About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

89 Denv. U. L. Rev. 887 (2011-2012)
Training Lawyer-Entrepreneurs

handle is hein.journals/denlr89 and id is 915 raw text is: TRAINING LAWYER-ENTREPRENEURS LUz E. HERRERAt INTRODUCTION The Great Recession has caused many new attorneys to question their decisions to go to law school.' The highly publicized decline in employment opportunities for lawyers has called into question the value of obtaining a law degree.2 The tightening of the economy has dimin- ished the availability of entry-level jobs for law graduates across em- ployment sectors. Large law firms are laying-off lawyers, bringing in smaller first year associate classes,5 hiring more contract and experienced t Assistant Professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law. The author acknowledges the contributions of Thomas Jefferson School of Law (TJSL) students Eric Bolt, Elizabeth Chu, Molly Fashola, Farahnaz Ghaibi, Janmari Hueso, Marshall Lurtz, and Jack Starrs for their assistance in preparing this article. A note of appreciation to Raquel Aldana, Jean Chang, Richard Granat, Susan Jones, Marybeth Herald, Carroll Seron, Ben Templin, William Slomanson, Ellen Waldman and my other colleagues at TJSL for their valuable feedback. A special thank you to lawyer-entrepreneurs in training, Roberto Alvarez and Karen Suri for their assistance, and to Carlos Rocha for his patience and support. I. The Great Recession began at the end of 2007 but was accelerated in the summer of 2008 when investment banks closed, and transactional corporate work began to dry up. Corporate law firms began layoffs, hiring freezes and explored other ways to lower their overhead, placing more attorneys in the marketplace for legal work. James G. Leipold, The Changing Legal Employment Market for New Law School Graduates, THE BAR EXAMINER, Nov. 2010, at 6-10. For the impact of the Great Recession on large law firms, see Bernard A. Burk & David McGowan, Big But Brittle: Economic Perspectives on the Future of the Law Firm in the New Economy, 2011 COLUM. Bus. L. REv. 1, 28-40 (2011). 2. See David Segal, Is Law School a Losing Game?, N.Y. TIMES, Jan. 9, 2011, at BUI, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/business/09law.html?pagewanted-print; see also Bill Hebert, What is the Value of a Law Degree?, CALIFORNIA BAR JOURNAL, Feb. 2011, http://www.calbarjournal.com/February20l /Opinion/FromthePresident.aspx, and What is the Value of a Law Degree? Part 2, CALIFORNIA BAR JOURNAL, Mar. 2011, http://www.calbarjournal.com/March20l 1/Opinion/FromthePresident.aspx. 3. NALP reported that the employment rate of 85.6% was the lowest employment rate since 1994 when rate reported was 84.7%. See NALP, Class of 2011 Has Lowest Employment Rate Since Class of 1994, NALP BULLETIN (July 2012), http://www.nalp.org/0712research; See also NALP, Law School Grads Face Worst Job Market Yet Less than Half Find Jobs in Private Practice, NALP PRESS RELEASE (July 2012), http://www.nalp.org/uploads/PressReleases/ Classof201 1ERSSSelectedFindingsPressRelease.pdf. 4. Jonathan D. Glater, The Lawyer Squeeze: Layoffs and Closings in a Field Thought to Resist Downturns, N.Y. TIMES, Nov. 12, 2008, at B l. Debra Cassens Weiss, BigLaw Laid Off More than 12,000 People in 2009, the Worst Year Ever, ABA JOURNAL (Jan. 4, 2010), http://www.abajoumal.com/news/article/biglaw laidoff more-than 12000_people in 2009 the w orstyear ever; Martha Neil, Chadbourne Bids Final Farewell to II Deferred Members of Class of 2009, ABA JOURNAL (Mar. 17, 2010), http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/ chadbourne bids final good-bye to_11 deferred members of class of 2009/. 5. See Karen Sloan, Its Tough Out There, THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL (Feb. 27, 2012), http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNU.jsp?id=1202543428380&slreturn=1; Gerry Shih, Down- turn Dims Prospects Even at Top Law Schools, N.Y. TIMES, Aug. 26, 2009, at Bl; Molly McDonough, Summer Associate Offers Plummet, Hitting 17-Year Low, ABA JOURNAL (Mar. 3, 2010), http://www.abajoumal.com/news/article/summer associate offers plummet hitting 17- year low/; see also Burk & McGowan, supra note 1, at 32-34. 887

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most