Fewer employers may visit UT School of Law students for on-site interviews as recruiting staggers within Texas law firms.
The number of on-site interviews, which are typically scheduled for August and September, has decreased by 45 percent since last year. Third-year law students received an e-mail from the career services office explaining the decreased number of recruiters expected this summer.
David Montoya, assistant dean for career services at the law school, said registration goes through September, and the exact number of recruiters that will visit campus is subject to change.
“The numbers are lower in particular this year,” said Montoya. “Every day it changes, but we do expect the number to be lower.”
He said law students can turn to other methods of finding employment, such as looking for video conference interviews and uploading resumes to job-seeking Web sites.
“I think [the Web sites] become more and more popular as employers determine how much they will allocate for the recruiting season,” Montoya said. “They are just cutting back right now.”
As students cope with a waning job market, Montoya said there are non-practicing alternatives for aspiring law students.
“People are pretty educated on the status of the economy,” Montoya said. “They are working harder and getting more flexible.There’s a number of different avenues [for law students] — government, federal, state and local, public interest organizations and small to medium-sized firms.”
The price for on-campus interviews at UT are based on the size of the law firm or organization recruiting. Small law firms with 10 to 50 attorneys are charged $200-300 per room, and larger law firms with 50 to 100 law firms are charged $400 - $500 per room.
UT is not the only school that has seen a decrease in recruiters’ visits to campus. Seven of Texas’ nine American Bar Association-accredited law schools have said less employers will visit their campuses this year.
Reginald Green, assistant dean of career services at South Texas College of Law in Houston, said the school will fall short of the usual number of recruiters for the fall.
“We have seen a trend, because the market has tightened up,” Green said.
There are about 75,000 licensed lawyers in Texas, and about half work in private practices, according to data compiled by the State Bar of Texas.
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