Law School!

[Tampa_Dave]

Congratulations to your daughter! It is pretty tough out there for law school graduates these days. But, one area that really is in need of good young attorneys is estate planning. For whatever reason, not that many talented young attorneys are going into this field (I guess the glamour of being the next Atticus Finch or doing a big corporate deal on wall street gets most of the attention).

Anyway, University of Miami has an excellent estate planning program (they put on the annual Heckerling conference for estate planners, that I went to this past year). If she has any interest in financial planning, working with individuals and families, and tax law, it is definitely worth looking into. There are good job prospects and fairly family friendly (wow, that was quite the alliteration) hours.

Cheers!

It is tough for new law grads in 2014. As for my daughter, she is keeping an open mind concerning her area of practice. I know she wants to get into the courtroom. I can’t say I blame her. There is something to be said for trial work. Estate planning is an excellent field, but I don’t know whether she would be interested or not. Time will tell.

The best job I ever had was being a lifeguard. Unfortunately, the pay isn’t very good and I’m not sure I l would ook as good with my Speedo and whistle anymore.

 

[phillylawyer]

It is tough for new law grads in 2014. As for my daughter, she is keeping an open mind concerning her area of practice. I know she wants to get into the courtroom. I can’t say I blame her. There is something to be said for trial work. Estate planning is an excellent field, but I don’t know whether she would be interested or not. Time will tell.

I work at a big firm in the Philadelphia area, and I interview quite a number of law school 2L’s for summer positions. It is amazing how, in the last 3 years, it has gotten so difficult to get a job out of law school. The qualifications of law students that don’t get offers is astounding. The supply of graduating lawyers right now (despite the drop in enrollment in the last couple of years) is still far greater than the demand.

That is partly why I mention estate planning, because the demand for new attorneys in most areas of the law have shrunk, whereas estate planning is as strong as ever. Our practice group recently tried to hire a mid level estate planning associate and it took us over a year to find one who was qualified. Plus, I think estate planning law is the best area of law for so many reasons, so I have to give it a plug!

Also, I agree with previous commenters that it is important to see how much of a scholarship she is being offered from Miami and find out what their job placement for full time legal work after 9 months is. I have seen way too many students come out with 150k + in debt from undergrad and law school combined and not able to find legal work that pays more than 50k a year salary. 50k a year salary is just fine to live on in most circumstances, but if you have 150k in debt, it’s going to be pretty difficult. It’s probably important to find out not only what the percentage engaged in full-time legal work after 9 months is, but what the median salary of all graduates is as well.

Our firm has some information on U Miami law school for recruiting purposes, and here is some publicly available information, for what it’s worth.

law.miami.edu/employmentdata/2011/
top-law-schools.com/wiki/University_of_Miami_School_of_Law

The best job I ever had was being a lifeguard. Unfortunately, the pay isn’t very good and I’m not sure I l would ook as good with my Speedo and whistle anymore.

I don’t think either of us will be hired to be speedo models in the near future.

Congratulations again to your daughter! Cheers!

 

[marymary1975]

I work at a big firm in the Philadelphia area, and I interview quite a number ofl 2L’s for summer positions. It is amazing how, in the last 3 years, it has gotten so difficult to get a job out of law school. The qualifications of law students that don’t get offers is astounding. The supply of graduating lawyers right now (despite the drop in enrollment in the last couple of years) is still far greater than the demand.

That is partly why I mention estate planning, because the demand for new attorneys in most areas of the law have shrunk, whereas estate planning is as strong as ever. Our practice group recently tried to hire a mid level estate planning associate and it took us over a year to find one who was qualified. Plus, I think estate planning law is the best area of law for so many reasons, so I have to give it a plug!

Also, I agree with previous commenters that it is important to see how much of a scholarship she is being offered from Miami and find out what their job placement for full time legal work after 9 months is. I have seen way too many students come out with 150k + in debt from undergrad and law school combined and not able to find legal work that pays more than 50k a year salary. 50k a year salary is just fine to live on in most circumstances, but if you have 150k in debt, it’s going to be pretty difficult. It’s probably important to find out not only what the percentage engaged in full-time legal work after 9 months is, but what the median salary of all graduates is as well.

Our firm has some information on U Miami law school for recruiting purposes, and here is some publicly available information, for what it’s worth.

law.miami.edu/employmentdata/2011/
top-law-schools.com/wiki/University_of_Miami_School_of_Law

I don’t think either of us will be hired to be speedo models in the near future.

Congratulations again to your daughter! Cheers!

I have to agree to look at what scholarship offers your daughter gets. I graduated from UM a little over ten years ago and I can tell you it is very very expensive. The rumor when I was a law student was that it was only $250.00 cheaper than Harvard. Then again iI don’t know the cost now but I still have the feeling is expensive.

I don’t want to talk too much about job opportunities in Fl because I haven’t been there in a decade and I am in Boston where the market is very different (opportunities here go together with where you graduated. .you can imagine with Harvard, BU, BC…those always have jobs secured since 2L) but back in the day graduates from UM had very good opportunities and most of the people I graduated are doing quite good…but again that is over a decade ago and I tend to agree that generally speaking there are more law school graduates that find it difficult to find a job, but then again I think if you are a good lawyer and do your best you will do good.