The National Law Journal reports that major firms brought on as many new associates in 2008 as they did in 2007, leaving them with many new hires despite the current industry-wide layoffs.
Despite the economic nosedive that began gaining momentum in 2008, the nation’s biggest law firms hired just about the same percentage of graduates from top schools last year as they did the year before.
At the same time, firms among The National Law Journal’s 2008 survey of the nation’s 250 largest law firms brought aboard more graduates from the 20 schools that they relied on the most, which themselves had larger classes.
The development suggests that law firms were not well positioned for the recession they now face.
The fact that law firms ended up hiring the same percentage of graduates in 2008 — and hired 5.3% more graduates than in 2007 — despite the impending economic turmoil demonstrates the challenges that law firms face in predicting their work force needs under the existing hiring system…
Via NLJ.