surprise: biglaw deferrees are cramping style of public-sector hopefuls.

[cynthia foster]

Colby Freeman (left) is a 3L at USF and has been volunteering for the San Francisco DA's office for four years.  He's committed a huge chunk of his life to the office, and of course was hoping that time served would land him with a job after graduation. 

Unfortunately, timing is not on Freeman's side.  Despite the fact the DA's offices across the country have rescinded offers to 3Ls (citing budget cuts, in most cases), there's an added layer of distress: biglaw refugees looking for public interest work to tide them over until their firms can afford them, according to a really interesting Cal Law story by Petra on the subject (free reg. req.).

Across the bay from Freeman, Alameda County's DA office is experiencing a crunch that seems to paint a pretty scary public-sector picture:

"Senior Deputy DA Kevin Dunleavy said his office relies on its summer program as its main hiring vehicle; it typically fills higher positions from within the office. In a typical year, the DA hosts eight to 12 summer clerks and makes offers to about six, contingent on openings. In 2008, there were 11 summer clerks. A letter went out in January, with apologies for the delay, explaining that no offers could be made, Dunleavy said. What's more, the office isn't able to pay its new deputy district attorneys the starting salary of about $75,000. Four deputies who passed the bar in November are getting a law clerk wage of roughly $21 an hour, with limited benefits."

Despite the fact that sympathy for biglaw deferrees rages on throughout the blogosphere, I think a fair amount of attention needs to be paid to these governmental offices who are struggling to now accomodate all of the country's law grads.  While the private sector bides its time, the Dunleavys of the world are forced to make tough decisions that will have a real impact on the futures of recent grads. 

So far, several counties in California (including Contra Costa) are not offering positions to biglaw deferrees.  According to Petra, "some [DA's offices] said they [are] weighing the fairness to those for whom this would not just be a pit stop until the economy improves."  Sounds like a tough call.

Comments

[Joe]

It's a bad time to be graduating from law school, certainly.