How Will Public Interest Legal Employers Hire this Summer?
In September 2011, NALP conducted a snapshot survey on the public interest employment market to lend some statistical precision to hiring market changes and forecasts. We received survey responses from623 public interest organizations across 44 states, D.C., the American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands.
These responses were aggregated to report on recent law student and attorney hiring, hiring expectations for the immediate future, and employer advice for job applicants competing in today’s market.
Not surprisingly, the survey showed that the public interest job market remains tight as nonprofit and government sectors face budget cuts, hiring freezes, and layoffs. However, the results do show that there is hope of stability for more than half of the respondents expect hiring of 2012 law graduates and interns to remain steady in relation to 2011.
Here are some of the key findings:
- Almost 80% of respondents hosted law students for unpaid summer positions in 2011.
- Approximately 26% of respondents hired law students for paid summer positions in 2011.
- Over 13% of responding state attorneys general offices hired fewer paid summer interns in 2011 than they did in 2010. No responding attorneys general indicated that they would increase paid summer hiring in 2012.
- Approximately 76% of respondents expect to host the same number of paid law students in 2012 as they did in 2011.
- Overall, 18.7% of respondents hired Class of 2011 graduates for permanent staff attorney positions and postgraduate fellowships.
- About 27.6% of respondents hired lateral attorneys for permanent staff attorney positions and postgraduate fellowships.
- Approximately 1 in 3 respondent organizations was in a hiring freeze at the time of the survey.
Read the rest of the report and see the nitty-gritty details here.