It is the time of year when many soon-to-be law graduates are looking for jobs, and the market is still recovering from the Great Recession.  It is easy to get discouraged, and I hear that from many of you.  I do not try to diminish those feelings, but I do try to help you keep the faith and look forward with the proper proportions of realism and optimism.

I can hear you now, asking what there is to be optimistic about in this dismal picture.  In response, I would tell you that it is not all bad news and that I truly believe that hiring, employment opportunities, and the future of law practice are on the road to improvement.  But, it is a slow process, and that, understandably, makes us all anxious and worried.

I research this a lot, and a recent article in the Wall Street Journal caught my eye.  That article, “Hiring of Law Grads Improves for Some” reported some improvement in hiring, mostly as the result of successful summer associate positions.  As the writer pointed out, according to figures released last week by the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), things are beginning to look up for the current law school graduation class and recent classes because of the recovering summer associate programs.

The most recent NALP employment data shows an increase in those figures from 2012, when 90% of summer associates got offers from the firms where they had “summered.” About 92% of law students, who worked as summer associates in 2013, received job offers, a figure nearly as high as it was before the financial crisis.  And it is a significant improvement from 2009, when many firms slashed jobs, and the summer offer rate hit a 20-year low. “This is a huge change from the stark offer rate of only 69% measured in 2009,” says a 23-page report by the group, which polled 123 law schools and 389 law firms.  In 2007, before the effects of the financial crisis on the legal profession, the offer rate was about 93%.  Summer associate class sizes remain smaller than they were back in the boom years, however, so the overall number of job offers hasn’t returned to pre-recession heights.

And, of course, only a select few law students get the coveted summer associate positions, and things look gloomier for third-year law students who lack that experience and are looking for jobs.  Only 16% of the firms the NALP surveyed reported trying to recruit third-year students who hadn’t previously worked for them, down from 19% of respondents in 2012 and 53% in 2006. 

So, the good news is that the recovery has to start somewhere, as it has in the summer associate arena, and the hope is that it then will spread to other areas of hiring.  Your challenge is to keep the faith through the tough times.  Remember that the recession has affected most people in this country, with the exception of the uber wealthy.  Most of your parents experienced losses in their 401Ks, which they had counted on to support them in retirement, and many of them lost businesses or other opportunities that affected their future security.  That is the nature of a recession, and there is nothing good about it.  Fortunately, however, we know that history is cyclical, so we all need to muddle through as best we can for a little longer.

There also is a lot of talk about outsourcing and robots doing legal functions and affecting hiring opportunities, but I remain doubtful about the efficacy of those methods over time.  However, if the need for junior lawyers to perform the outsourced functions is eliminated, maybe there will be more interesting work available for young lawyers in firms as technology creates more subject matters and legal functions.

This point was made at a conference I attended on the future of law practice, and it is worth some thought.  That conference, sponsored by The Center for the Study of the Legal Profession at Georgetown Law, included expert panelists and speakers on subjects of trends for restructuring law firms and creation of new classes of lawyers, which could lead to some more interesting work earlier in law careers.  One observation was that the creation of more mid-level non-partnership tracks may be very appealing to some lawyers, who want to practice law but do not want the demanding hours and responsibilities associated with partnership in a big law firm.  Those same new practice levels also could enhance the mentoring opportunities for lower level lawyers, which are not available today when lower and mid-level associates all compete for the same few positions in upper level tracks.

And, perhaps most important, maybe the current job situation, which has created increased creativity and demand for entrepreneurship, will lead more young lawyers to pursue professional goals with rewards far greater than extremely high salaries.  That would be very nice, especially if those same people also can figure out ways to pay back their student loan debt at some time before they retire.  That, of course, is the rub.

For now, keep working hard and keep the faith.  It is all we can do unless we want to give into short-sightedness and despair.  Neither is worth it, and neither is worthy of you.