Legal Industry’s Furloughs Can Be the Sector’s Found Treasure

This is a guest post from the National Council’s Public Policy Intern, Marissa Gunn.

I was in a bit of a panic when stumbled into my public policy internship with the National Council of Nonprofits. I was third year law student, it was winter break, and I had no job. It wasn’t a particularly unusual spot to be in; unlike legal employers in the private sector, many employers in the public and nonprofit sectors (where I planned to be) were just gearing up for recruitment season.

What was a bit unusual was the predicament in which I and many of my peers had been left by the troubled economy.

By last winter many soon-to-be graduates who had worked the previous summer with the hope and expectation of being offered a permanent position upon graduation had been told one of two things. Either they simply would not be offered a permanent position (often due to financial difficulties), or they would be offered a permanent position…some day. Those in the latter group were given deferred start dates (and therefore deferred sources of income), sometimes pushed as far back a year.

Though a disappointment, this was not a huge surprise to many of us. We heard a lot the year before about law firms laying off entire practice groups and reducing the number of law students they’d hire for summer positions. If you were able to secure a paid position, you were probably anxious about your employer’s ability to offer you a permanent position at the end of your summer stint. If you weren’t able to find work that summer, you were even more anxious about the toll the economy was taking on your employment prospects.

And if you were me in the winter of 2009, you were anxious about this realization: the already highly competitive legal profession just got way more competitive. So, how do we, as current and soon to be legal professionals, deal?

We endeavor to save the world.

A fast trend for many large law firms who deferred start dates for new hires has been to strike some variant of the following deal with their deferred recruits: We’ll hold a position for you here, but you can’t fill it until X date. In the meantime, we’ll pay you a fraction of what you’d normally make here, if you find employment in the public/nonprofit sector.

Additionally, as was storied in this NY Times piece, lawyers who had been working in law firms for years have been asked not to come to work for a while and receive a lower, often times substantially lower, salary. Apparently, many of those lawyers want to or are encouraged to find work in the public/nonprofit sector too.

This might be a bit scary for those who passed up the potential benefits (a $160,000 starting salary) and burdens (it’s 11:00 PM and you’re still at work) of jobs with some of the world’s top law firms to pursue careers in the public interest. Furloughed attorneys look mighty attractive to legal services organizations who may be finding it more difficult to fund their programs. And for good reason! Why would these organizations pay me when a law firm is willing to pay someone else to do the same work?

But more importantly, it could be scary for the nonprofit sector. What will happen when the furloughs are over? Will the clients and communities that these attorneys serve be happy to lose their advocate? Will the relationships that these attorneys will inevitably build with the organizations and communities they’ve become a part of simply end? Will a well of legal minds and resources made available by the confluence of a recession and an increasing desire among legal students and professionals to do good in the world suddenly dry up?

Hopefully—and probably—not.

The lucky truth would appear to be this: more and more people from all professions are realizing a genuine desire to do good. This is why the best law firms have increased and touted their dedication to pro bono work to both prospective clients and recruits. This is why more and more law students seek out opportunities to serve in some capacity, whether or not they plan to enter the public/nonprofit sector.

This is why a friend and colleague of mine recently called me and excitedly announced that, less than a week after graduation and right before we recent grads begin the gauntlet that is bar preparation, her law firm had deferred her start date for one year.

She called me to get a contact at the children’s advocacy organization where I would be working in the coming fall.

Furlough can be an amazing opportunity. For my friend, it’s an opportunity to provide legal assistance to abused and disadvantaged children. For the legal profession, it’s an opportunity to do our part to make the world a little better, and we’re taking it!

That kind of passion doesn’t magically appear when a recession hits or mysteriously disappear when the economic clouds part. My optimistic forecast is that these furloughs into public interest will lead to more of the best minds putting their talents to use for the greater good, stronger bonds between the private and nonprofit/public sectors, and best of all, stiffer competition in the race to make the world a better place.

On your mark…

Get set…

GO!