Marino’s Legal News: New Law Graduates Having Trouble Finding Jobs

For the first time since 2013, there has been a decline in the percentage of new law graduates being able to find legal jobs. The percentage of 2020 law graduates in full-time jobs that require bar passage (or those jobs in which a J.D. offers an advantage) was only 77%, according to employment figures released by the American Bar Association. That number is lower than the 81% cited for the class of 2019, and is the first time there has been a year-over-year decline since 2013.

The COVID-19 pandemic is obviously the most significant factor that caused the decline. Due to the pandemic, most states delayed the July 2020 bar exam, meaning that many recent graduates were forced to wait months to apply for positions that require bar passage before hiring, and many graduates decided to wait to take the bar exam until a later date.

Law school deans from California, New York, and New Jersey had requested that the American Bar Association add a second employment reporting period in June to give graduates more time to secure jobs, stating that the bar exam delays had adversely affected the job searches of 2020 law graduates. This request was rejected, as it was thought that prospective law students deciding where to enroll this fall need employment information available now in order to make informed decisions. However, the American Bar Association did require law schools to include a disclaimer on the jobs reports provided on their websites to convey the unique nature of these 2020 employment figures.

You can read more this issue here.

For those recent law school graduates that are seeking affordable and informative Continuing Legal Education courses to satisfy their mandatory 1st year CLE requirement, Marino offers convenient Bridge the Gap programs each month that allow you to take your CLE courses from home. Here is a look at our upcoming programs.