According to Wikipedia, there are 33 Australian universtities offering law degrees to prospective students. According to the Australian Law Students’ Association, there are approximately 28,000 law students currently enrolled in a law degree across the nation. Given that a law degree is usually coupled with another degree and the length of a course is 5 years, let’s assume that 5,000 students graduate each year with a law degree.
With that staggering figure in mind, one would hope there are a few jobs to go around. But are there?
According to the AFR the answer is ‘not really’. Well, in respect of established Australian law firms, anyhow.
Statistics compiled by the AFR show that the sum total of all graduate positions offered by all major Australian law firms (ie top tier, mid tier and boutique) was 706 in January to July of this year. If we generously double that figure to contemplate offers that will be made in the latter half of this year, that’s 1412 graduate jobs across the nation in major law firms. This means that for some 3,588 graduates in law, unless they can find a job in regional firms, in government, or in some other professional services firm, the hard work at university may have just been a waste of time and money.
Chief Justice Mason famously said in the Hospital Products case that the categories of fiduciary relationship are not closed. Will we ever see the day that a graduate law student attempts to argue that fiduciary obligations are owed by university admissions staff to prosective students to advise, among other things, that their job prospects are in the toilet?
Following on from our story a couple of weeks ago profiling the dramatic reduction in top-tier graduate intakes, we today publish below further evidence that employment prospects for new graduates are languishing in the porcelain.
Thanks to the AFR for the following stats:
Decreases
- Firm: Middletons
Number of graduates January – July 2010: 22
Number of graduates January -June 2009: 26 - Firm: DLA Phillips Fox
Number of graduates January – July 2010: 19
Number of graduates January -June 2009: 27 - Firm: Norton Rose
Number of graduates January – July 2010: 16
Number of graduates January -June 2009: 28 - Firm: Maddocks
Number of graduates January – July 2010: 15
Number of graduates January -June 2009: 16 - Firm: HWL Ebsworth
Number of graduates January – July 2010: 14
Number of graduates January -June 2009: 16 - Firm: Lander & Rogers
Number of graduates January – July 2010: 11
Number of graduates January -June 2009: 12 - Firm: Arnold Bloch Leibler
Number of graduates January – July 2010: 10
Number of graduates January -June 2009: 11 - Firm: Baker & McKenzie
Number of graduates January – July 2010: 10
Number of graduates January -June 2009: 13 - Firm: Holding Redlich
Number of graduates January – July 2010: 9
Number of graduates January -June 2009: 12 - Firm: Herbert Geer
Number of graduates January – July 2010: 7
Number of graduates January -June 2009: 8 - Firm: Piper Alderman
Number of graduates January – July 2010: 7
Number of graduates January -June 2009:18 - Firm: Sparke Helmore
Number of graduates January – July 2010: 7
Number of graduates January -June 2009: 9 - Firm: Dibbs Barker
Number of graduates January – July 2010: 6
Number of graduates January -June 2009: 12 - Firm: Henry Davis York
Number of graduates January – July 2010: 5
Number of graduates January -June 2009: 7 - Firm: Tresscox
Number of graduates January – July 2010: 5
Number of graduates January -June 2009: 9 - Firm: Gilbert + Tobin
Number of graduates January – July 2010: 4
Number of graduates January -June 2009: 13
Increases
- Firm: Gadens
Number of graduates January – July 2010: 31
Number of graduates January -June 2009: 23 - Firm: Hunt & Hunt
Number of graduates January – July 2010: 5
Number of graduates January -June 2009: 4 - Firm: Griffith Hack
Number of graduates January – July 2010: 5
Number of graduates January -June 2009: 1 - Firm: McCullough Robertson
Number of graduates January – July 2010: 11
Number of graduates January -June 2009: 0 - Firm: Thomson Playford Cutlers
Number of graduates January – July 2010: 10
Number of graduates January -June 2009: 5 - Firm: Hall & Wilcox
Number of graduates January – July 2010: 8
Number of graduates January -June 2009: 7 - Firm: Cooper Grace Ward
Number of graduates January – July 2010: 7
Number of graduates January -June 2009: 5
Any ideas what jobless grads should do with their spare time?
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Granted I graduated in 2005, well before the GFC became a well known acronym, but my graduating class was roughly split:
30% to large corporate law or other professional services firms (i.e. IBs, accounting firms and management consulting)
30% to government agencies
30% to smaller suburban legal practice
The remainder opted not to use their law degrees and so pursued different paths (marketing, advertising, teaching etc).
Within 6 months of finishing our final exams, none in my graduating class were unemployed. Not that it is relevant, but I didn’t attend a sandstone or even a Sydney-based university. Sure, some were actively looking for something better, but everyone had a job.
Flash forward to 2010 and the number of my peers still practicing in large corporate law firms has been dramatically reduced (and not by the market or redundancy programs). Most have been tempted away by other opportunities in government, the commercial field and a select few have found their calling at the bar. Many have fled Sydney.
When I was leaving university, the mentality was if you didn’t land a large corporate law job, then, and only then, would you consider government, smaller law firms or making good use of that science, accounting or linguistics major.
I get the feeling that graduates are a bit more discerning today and are less inclined to take up a large corporate job just to have that brand on their CV for 18 months before plotting their next move. I think the number of graduates taking up jobs in large law firms reflects this.
Sure there isn’t room for all law graduates to take up positions in large law, but the statistics (from my experience only) suggest the majority don’t want to.
I’d like to see the stats on how government and in-house roles have increased or decreased over the past 3 years. It’s hard to conduct any meaningful analysis of graduate opportunities without this information.
I don’t think that graduate job prospects are in the toilet and I would be surprised if a candidate who presents well and is persistent (not arrogant) could not find work in this market.
There are lots of stories floating around about lawyers who miss out on clerkships taking up internships overseas or paralegal jobs in Australia and then picking up graduate positions in 6 – 12 months after the major city HR departments have had a chance to reflect on some of their bad summer clerk selections and candidates have had a chance to decide on whether they want to continue with a legal career after having had a brief taste.
With this in mind, my feeling is there are more people slipping into graduate seats than these numbers suggest …
In this instance its definitely not the firms’ fault. There are far too many greedy ‘education’ institutions promising the world in their LLB prospectus material. Australia definitely needs to go to a preferred JD program, similar to Canada, and radically decrease the number of students pumped out every year because it is devaluing the degree immensely. in most foreign jurisdictions our degrees are already a joke. its common knowledge that if you cant get good enough marks in the LSAT for north america you have to go to school in Australia to do your JD because ‘they take anyone’
The article is indeed the awful truth for grads – message to grads – make sure that your second degree (i.e. not your LL.B) provides some semblance of a career option.
With respect, 1 Yr PAE, I don’t agree. My other degree was a BA and frankly, I wouldn’t be banking on that to get me a decent job right now. If you did commerce, then maybe…
Wouldn’t it make more sense to work your ar$e off and get good marks in your law degree (while having the all important extra curricular activities on your CV) to make damn make sure you’re not one of those people who can’t get a job after uni? It’s not like there’s some black art to getting jobs in reputable firms. Granted, it’s not easy but it’s staring law students in the face – plain as day.
I agree to an extent with Anon that the degree is at risk of being a little devalued, but frankly you can blame Whitlam for that one. But on the other hand, you can’t say that things don’t sort themselves out in the end. Do you really think someone with a 60% average from the 33rd ranked law school in this country is going to be even remotely competitive for any of the firms mentioned above? Hell no. Some Melbourne firms, in their infinite (lack of) wisdom, won’t even look outside Melbourne or Monash.
If you plan on working within Australia then the huge number of law schools is not an issue as firms can readily differentiate. But if you want to work outside Aus then you come up with some pretty stiff opposition due to firm unfamiliarity AND competition from candidates that studied in JD jurisdictions. The firms cant be expected to know the difference. As far as they are concerned we all come from the same backwater country where any schmuck can get an LLB from a cornflakes box, and to be honest, I tend to agree with them. Equally and for the same reason, getting into international post grad courses is more difficult too.
The contrast between countries like Aus compared to the USA or even Canada is amazing. We have less prestige, less pay, more competition etc etc. More barriers to entry would mean that kids are filtered out of the profession BEFORE spending 5 years and 30+ grand on a degree which is nearly useless without a decent job waiting at the end of it.
@itsnoteasybutitissimple –
Yes, Whitlam certainly devalued our degrees by abolishing university fees. He must rue ever allowing the bottomfeeding middle and working class to enter tertiary education.
If only my law classes were composed entirely of private school alumni; my standing in the world would not then be degraded by blue collars graduating alongside me.
Best of all, I would learn to relate to people from all walks of life, just the way God intended – from a distance.
Enjoy your career, it sounds like you have just the right attitude to fit into the world of corporate law.
@itsnoteasybutitissimple said on :2/Aug/2010 at 10:08
Your second degree is a BA, which does not lead to a lot of direct employment opportunities. I think that’s what 1 Yr PAE is getting at – make sure you do a good commerce or science degree that might give you some options.
@Cyril, I couldn’t agree more but I was ‘mathematically challenged’ at secondary school (to the point I didn’t do Maths in Yr 12) so commerce wasn’t an option for me.
@Anon, I do think you’re correct in saying that, as a general proposition, it’s more competitive and hence more prestigious to get into law school in places like Canada and the US. 33 law schools in a country with our tiny population is a complete joke.
The sad truth is that it’s easy money for universities as the biggest expenses in running a law school are the academics’ salaries and library resources. A drop in the ocean compared with running Med, Science, Engineering, etc and way more profit margin.
Whilst it’s not Pulitzer Prize material, I think Lisa Pryor’s book, The Pinstriped Prison, also makes some valid points in this regard about the pressure on secondary students not to ‘waste marks’ and ending up in law because of it.
I don’t wish to quarrel, but I simply can’t agree with you that “More barriers to entry would mean that kids are filtered out of the profession BEFORE spending 5 years and 30+ grand on a degree which is nearly useless without a decent job waiting at the end of it.” First, a law degree isn’t useless and you would be hard pressed to find a degree that provides such an array of career options. There are always jobs for people who work hard and set goals for themselves.
Second, it’s a complete nonsense to say that it’s hard to get work overseas with an Australian law degree. For starters, it’s very difficult to do with less than 2 years PAE anyway, so at that point your 3 years’ work experience is already of more relevance than your uni/grades. Moreover, I think it’s easy to generalise about employment prospects. Same goes for getting into top Masters programs. I personally know a guy who did his LLB at Vic Uni (hardly a top ranking Australian law school) and he’s currently doing a BCL at Oxford for God’s sake!
Don’t know what all the fuss is about. between myself, my brother, my best mate and his girlfriend, we’ve all secured graduate positions at top and mid tier firms in Sydney, between 2008 and 2010.
It’s simple – get some legal experience while you’re studying, get a good D average, grow a personality, and you should find a job.