The Red Velvet Lawyer

What Happens When  Baby Boomers Retire? In April 2013 , I wrote about the possible opportunities for new lawyers created by the increasing age of lawyers -- who will eventually retire.  Bill Henderson, of The Legal Whiteboard blog, provides a very interesting analysis of his data on this topic  here .  One of his findings: The big surprise here is that the proportion of young lawyers (under age 35) has been declining for several decades. And not by a little, but by a lot. During this period, the median age went from 39 in 1980, to 41 in 1991, to 45 in 2000, to 49 in 2005. Some of his conclusions: The analysis above suggests that the JD Advantage / JD Preferred employment market started to take shape several decades ago, long before these terms were put in place by the ABA and NALP. Yet, we really don't know about these careers. To construct a more useful, informative narrative, we'd have to systematically study the career paths...

Law Grads in  Legal Temp Agency Jobs The ABA has picked up the story on job equilibrium that I started  here  and expanded this month  here ,  here , and  here . The first comment posted to the ABA article reads: "Low-paying, monotonous doc review jobs for everyone…the sooner the better!" In that story line, I promised to follow up on two concerns expressed by scambloggers about the JD Advantage jobs. I said: Scambloggers have expressed great concern about the number of graduates finding employment through legal temp agencies and as paid employees of law schools. The comment to the ABA article shows that this concern continues to exist. Analyzing the Data. What Data? So, how many grads, nine months out of law school, held positions as legal temps? I'm guessing most of these grads engaged in document review projects -- either associated with litigation discovery or transactional due diligence review. NALP first began tracking...

Jobs for Law Graduates in Banking, Finance, Technology, E-Commerce, Management Consulting, Government, Public Interest, Accounting  -- and  Yes -- as Legal Temps NALP describes a JD Advantage job as follows: It turns out that the JD degree prepares you for a variety of exciting jobs and careers. While many law school graduates go on to practice law, many others go on to play leadership roles in a variety of settings.  * * *   You will see that JD Advantage positions are jobs that do not require bar passage, an active law license, or involve practicing law in the traditional sense. However, in these positions, a JD provides an advantage in obtaining or performing the job. In fact, many graduates view entry-level opportunities with the federal government or in business/industry as a primary goal. There are many law-related positions for which a JD is a significant competitive advantage. At the same website page, NALP offers a series ...

JD Advantage Jobs:  The Data In November, I tried to support Prof. Organ's prediction that new law-related jobs would exceed the number of graduates in 2015 or 2016. That posting has gotten a lot of attention since then.  Top law blawger, Brian Leiter , first drew attention to it. Then Ohio Professor Debra J. Merritt made further calculations on her blog . Then the Wall Street Journal picked up the story. Then the National Jurist cited my posting in its December issue.  One feature of that conversation is how to count a category of jobs that NALP began tracking in 2001 -- the "JD Advantage" (or "JD Preferred") jobs versus the "Bar Passage Required" jobs. Some people suggest, including many scambloggers, that the JD Advantage jobs should not be considered when reporting the employment rate of law graduates.  Apparently, these folks believe that all prospective law students choose law school because they al...