Landing a Job:
The Value of a Michigan Law Degree

Earning a Michigan Law degree involves a substantial investment of time, money, and energy. Especially in an economic climate filled with uncertainty, it's reassuring to learn the value of your degree, and prudent to know the breadth of your career options. Here, assistant deans Susan Guindi, MaryAnn Sarosi, and Sarah Zearfoss address common career concerns, offer valuable advice, and point to useful resources for Michigan Law students.

	Susan Guindi, '90, was hired as Director of Career Services at the University of Michigan Law School in August 1998, and became Assistant Dean in 2001. Susan returned to the Law School in 1995 and served for three years as the associate director of the Office of Public Service. Susan is located in Room 209 Hutchins Hall.
	MaryAnn Sarosi, '87, joined the University of Michigan Law School as the Assistant Dean of the Office of Public Service in 2004. Before becoming director of the OPS, MaryAnn ran an independent consulting practice supporting legal services programs, nonprofit agencies, and courts. MaryAnn is located in Room 217 Hutchins Hall.
	Sarah Zearfoss, '92, became the assistant dean and director of admissions in March 2001, after two years in the Office of Career Services as the judicial clerkship adviser. A member of the Michigan Bar, she stays active in the practice of law as a volunteer attorney for the ACLU.

The Strength of a Michigan Degree
How does a law degree from UM increase a grad’s marketability in tough economic times?
Sarah Zearfoss: When the market is expanding, law firms need lots of warm bodies, and the number of schools that firms consider hiring from expands too. Firms are in the opposite situation now: they will be hiring fewer people, so every hire needs to be the best they can find. Law firms never entirely stop hiring; instead, even in the worst markets, they hire from a handful of highly desirable law schools, and Michigan figures prominently in that population. Add to that Michigan Law's stellar reputation and our little-matched national spread of alumni, and you have a resilient combination. Firms in every major market want to make sure Michigan alumni continue to fill their ranks.

MaryAnn Sarosi: The economy goes through regular expansions and contractions; the Law School has seen many of these cycles over its 150 years. In any contraction, we find that employers are more prudent about where they recruit; they tend to limit it to the top law schools. It makes sense if you think about it—go for the biggest bang for the buck.

What programs and resources at Michigan Law School fulfill market needs in an economic downturn?
MAS: Both OCS and OPS present programs and workshops on substantive issues as well as workshops to help you succeed in internships. OCS does a series of skill-building workshops that benefit all students, whether you intend to go into government, public interest, or a firm.

The OPS Career Toolkit is a great place to start if you're thinking about a public service career. In it, you’ll find the "Making a Difference" public service guide, which helps you consider which public service jobs best suit you and takes you through what you need to consider as you prepare for a public service career. You’ll also find links to a number of job portals and other resources. The Practice Area pages contain links to organizations and job resources in distinct public service specialties such as child advocacy, civil rights, and government.

Then there are our attorney-advisors. In any economy, it makes sense to use the institutional career expertise we have, but it’s especially helpful when there’s a contracting economy. Advisors can guide you to resources that you may not know about, offer possibilities that you hadn’t considered, and connect you to alumni working in areas that you didn’t know existed. They aren’t going to find you the job—you still have to do the legwork—but they can be a trove of information.

Susan Guindi: I’m proud of the way the Law School has responded to this latest economic downturn. The Dean has taken a comprehensive approach, to make sure that faculty, senior administrators, and staff work together to help our students and alumni navigate this difficult terrain.

At OCS, we brought in several speakers during this academic year to address the economic downturn from different perspectives. Peter Darrow—a partner who does finance and securities work at a national law firm in New York City—and Professor Michael Barr discussed what happened in the financial sector, how it happened, and when. Jim Jones, Chairman of the Hildebrandt Institute and Managing Director of Hildebrandt International, a premier consultant for law firm management, discussed how this would affect law students in the near and longer-term future. He reassured students that, notwithstanding the current economic crisis, there would be excellent opportunities for them in the legal profession, and that a degree from Michigan Law School would go a long way in helping them seize these opportunities. In April, Jason Mendelsohn, '98, Managing Director of the Foundry Group, will discuss why and how his venture capital practice has remained strong in such a market. We’ve also had many other programs on how students can obtain jobs if on-campus interviews didn’t work because of the economic downturn.

In addition:

Broadly speaking, what are a Michigan Law graduate’s career options?
MAS and SG: You don’t want us to list them all because you would need all day to read them! We know graduates who go into government relations, civil liberties (which encompasses everything from electronic privacy to prisoner rights), child advocacy, health law, antitrust, fair housing, and criminal law. A substantial number of our graduates start their careers with a judicial clerkship. Many students and graduates who begin their careers in the private sector go on to careers in government, public interest, academia, or industry. For example, a graduate may start her securities practice at a large law firm in D.C.; after a few years, she may move into the SEC. Then, after another few years, she may move back into the private sector.

The key is for you to use your time in law school to build an area of expertise or a portfolio that positions you for the path you choose. If you want to be a public defender, for example, you would opt for courses, clinics, externships, research assistantships, pro bono opportunities, and summer internships that give you depth in the public criminal law arena. (You can’t expect to become a public defender if you've focused your law school career on corporate transactional work.) There are always those of you who have a couple areas of interest, and our attorney-advisors will work with you to map out a plan that will help leave your options open.

Where, geographically, do Michigan Law graduates find jobs?
SZ: The spread is really diffuse; we send significant numbers to every major market, with no one market predominating disproportionately. And I do mean every major market: not just New York, the largest legal market, and not just Chicago, our closest large metropolitan area, but also very significant numbers going to Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Not to mention the graduates employed abroad, which typically make up 2–3% of the graduating class. At the same time, we send small numbers of grads to a large number of smaller markets. Only two or three other schools come close to sending their graduates as broadly as Michigan. This means that whenever I want to put you in touch with an alum in a particular area, I can. Just a couple of weeks ago, I admitted someone from South Dakota who had a strong interest in a particular area of law—not only could I easily find a South Dakota alum I knew, but the alum was practicing in the same area as the admitted student’s interest. That just couldn’t happen with most schools.

MAS: Let me use an example from last year: we had five finalists for the prestigious Skadden post-graduate public interest fellowship. One grad was going to work on black lung issues in Kentucky, a second was working on right-to-counsel issues for children in New York, the third was doing education rights in Philadelphia, the fourth was doing mental health and special education issues for foster kids in Massachusetts, and the fifth was doing Native Alaskan rights work in Alaska. I think that hits about every section of the country.

SG: Our 2008 graduates found employment in 30 states, Puerto Rico, Washington, D.C., and six foreign countries. For the past several years, New York City has been the most popular destination, followed by Chicago. And I’m delighted to note that a recent survey we conducted showed that 93% of our 3Ls received job offers in their first-choice city, coast to coast.

How do the offerings at UM prepare students for "real-world" law practice?
SZ: I’d point to three major factors. First, in the doctrinal classroom experience, you'll hone your understanding of legal doctrine with the guidance of incredibly smart faculty and with the input of your incredibly smart classmates. We’re famous for training "real lawyers" who have the ability to balance high-level theoretical analysis with practical insights, and that comes first and foremost from the classroom experience. Second, our Legal Practice curriculum has a long history of using seasoned practitioners to teach you the nuts and bolts of persuasive writing and argumentation. Third, we offer a constantly evolving and expanding number of clinical programs and practice simulations, which enable you, as early as your second year, to test how good a fit trial work, appellate advocacy, or transactional work might be for you. In addition, these programs and simulations provide the opportunity for you not only to think like a lawyer, but to act and respond as one.

SG: I would add to these factors externships (as well as summer internships), and numerous How to Succeed programs that OCS and the Library sponsor, such as "How to Succeed in Your Summer Job" and "How to Succeed in Your Judicial Clerkship."

MAS: Through the Public Interest/Public Service Faculty Fellows, the Professors from Practice, and the Business Law Faculty Fellows, classes are taught by practicing lawyers who bring real-world experience and work into their courses. In Mark Rosenbaum’s Public Interest Litigation seminar, you receive actual case backgrounds, based upon actual litigation, and are asked to draft complaints, develop discovery plans, plot tactics, and prepare and conduct depositions and cross-examinations. In Saul Green and Judy Levy’s Selected Problems in Policing course, you could take part in ride-alongs with police officers, or visit an FBI shooting range to talk to agents about policing issues. In Barry Adelman’s Anatomy of a Deal seminar, you study the practical aspects of a merger involving two publicly traded entities, including analyzing actual merger and acquisition documentation, and drafting and negotiating terms of merger and acquisition agreements.

Possible Career Paths
What is Michigan Law’s reputation among top law firms? And in the public and government sectors?
MAS: Michigan Law is a launching pad, both in terms of geography and practice areas. Because of the sheer number of our alumni and the exceptional quality of a Michigan education, we maintain a strong reputation in every sector, including the public interest and government arenas. It’s no accident, for example, that Michigan graduates have received Bristow Fellowships in the U.S. Solicitor General’s Office for two years in a row, or that Michigan Law is one of only three schools to have received, in each of the last ten years, at least one prestigious Skadden post-graduate public interest fellowship.

SG: Michigan Law has an excellent reputation among top law firms, as evidenced by the fact that they have come to our campus to recruit our students since dinosaurs roamed the earth. Typically, more than 700 employers (the majority of which are law firms) recruit on campus. I also hear anecdotally from many, many employers that our students are not only as smart as any from a top-10 school, but that they are also noticeably kind, have good attitudes, and make model colleagues. Recentlly, Michigan Law was ranked #2 in a survey completed by Vault, which asked law firms across the country which schools produce the best associates.

What’s the value of a clerkship, and how many graduates typically accept them?
SG: Judicial clerkships are a wonderful way to begin your career, whether you're a litigator or not. They offer the valuable opportunity to learn about the law and legal practice from the perspective of the decision maker (i.e., the judge). They also are a meaningful way to perfect your research and writing abilities and observe a variety of lawyering styles. Employers in both the public and private sectors value clerkships tremendously, and recruit judicial clerks aggressively. Approx. 15–17% of our graduating classes clerk in the term following their graduation, and another significant percentage of our alumni clerk after a year or more of practice.

SZ: As the former clerkship adviser for the Law School, I have a strong conviction that clerkships are one of the best law jobs you can get—the training you receive is fantastic for future practice, and the esteem in which legal employers regard those jobs means you greatly enhance your prospects by having that credential. Michigan has graduated the third-largest population of state and federal judges, which certainly helps our graduates get hired as the clerks of those judges. Our existing clerkship network helps graduates as well. In considering the strength of a school’s clerkship network, it’s important to consider all of its graduates clerking in any given year, because more than ever, people start a clerkship a year or two after graduating, where in the past, they went directly to the clerkships from law school. The total number of our graduates who clerk has remained consistently large: about 100 in any given year.

MAS: Clerkships are invaluable for many public interest and government careers, because they offer graduates instant exposure to litigation and the inner workings of the judicial system. I was just talking with an ’08 grad who is clerking for a state supreme court. She said that in her six months of clerking, she’s learned a great deal about the litigation process, procedural issues, and how judges view different attorneys' approaches. On top of that, she's made huge strides in her research and writing ability. She told me that she is going to feel much more confident when she begins her job with a public interest organization after the clerkship. As she put it, "I'm just a better lawyer."

Networking
How extensive is Michigan Law’s alumni network, and how can a student or recent graduate make best use of this network? In what ways have alumni helped students and graduates?
SZ: Michigan has one of the largest alumni networks, because it has historically been among the larger law schools. Because our graduates don’t congregate in any one or two markets, you can be guaranteed to find folks wherever you want to head. And the fact that our graduates tend to have had a pleasant law school experience means that, in many cases, they are not merely willing to talk to the students who have followed in their footsteps, but are eager to help them.

MAS: Antarctica may be the only place where we don’t have a Michigan Law alum working. From Florida to Alaska, Belarus to Brazil, we have alumni. I guess part of that is because we’ve been around for 150 years, and we have a large alumni base. Part of it is because we have a known strength in international law, which tends to attract students from outside the United States and those that want to practice outside of the U.S. If I were a recent Michigan Law grad, I would find it reassuring to know that graduates of my law school go everywhere. That means that the Michigan Law name extends far and wide, and I’d almost always be able to find a fellow graduate wherever I landed.

Our alumni display a certain loyalty and enthusiasm for the Law School. The alumni in government and public interest with whom I talk are always willing to talk to you. When I talk to students who are focused on a certain area of public interest, for example, I often suggest they talk to an alum who has a similar practice, or an alum who had to make similar decisions. All of our attorney-advisors do the same thing. And how do we know so much about our alumni? When you walk by our offices and see us on the phone so much, we’re not chatting with our moms—we’re talking to alumni. I have e-mail exchanges and phone conversations with dozens of alumni every week. Some are searching for a public service job, but many are just keeping in touch.

So how do our students get help from our alumni? Sometimes, a student just e-mails an alum to ask him or her a few questions about work at the SEC, Human Rights First, or some other organization. Sometimes it turns into a series of interactions. Sometimes it turns into a lifelong friendship. A couple of years ago, for example, one of my students wanted to work on economic development and corporate responsibility issues in Africa. He had worked in the Peace Corps in Africa and knew what he wanted to do with his degree. I put him in touch with an alum who worked on those same issues. The alum put the student in touch with organizations, introduced him to others in the field, and suggested he join certain listservs. The alum also suggested the student apply for a Bates Overseas Fellowship, to allow him to work in Sierra Leone. While on his Bates, the (now recently graduated) student found his dream job working on micro-credit issues in Africa.

SG: In addition to our online AlumNetwork, which matches students with alumni, we have other networking opportunities as well. We hold receptions in several cities around the country during the summer, to bring together students summering in a city with alumni who work in that city. We have two "Meet the Employer" receptions for 1Ls in the winter term, so that they can network with private-sector employers that will come to campus in the fall to recruit. We also have programs and written materials to help teach students how to network.

How important are on-campus recruiting events to a student’s job search? How can a student benefit most from on-campus recruiting opportunities?
SZ: Those who participate in on-campus recruiting really benefit from the power of our reputation. Michigan doesn’t allow recruiting employers to prescreen and refuse to interview people whose GPAs are below a certain cut-off. A cynic might think that is an illusory benefit, because any employer who cares a lot about GPAs just won’t hire someone even if they do have to interview that person. But I have seen occasions when a particularly interesting or engaging student knocks the interview out of the park—and gets a callback—on the strength of characteristics that have nothing to do with GPA. That just couldn't happen if a school allowed GPA cut-offs.

SG: The on-campus interview programs at the Law School offer a unique opportunity to obtain jobs with some of the best legal employers in the nation. (I say "unique" because never again in your career will you have so many employers assemble in one place to recruit you.) More than 700 employers visit Ann Arbor to recruit for summer and for post-graduate jobs. The legal profession is a very fluid one, and lawyers change jobs numerous times over the course of their careers. The first job that you obtain out of law school can open many doors to subsequent opportunities, and the jobs offered by the employers that come to campus are second to none.

You can maximize your success with the on-campus interviewing process by taking advantage of the services and resources we offer to help prepare you.

Final Decisions
What are the typical cycles for summer and post-graduate job offers?
MAS: There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to public service jobs. Generally speaking, though, for 1Ls intent on a government or public interest summer internship, the hiring cycle doesn’t usually begin until mid- to late January, and it goes through early April. First-year law students apply from the end of December through February. For 2Ls looking at government, the application deadlines start in early September and can go well into the first quarter, depending on the government office. If government is at all a possibility, I advise you to start early. For 2Ls looking at public interest summer internships, the deadlines usually begin in late October and go through January. Second-year students can secure their summer internship anywhere from October through March, depending on the location and the organization.

SG: First-year law students start applying for jobs December 1 of their first year, and typically receive/accept offers from January through March, although some will receive offers into April and even May. Second-year students looking at law firms interview during the fall of their second year, and usually receive/accept an offer by November of their second year. Third-year students who work for a firm during their second summer typically receive an offer at the end of the summer, and most accept those offers. Some students continue to interview with other employers, but most 3Ls know their post-grad employment during the fall term of their third year. Third-year students pursuing clerkships typically apply in the fall of their third year, particularly for federal clerkships and many state supreme courts, and begin receiving offers a few weeks later.

How does Michigan mitigate student loan debt for those graduates who choose to pursue lower-paying positions?
MAS: Michigan Law has a broad loan repayment and assistance program that is run by the Financial Aid Office. It is broad because it’s based on your salary and assets, not the type of job that you have. For those in public service, the federal government recently enacted the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, which features loan repayment and loan forgiveness programs. For information on both, go to the Financial Aid Office’s website.