Students face challenge of tighter job market

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Less than two months from graduation, Marquette University Law School student Evan Goyke never thought he would still be looking for a job.

But like many aspiring attorneys looking for work in this economy, Goyke is realizing that what he wants to do and what he’ll have to do may be two different things.

The Madison native is in the process of completing a six-month internship with the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office and hopes to be hired as a criminal prosecutor. He recently interviewed for a full-time position, but said his optimism is tempered by the fact that the governor’s budget recommended cuts to offices around the state to help compensate for a multi-billion-dollar deficit.

“I’m really having a hard time compromising because that’s what my dream job is, but that job might not be open,” Goyke said. “It’s starting to get to the point of whatever job is out there and probably a part-time job.”

Similarly, third-year student C.A. Gassman is still searching for a job in the public sector — with little success.

Though he is interning with a private firm in Milwaukee, Gassman is looking to work for a municipality doing real estate or transactional law.“Overall, I’ve probably put out 20 or so hits,” Gassman said. “No interviews even, so I’m just trying to take it slow and hopefully something will work out.”

Jennifer Wiers is one of the lucky ones.

She is interning with the State Public Defender’s Office and also clerking at a small criminal defense firm in Racine, which recently offered her a job after graduation.
Wiers jumped at the opportunity, especially since she wants to practice criminal law, but said she knows a number of third-year students who are struggling to find a permanent job.

“There are people that are in the top 10 percent of the class that don’t have jobs lined up yet,” Wiers said. “I was surprised to get an offer because I didn’t think they had the funds or the need for an associate and a lot of the small firms that would typically hire a couple of people aren’t hiring right now.”

Wiers said she has talked to students who had offers rescinded by some of the larger firms on the coasts and others who are considering just going solo until something else opens up.

None of the largest firms in the state have resorted to substantial layoffs or withdrawn standing offers for new associates, according to career planning staff at Marquette and the University of Wisconsin law schools.

The National Law Journal reported that in mid-March, Goldberg Kohn, a mid-sized Chicago firm, fired nine associates and decided to delay the start date for its incoming class of first-year associates.

Two other firms with Chicago branches, Jenner & Block LLP and Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, also reduced their workforces in March, according to the same article.

Gassman and Goyke said they would not be surprised if the competition in the local legal job market increases if unemployed attorneys from other states start looking for work in Wisconsin.

“It’s a function of not only going against recent graduates, but the recent layoffs and the more experienced people looking to move up,” Gassman said. “So you are competing against a lot of people.”

As a self-described middle-of-the-pack student, Goyke said jobs he expected to be attainable a year ago may now be harder to come by if more qualified attorneys are seeking those positions.

“If the big firms are freezing their hiring, it puts pressure on the middle guys because those students who have really excelled in law school all of a sudden are applying for jobs that I kind of thought would be there for me,” Goyke said.

“It pushes pressure down and makes it more competitive.”