As we all know, one particularly difficult thing about becoming a civil rights attorney is that civil rights firms and non-profits don’t hire a year or two in advance like BigLaw. Once you’re hired, we usually want you to start ASAP.
Of course, some government jobs hire further in advance, like the Honors Program or state AG fellowships. And Skadden and EJW Fellows are selected before you graduate. But neither hires as far out as BigLaw.
Meanwhile, you’re being asked left and right, “What are you doing next year?” As though it’s a given that you should already have your job lined up. How should you respond?
It’s hard to respond to questions like these. They appear innocent but they probably make you feel anxious, unaccomplished, or ashamed. Why is that? Because we have a ridiculously wonky system set up in the legal field where many jobs hire incredibly far in advance.
I was in the last class that still had the Plan (the clerkship hiring plan) in place, so I landed my clerkship in September 2012, eight months before I graduated. And most clerkships start in August the following year – an entire year later. (Mine started in January 2014, meaning I had my job lined up 16 months in advance.) And get this, since the Plan went away, students are being hired even further in advance!
None of this makes sense, nor is it smart business practice in my humble opinion. How can you know what you want to do just after a year or two of law school? How can a future employer know your strengths and weaknesses that quickly?
Honestly, I think BigLaw hires this far out so that you don’t realize how many other opportunities are available. They make it easy because they know so many students go to law school to make a difference in the world, and offering job security and an exorbitant salary years in advance of when a modest-paying civil rights job would be available is the only way to convince people to turn to BigLaw.
Don’t get me wrong, some people go to law school to go into BigLaw – and I’m close friends with many people in BigLaw. However, I do think that more people than not go to law school to enter the civil rights field in some capacity – whether it be private civil rights firms, non-profits, government service, the public defenders’ office, and so on. And the reason so many people leave the path of civil rights is because of how easy we have made it to do so. That plus the fear of not being employed and not being able to pay off student loans upon graduation.
But I digress. Back to the point of this post: when someone comes up to you and innocently asks, “What are you doing next year?” respond confidently and however you want. Say, “Well, I don’t really know what area of civil rights I want to go into yet – still figuring that out.” Or, “Actually, civil rights jobs don’t hire that far out. I am going on a ton of coffee dates with leaders in the community though.” Or, “Ha, that’s so cute that you think I can see into the future.” (Okay, maybe not the last one. But you catch my drift.)
Don’t feel ashamed or unaccomplished. And try as hard as you can not to feel anxious. That one is a bit harder to manage – I get it. But just keep telling yourself: they don’t hire this far out. And then set up those coffee dates.