National Jurist - January 2008 - (Page 39) opening their search to candidates whom they traditionally would not have hired in the past, Cotterman said. “They’re fishing in a slightly different mix,” Cotterman said. “The top tier firms are beginning to take some of the graduates that the second-tier firms were counting on.” Coyne said some large firms are looking past academics and focusing more on practical skills and experience. “Larger firms also want to know what skills the lawyer possesses that can return value to the firm,” he said. But not all big firms are willing to look for candidates without top academics from top law schools. Korby, for example, said that her firm continues to favor top graduates. And it’s important to point out that some of those top graduates aren’t just after the money. For students who are interested in private practice, salaries are just one of the factors that make big firms attractive, said Ann Griffin, assistant dean of career services and outreach at the University of Michigan Detroit Mercy School of Law. Other factors that draw students in include prestige, sophisticated clients and the ability to work on complex or highprofile cases. In fact, Griffin said she hasn’t noticed students veering off their chosen career tracks and opting for large firms instead. “If students are committed, they stick to that path,” she said. “I haven’t encountered any specific students saying ‘I wasn’t interested [in large law firms] until I saw this [salary.’]” Can small firms catch up? But the question remains: If law student supply is limited and large firms are hiring more than ever, how can small firms and employers in other sectors compete for employees among the remaining (and shrinking) pool of graduates? Most small and midsize firms and alternative legal employers won’t ever match the monstrous salaries offered by big firms— the money to do so just isn’t there. “From a logical standpoint, this will put some pressure on increasing wages across the system,” Cotterman said, but not enough to make any huge ripples. For starters, still only a small percentage of law graduates will qualify for large firm employment, leaving plenty of prospective employees for other employers. And since most small and midsize firms aren’t gunning for the top graduates, they don’t have to compete like larger firms do. That means they won’t have to offer the same kinds of money, Thompson said. Nonetheless, if smaller firms keep losing talent to large law, they might eventually have to offer new law graduates more to get really great talent. “The easy solution is to try to increase salaries somewhat,” Thompson said. And while small firms can’t match big firm salaries, there are certain big firm perks they can offer, Thompson said, such as paying for and assisting with bar preparation, for example. Smaller firms and alternative employers also can compete when it comes to worklife balance, Coyne said. “Many new lawyers are making qualityof-life decisions, finding that the ‘golden handcuffs’ don’t justify delaying having a family and doing work they don’t want to do,” he said. By focusing on quality of life, employers that don’t face the business pres- $ $ Study. Explore. Experience. Beijing Ireland Intellectual Property Summer Institute Tsinghua University School of Law Beijing, China • Five credits June 30—July 25, 2008 eLaw Summer Institute University College Cork Faculty of Law Cork, Ireland • Four credits July 7—July 25, 2008 www.piercelaw.edu/summer/nj Two White Street Concord, NH 03301 USA 603.228.1541 x 1173 summerprograms@piercelaw.edu January 2008 THE NATIONAL JURIST 39 http://www.piercelaw.edu/summer/nj http://www.piercelaw.edu/summer/nj
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