Posted: July 30, 2010

By Philip Newswanger

philip.newswanger@insidebiz.com

Fresh-faced attorneys who graduated from law school in 2009 found their starting salaries about the same as those for graduates in the previous year, according to an annual report by the National Association for Law Placement.

The national median salary for the Class of 2009, based on those working full-time and reporting a salary, was $72,000, unchanged from that for the Class of 2008, according to the report published July 22.

The average or mean was $93,454.

The national median salary at law firms based on those reporting a salary was $130,000, compared with $125,000 the prior year, and the national average was $115,254.

However, because some large law firm salaries cluster in the $160,000 range while many other salaries cluster in the $40,000-$65,000 range, relatively few salaries were actually near the median or mean, the report said.

The report now computes an adjusted mean, which adjusts for the fact that the distribution of reported full-time salaries is not the same as the distribution of reported full-time jobs.

The report said the calculation of adjusted means is accomplished by giving more "weight" to the mean or average salary in small firms and less "weight" to the mean or average salary in large firms to calculate.

The adjusted mean for all full-time jobs reported was $85,198 and the adjusted mean for full-time law firm jobs was $102,959.

The median salaries - government, $52,000; judicial clerkships, $50,000; and public interest jobs, $42,800 - changed little from 2008, the report said.

The overall employment rate of 88.3 percent for the class of 2009 graduates represents a 3.6 percentage point drop from the recent historical high of 91.9 percent for the Class of 2007 and masks a number of weaknesses in the job market faced by this class, the report said.

More jobs were temporary than in previous years, the report said. In fact, 25 percent of all jobs were reported as temporary.

The high percentage of temporary jobs correlates with the overall employment picture for all jobs nationwide.

Businesses will hire workers temporarily until sales return to pre-recession levels and government will delay full-time hires until its budget is stabilized.

But temporary hires are the stage prior to hiring full-time workers.

Despite the down economy, the law firm of Vandeventer Black continued to hire talented and skilled professionals.

"With regard to attorney hires in 2009, we extended two offers, and we also made another offer to a student right out of law school to start with the firm in 2011. He was very good and we were so impressed we made the offer and that was only the second time we ever did that," said Denny Wance, executive director of Norfolk-based Vandeventer Black.

"So basically, we made three hires of new associates in 2009 and received acceptance. We also brought on board two new senior attorneys who had large books of business that were strategic hires to improve our business base.

"Even in this down economy, we continue to look for attorney hires who will complement what we do and enhance the firm's economic position," Wance said.

In 2009, the firm created one new paralegal position and hired two other paralegals who replaced departing employees.

"During 2007, we were expanding and did some substantial hiring," Wance said.

"In 2008, we started with the recession, and we had to take some steps to slow down on hires. And 2009 was similar to 2008, but we were even more selective as to who we hired and what we hired for. We continue to entertain and evaluate, bringing in talented people."

As in past years, the most common employer was a private law firm. Close to 60 percent of 2009 graduates got jobs at private law firms.

Over one-quarter of 2009 graduates were working in public service positions, including government jobs, the military, judicial clerkships and public interest positions.

Employment in business was 13.5 percent, essentially unchanged from 2008. At 3.5 percent, the percentage of jobs in academia was the highest ever recorded by the association. nib