Aspiring lawyers hound job market
By Daily Bruin Staff
March 12, 1998 9:00 p.m.
Friday, March 13, 1998
Aspiring lawyers hound job market
LAW SCHOOL: Boosts in interest about justice crowd market,
programs
By Emi Kojima
Daily Bruin Contributor
Lawyers have been called everything from liars to sharks to
scumbags.
"I tell people that I’m an English major, and people look down
on me; I tell people that I want to go to law school, and people
look down on me," said Stephanie Lasker, a fourth-year American
literature student, laughing.
UCLA students who hope to become lawyers, however, raise
objections to the predominant stereotypes.
"It’s hard to stereotype (law students) because they are a very
diverse group of people," said Amy Berenson Mallow, assistant dean
for career services.
Students attend law school with many different motivations. Some
seek security, some want to change society, and some like the
intellectual challenge.
"I just wanted to understand the law as this huge tool, a power
play that allows people to take what they want," said Robert
Sorensen, second-year law student.
He decided to enter law school after being accused of
murder.
"All (the police) wanted to do was to solve the case even though
the composite pictures didn’t look anything like me," Sorensen
said, "I think that’s frightening."
Whatever the case, UCLA’s law-school applications have increased
for the first time since 1991, according to Andrea Sossin Bergman,
assistant dean of admissions.
Also, "admissions have increased about 8 percent," she said.
They are above the national average.
She mentioned that the improvement in the economy may have
affected the higher number of applications this year.
The jobs in which law-school graduates actually end up also
heavily depends upon the market trends and government funding.
"There’s a good job market for lawyers, said Zareh Jaltorossian,
second-year law student. "When getting a Ph.D., the job prospects
are uncertain," he said.
Going to law school is "just a way of getting a job," he
said.
But the economic circumstances of the market also limits the
number of jobs in certain sectors of the law.
For example, government funding determines how many people will
be hired into public interest law. Government funding, in turn, is
affected by the economy.
Public interest is the field of law in which lawyers
traditionally try to help the community and oppressed groups. While
law schools categorize it separately from the public and private
sectors, it actually plays a role in both of these fields.
Recently, there has been a surge of new public interest programs
for law-school students.
Many undergraduates hope to enter into the law program to
practice public-interest law.
"I’m interested in going to law school so that I can make the
law work for people who need it," said Kim Curtis, a second-year
women’s studies student.
"This summer I worked with a female manager who was sexually
harassed. I wished at the time that I was a lawyer so that I could
help her," she said.
This is the first year the UCLA Law School has a program in
public interest law, with 27 students in the program.
This year showed an increase in the number of applicants to the
public interest program.
The job market, however, remains "extremely competitive,"
Catherine Mayorkas, director of the UCLA Law School Public Interest
Program, said.
Additionally, Marc Hankin, a patent attorney, cautioned
idealists that they should have "no illusions about the law."
"It’s like trench warfare most of the time," he said.
Approximately 2.5 percent of UCLA Law School graduates go into
into public interest law, in comparison with 66 percent who have
jobs in private practice and 13 percent who go into corporate
practice and other industries.
Other graduates practice in various areas within the law or
related to law. Some even practice in accounting firms, which have
recently started recruiting students out of law school.
These divisions are rather arbitrary and reflect the market,
according to Mallow. They are similar to those in other top law
schools.
"It’s hard to assess the division of students," Mallow said.
"There are people in private practice who work pro bono," she said,
emphasizing that not all public interest work that attorneys do
falls into the percentages compiled by the law school.
Other people go to law school by default.
Beth Kraemer, a third-year law student, ended up in law school
because the clock was ticking.
"I intended to apply, and my LSAT score was expiring. I didn’t
want to take it again," she said.
Kraemer plans to work in employment litigation with a corporate
firm after graduates.
Azadeh Allayee, who now enjoys law school, is another student
who ended up in law school by default. She decided to attend
because she wanted to continue her education but did not know where
she should go.
"I wasn’t exactly sure why I was going to law school," said
Allayee, a second-year law student.
"I knew I didn’t want to go to grad school or to med school. I
guess I liked it because I was an English major, and you do a lot
of writing in law school," she said.
Mallow and Mayorkas counsel students who go to law school by
default.
"We try to present different options and start them in the right
direction," Mallow said. They have seen success stories of law
students who end up at law school for all different reasons.
"There are large demands for scientists and engineers in
intellectual property law," Mallow said.
"Everyone has different backgrounds. That’s what makes law
school so interesting," she said.MICHAEL ROSS WACHT
A student walks into the UCLA School of Law.
