By Jaime Bochet
Of the Legal Staff
The results of The American Lawyer's Summer Hiring Survey came out earlier this week, and as everyone probably expected, the results showed a grim landscape for law students looking for work. According to the survey results, "firms cut their summer classes by an average of 44 percent. The 114 firms that responded to the survey hired an average of 31 summer associates this year, down from last year's average of 55 associates."
The analysis piece goes on to say that not all hope is lost, as a whopping 11 firms (out of 114, mind you), did not reduce their summer class sizes.
We at The Legal recently published the results of our own New Associates survey, which asked Pennsylvania firms about their summer classes. (Check out the full supplement, which also asked about first-year hiring, here.) To be honest, we expected our results to mirror those of the AmLaw survey, with dismal numbers abounding. But with the exception of Ballard Spahr (also mentioned in the AmLaw article for putting its summer program on hiatus), Pennsylvania firms are not faring as badly as we'd thought.
Sure, the numbers for most of our respondents were still down. Out of the 14 firms we had information on for both 2009 and 2010, eight reduced their class sizes, but two stayed the same and four actually grew their summer classes.
I know what you're thinking: "AmLaw's survey included 114 firms, and you're trying to compare those results with what you heard from just 14 firms?" Valid point, but let's look at percentages: Of AmLaw's 114 firms, 103 reduced class size -- that's 90.35 percent. Just 9.64 percent either stayed level or increased the numbers. Of our 14 firms, eight minimized their summer classes, or 57.1 percent. And 42.85 percent stayed the same or added summers.
More telling to me, though, is our respondents' expectations moving ahead. Of the 20 firms that responded to our survey, 15 plan to have summers next year -- including Ballard Spahr. The remaining five responded that they're unsure -- but nobody said, "No, definitely not."
So what can we take from this? Pennsylvania firms that regularly hire summer associates look to continue doing so in the future. While some firms are still playing it safe for another year in keeping their classes smaller, at least their plan is to keep the programs alive. Our survey is only a snapshot of the larger legal landscape, but Pennsylvania's firms seem optimistic -- which means summers can be too.
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