that candidatesw make themselves visibleto employers. First-year associates at private law firms in Hawaii can expecg to earnbetween $60,000 and $85,000 a year.
Wieckinb said the opportunities for law school graduates still are plentifulk with many taking on clerkships with federal and state and even entering thenonprofit