<p>Here’s the real rub – today, even if you go to a T14 law school and get a job at a big NYC or Chicago or LA or DC firm that still pays its newly minted associates $160,000 per year to start (not surprisingly, the number of firms that still pay that amount is decreasing steadily), you will likely not get to start your job the autumn after you graduate from law school in the spring and take the bar exam in the autumn. Instead, at most of these top law firms, you will now have to wait at least one to two years<a href=“yes,%20I%20said%20years”>/U</a> before they will allow you in the door to start making that salary. </p>
<p>A handful of firms have offered their deferred associate attorneys stipends during part or all of the period of the deferral, but the stipends are not close to the expected payday that a new associate attorney could expect. In fact, some firms will only pay the stipend if you take public interest work during the deferral period (easier said than done, since public interest organizations (a) are quite coompetitive when it comes to finding jobs there, (b) may prefer to hire young attorneys who plan to stay for a longer period than a deferred associate and/or who have a genuine passion for the organization and (c) do not necessarily have the resources to hire a slew of deferred attorneys (not enough desks, computers, space, etc.)). </p>
<p>It is not easy out there, and until the economy begins to improve (and despite the smoke that the government seems to be blowing around, the economy is NOT actually improving for any of my clients), it will not get any easier.</p>