Editor's Note
In this issue, we present recruiting information for the law firms in the state - who in each of the firms to contact regarding first-year hiring, lateral partner hiring - but, for some reason, all anyone seems to care about is the last column of information: "First-year associate salaries."
But I jest: of course, that's all anyone wants to know. That figure not only represents the beginning of the calculation on the part of potential recruits of how long it will take them to pay off their law school debt, but also acts as an indicator of law firms' outlook on the future. In years past, especially with the large national firms, that column has spun like the fruits in a slot machine, whirring from $70,000 in 1994 to $160,000 in 2006. But now, with the economy cooling off, that top figure has sort of congealed for the time being. Some firms have even rolled back to $145,000. All this information is packed into the newstand copy of the Chicago Lawyer magazine starting on page 24.
So, what does this all mean? Well, that's a good question, one that we put to our reporter, Amanda Robert.
Amanda returned with a very interesting story that catalogs the advance and retrenchment of associates' salaries and makes some sense out of the at-times out-of-control bidding wars. Amanda talked to a great number of people in and out of the fray who provide a lot of the context for the jumps in salaries and a look at the landscape now that things have begun to settle down. It's interesting, but I think it's also an important story - particularly for law students to see where this road is taking them. You, and they, can read "The end of the salary war?".
As a glance at the cover will tell you, this also is the issue where we devote a great deal of attention to the law schools. Things have changed greatly in law schools, especially in the last decade or so, and we have a number of stories to reflect and dissect those changes.
To start, Amanda sat down for a roundtable discussion with the deans from five of Chicago's law schools for their perspectives on the economic turmoil into which their students are headed, as well as where the law schools find themselves.
Certainly, given the difficult numbers - tuition and costs going up and associate salaries flat or going down - you might wonder if law schools are able to fill all their available seats. As it turns out, that's not a problem. Loyola had a record number of applications this year, and DePaul's applications were up 30 percent. To their credit, the deans are as perplexed as anyone about the surge in their schools' popularity. There's a lot more in this discussion than economic talk. The deans all have strong opinions about recent changes in law schools. Read Law school deans discuss the state of today's legal education.
To supplement the deans' conversation, we have stories focused on each of the law schools and what new programs they have. If you're a law student, or know someone who is, or who wants to be, this is definitely the issue to read. The special section starts with Want to win your suit? Wear one.
Don't forget : It's time once again for nominations for Chicago Lawyer 's Person of the Year. As we have said in the past, "The ideal candidate is a lawyer or judge who has made a unique contribution to the profession or the legal community during the past year - in academia, pro bono, service to the bar, legal practice or on the bench. Past winners have been multi-faceted individuals and outstanding role models for the community."
Past winners include: Anton R. Valukas, Jerold S. Solovy, Carol A. Kelly, Joel M. Flaum and Ann Claire Williams. To nominate someone, please e-mail me with the name of the nominee, your name and phone number, and a brief (or not-so-brief) statement of the reasons this person should be named Person of the Year. The deadline for nominations is Nov. 1.
Correction: There was a statistical error regarding the number of female attorneys in Freeborn & Peters in our story, "Some firms fail to retain diverse attorneys," in the July issue. The number of female associates should have read: "Freeborn & Peters revealed . a decrease in female associates from 20 [in 2009] to 15 [in 2010]."