Many law school graduates today are facing significantly reduced job opportunities compared to one year ago, as several prominent law firms have lowered the number of on-campus interviews because of the current economic slump.\nKaren Sloan, a reporter for The National Law Journal, said while regional midsize firms have not seen too much change, large, corporate firms - which tend to offer the most comfortable salaries - have taken the biggest hit.\n"The trend started last fall and it's been getting tighter and tighter since," she said.\nUniversity Law students currently seeking interviews, however, have not been hit as hard as other students across the country.\nKevin Donovan, senior assistant dean for Career Services at the Law School, said despite a decrease in overall interviews, the interview process for University law students has generally remained a positive one.\n"Students had access to a lot of great employers and a fairly large number of callbacks," Donovan stated. "The process is moving forward."\nLaw School Dean Paul Mahoney also has remained optimistic for the University's students, noting that the University's program has a distinct advantage because it is does not rely on law firms in specific areas.\n"We are not geographically tied to a particular market," Mahoney said, "Our students are more adaptable to various markets."\nUniversity Law students themselves, meanwhile, claimed to have had mixed experiences during this year's interview process. Though second-year Law student C. Benjamin Cooper has not had any firms cancel his interviews, third-year Law Student Aaron Armstrong, who went through the interview process last year, said his peers received less callback interviews than previous classes.\n"It wasn't really until people got callbacks that we started noticing a lot less firms were offering callbacks," he said.\nStudents who have not had success in finding employment with a large law firm have been forced to look elsewhere. Mahoney said smaller firms and the government sector are strong alternatives in today's market.\n"Students should look at markets that are not in New York [City] or [Washington], D.C.," he said, adding that the federal government also is hiring recent Law School graduates.
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