Recent law school grads looking for work, I know you’re out there.

I know this because although the legal market has improved since it hit rock bottom, it isn’t getting that much better for new grads. And I know that because the New York Times said so (and so have many others in town).

The local law schools — University of Maryland and University of Baltimore — don’t want to give me your names, and I can understand that. They want me to highlight all of the great people coming out their schools who have wonderful jobs.

But I can’t write the full story about the entry-level job market without talking to some of you who are still looking for jobs. It’s that simple.

I’m appealing to you to get in touch with me, so your voices can be heard. And, hey, you never know what could happen. One of our readers just might need a person like you to come on board.

danielle.ulman@thedailyrecord.com

On a day Baltimore (and beyond) remembers William Donald Schaefer, perhaps it’s fitting a comprehensive, statistical report about the city he loved was released.

The verdict of the Baltimore Neighborhood Alliance-Jacobs France Institute at the University of Baltimore? The city is “right-sizing.” I’ll let Matthew Kachura, the author of “Vital Signs 9,” explain:

“Right-sizing” means that the city’s expectations are in line with what can and should be expected of it. Baltimore’s population is not going to bounce back to its post-war highs, and the kind of industry boom we saw here in the 1940s and ’50s is not going to return. Instead, we’re showing resiliency by strengthening our neighborhoods in ways that improve the quality of life, whether it’s a program to rehab vacant houses or an effort to encourage high school students to graduate on time. In an era of limited resources, the city has managed to stay viable by these and dozens of other strategic investments. Based on what we’re seeing in the data, Baltimore has been experiencing some improvements during these tough times.

Not sure how the former mayor would feel about that assessment. Nevertheless, here are some of the numbers from the report:

• The city’s population was more than 635,000 in 2009, down 2.4 percent from 2000.
• The number of homes in foreclosure jumped 60 percent between 2008 and 2009, and the total is double the number from 2005.
• The teen birthrate fell from 83.3 teens out of 1,000 in 2000 to 60.1 teens per 1,000 in 2009.
• Median household income increased nearly 30 percent between 2000 and 2009, although it fell between 2008 and 2009 to just under $39,000.
• The violent crime rate fell, from 26.2 violent offenses per 1,000 people in 2000 to 15.3 in 2009.
• Juvenile arrests on drug charges declined between 2000 and 2009, as did the number of high school students who dropped out of high school.

Still wish you were on vacation? Most of your co-workers out for week? Here’s some “work” you can do to pass the time:

• The strange (and sad) story of Ravens rookie Sergio Kindle takes another wrong turn.
• Morris L. Cohen, one of the nation’s leading law librarians, dies at 83. (HT: Above the Law)
• The title says it all: “Male nurse who was a former stripper failed to make out claims that he was subjected to a sexually hostile work environment.”
• OK, “Matlock” fans, stand up for your show’s egregiously-low ranking. (HT: Volokh Conspiracy)
• It’s still better than a lump of coal, right?

It seems students at the University of Maryland School of Law have already gotten a great present this holiday season: no tuition increase next year. This despite other schools within the University of Maryland, Baltimore seeing an average tuition increase of 4 percent for the 2011-2012 year.

UPDATE 12/17/10: A UMB spokesman reminded me that a tuition freeze does not happen just because the law school announces it. Tuition rates have to be approved by the Board of Regents, a vote that follows the General Assembly’s approval of Gov. Martin O’Malley’s budget.

In a memo to all UMB students about tuition and fees, published yesterday at Above the Law, President Jay Perman said the one-year freeze at the law schools was made “due to unique and striking changes in the economic environment for the legal profession.”

Law school Dean Phoebe Haddon, in a subsequent memo to law students also in ATL, elaborated:

Holding tuition at the current level in the upcoming academic year has been a top priority for me. The impact of the economic downturn on the legal employment market, combined with the large amount of debt many of you carry, has caused the faculty and administrators of the Law School great concern. Relative to the other professions, the legal sector has been especially hard hit, with tens of thousands of law jobs lost. Many of us also believe that this downturn is resulting in a fundamental restructuring of law practice that will require careful financial planning for all of us going forward.

Haddon added that the law school will make-up its shortfall to UMB by dipping into its short-term savings.

“I have been actively meeting with supportive alumni, friends and foundations seeking financial support so that the fund balance will be replenished,” Haddon wrote.

Calling UM Law alumni: Does the tuition freeze make you more likely to donate to your alma mater? Less likely? Or does it not affect your decision at all?

Supreme Court rulings, the National Football League, consumer class-action suits, an attorney disbarred and cold pizza — last week’s most-read stories written by The Daily Record’s legal team cover many of the touchstones of the modern-day news diet.

1. Pizza Boli wants D.C. franchisee to go
A federal judge in Baltimore is likely to order a former longtime Pizza Boli’s franchise in Washington D.C., to significantly change the way it does business and may even shut it down for a time.

2. Supreme Court rejects McCrary case, others
The Supreme Court turned aside a host of petitioners Monday, including some of the defendants in retired Baltimore Raven Michael McCrary’s long-running insurance fraud case.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s Maryland Lawyer cover story is our interview with Phil Closius, dean of the University of Baltimore School of Law. One thing he said that I couldn’t fit into the story is that the average UB student graduates with about $90,000 in debt.

He once recited that figure to an alum and his daughter, a prospective student. “That high?” the father said. “That’s all?” the daughter said.

The figure is “on the low side” for law schools, Closius said, but he sees it the way alum does.

“If you come to UB, the bulk of students are going to have to be able to deal with a $90,000 debt service on a $65,000-a-year salary,” he said. “That’s not easy.”

The school, incidentally, has raised tuition 77 percent in the last 7 years.

“The only thing that justifies it is, so is everyone else in the law school world,” Closius said.

In that vein, I asked him about the future of law schools; a recent law review article predicts there will be   fewer law schools in the years to come. Closius said he believes law schools will close or shrink in size.

“The pressures are becoming too strong,” he said. “If you’re not producing jobs, if you’re not giving people the economics that make sense, you’re going to get hurt. And I think it’s going to happen soon.”

Just not at UB, he was quick to add.

“I don’t think we’re closing,” he said. “We’re on the good side.”

Happy Columbus Day. If you’re at work, like those of us at The Daily Record, here are some law links to check out. If you’re off today, get out there and enjoy the beautiful weather.

• Is the cost of supplying lawyers to defendants in bail hearings worth it? Page Croyder says it would require lawyers to be available 24-7 and cost taxpayers a boatload.
• Good news in the legal industry: Jobs are on the rise. The national economy may still be in the dumps, but law firms are adding employees.
• The former voice of Dora the Explorer is suing MTV and Viacom for forcing her to sign a contract without allowing a lawyer review it. The girl’s family claims she’s been underpaid by at least $2 million. Vamanos! We have to sue!
• D’oh! EEOC sues employer for disability discrimination based on obesity.
• One South Carolina family law firm says no kvetching — we’ll get to you when we can.
• Attorneys and judges are grappling with juror comments on Facebook. This might be deja vu for readers who followed the Dixon trial.
• Lawyers will fight death penalty with economic argument: It’s just too expensive (HT: How Appealing).

Above the Law has flagged a couple of lawyer jobs advertised on Craigslist recently. These positions are like any other lawyer jobs, really: Applicants need to be admitted to the bar, and they would work full-time. In one instance, they would actually be trying cases. In other words, this isn’t really internship stuff. The only difference between these jobs and others? It’s minor, really. Piddling. Insignificant, almost.

They don’t pay.

And in a sign of the times, at least one of these employers is being deluged with applicants. They’re mainly young lawyers who can’t find anything paying and are desperate just to get some experience.

As far as I can tell, there is nothing like this currently being advertised on Craigslist in Maryland, but I do wonder if there are employers here who have tried it — and poor jobless young lawyers who have applied.

Janet Wallace is a 3L who, along with her husband, made an unusual New Year’s resolution this year: by year’s end, they would move to California’s Central Coast. Now, over at Ms. JD, Wallace is chronicling her attempt to find a law job there, despite career counselors’ advice to cast a wider net:

I was sitting in a recent career services presentation at my law school–one geared toward 3Ls without jobs–and there was one piece of advice that the presenter kept repeating for emphasis: Don’t limit yourself geographically. The wider your geographic scope, she pointed out, the greater your options.

It’s a great piece of advice.

I’m not going to take it.

Wallace explains that while the worst-case scenario–she can’t find a law job and ends up waiting tables–is unappealing, the best-case scenario is so attractive that she’s willing to take a chance:

But what’s the best case outcome? The best case looks pretty amazing. In the best case scenario, I’m exactly where I want to be, doing exactly the sorts of things I want to be doing.

…

I’m committed to living in the place I’ve chosen. And, after a long day of waiting tables (or whatever the worst-case scenario might be), I’ll turn my face to the sun, soak in the good fortune that I’m in the exact place I want to be, geographically, and buckle down for another day of opportunity searching. I know there’s something there for me, I just have to find it.

My first reaction when I read this is, “Wow, this woman is really limiting herself geographically, and that’s not a good idea in this economy.”

Then I realized that countless people, lawyers and others, operate under this type of geographical constraint when they are trying to find a job. Whether it’s because of money, family concerns, an attachment to one’s hometown or a significant other’s job or schooling, most of us have some limitations when we look for work. The only unusual thing about Wallace’s quest is that she and her husband, as near as I can tell, resolved to move to the Central Coast just because they think it sounds amazing. Good for them.

Maybe career counselors are being unrealistic when they advise law students (and the rest of us) to cast our nets with abandon, allowing ourselves to land wherever we can get someone to match our 401(k) contributions. Work is an important part of life, but it’s not the only part. If that ideal law job is in a city that you think constantly about leaving, it’s not your ideal law job.

So let’s hear it for Janet Wallace for injecting a little real life into the discourse about job searches.

Here are some tidbits to take your mind off Maryland’s heartbreaking loss yesterday:

• Jeffrey Toobin at The New Yorker gives three immediate observations about the legal implications of the health care legislation, including how it might affect the Supreme Court.
• Above the Law has more on the potential, legal fallout of the bill.
• Speaking of SCOTUS, an Iowa lawyer provides an interesting take in today’s Baltimore Sun about its upcoming Snyder v. Phelps case.
• Encyclopaedia Britannica files a $250 million lawsuit against Dickstein Shapiro LLP for allegedly botching a patent application. (HT: Law Shucks.)
• A former Wisconsin state employee has won a discrimination lawsuit against his employer… the State’s Equal Division. (HT and “Dept. of Irony” headline to Overlawyered.)
• Today’s business tip – prevent profit “leaking” by recording all of your time while in the office.