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My fiance and I currently live in Orlando, Fl. He graduated law school in Dec 2010, passed the FL bar, but has been unable to find a paying job as an attorney. He has been working for legal aid for free. Luckily I make enough to support us both, but we don't want to keep going like this. The job market for new attorneys is pretty much non-existent here. We have talked about moving to NC, specifically the triangle area for a while now. We are wondering though, would his prospects be any better there? We thought we could live here for a few years before moving up there, but its not worth staying here any longer if he can't get a paying position. Thanks in advance.
North Carolina is pumping out twice as many new law school graduates as there are attorney job openings. That's a higher ratio of excess lawyers than Florida.
(Insert college here) is pumping out twice as many new graduates as there are job openings.
This pretty much holds true for most fields. I'm not quite 40 yet, but I've never seen such a horrible job market as this country is going through right now.
I went to an interview for a pet store job that paid $7.25 an hour. The manager told me he had over 200 people apply for the position, and he was interviewing the top 40 candidates. He had people with masters degrees applying to clean up after hamsters and rabbits for $7.25 an hour!
That is a TELLING sign of the market. Every hiring manager I know is facing the same situation. They get a ton of applicants who are overqualified, and a ton who are underqualified. There are a lot of college degreed people working part time jobs for less than $10 an hour out there right now. And the irony of it is, there are a lot of kids just graduating who expect to make $100,000 plus in their first job. Jobs that might be paying $35,000 right now. I've heard a LOT of hiring managers talking about how ridiculously high the expectations are of recent graduates.
"Most" is the key word here. I am in healthcare and we are desperate to hire. The few applicants we have had are so picky about what they want, they often go with other offers merely because we work on Saturdays. Although I doubt any area of the nation is as desperate for attorneys, some specialties within law may be more in need than others, or some other factor that may provide him with better opportunities. Orlando must be saturated with new grads because my fiance has rarely even been interviewed, even with a competitive new grad resume. I am simply hoping to find out whether NC might be better, worse or the same. Being that we have intended for a while to end up in NC anyway, if it is at least the same we would still consider moving there. Although I have reviewed the stats provided by the previous responder (thank you), I am looking for answers from the residents of the area who may have a better feel for the current market.
There are attorneys scoping out this area who have years of experience. I know some who relocated here years ago and are very successful, and some who have moved here recently who are struggling.
It seems that years of experience in this area mean a great deal lately. New graduates are not in demand as they were just a few years ago.
"Most" is the key word here. I am in healthcare and we are desperate to hire. The few applicants we have had are so picky about what they want, they often go with other offers merely because we work on Saturdays. Although I doubt any area of the nation is as desperate for attorneys, some specialties within law may be more in need than others, or some other factor that may provide him with better opportunities. Orlando must be saturated with new grads because my fiance has rarely even been interviewed, even with a competitive new grad resume. I am simply hoping to find out whether NC might be better, worse or the same. Being that we have intended for a while to end up in NC anyway, if it is at least the same we would still consider moving there. Although I have reviewed the stats provided by the previous responder (thank you), I am looking for answers from the residents of the area who may have a better feel for the current market.
The healthcare field here in NC is pretty hard to break into because they also crank out nurses and doctors at a pretty good rate. I moved here from Texas and was expecting to be able to just walk into any hospital and get hired on the spot, like in Texas. However, it just isn't like that in the Triangle. I was lucky and found a job right away in a clinic due to some pretty specific qualifications I had but I've seen other experienced nurses apply for months before even getting an interview. I just want you to be forewarned on that score as well.
The local community college has a health sciences department that has drastically reduced it's enrollment recently due to a shortage of jobs for those students once they graduate. I know people in that field who have been out of work for a while. There may be specifics jobs that keep a higher demand, but there aren't any fields that I know of around here that have a demand.
As a recent law school graduate looking for work in the Triangle -- along with many of my classmates -- in my opinion the job market for newly licensed attorneys is terrible. I can't give you any indication of whether it's better or worse than in Orlando. I know it's generally rough everywhere.
One thing to keep in mind, and of which I'm sure your fiance is aware, is that Florida has no reciprocity with North Carolina. So he would have to sit for the bar here in February before being licensed to work here.
One thing to keep in mind, and of which I'm sure your fiance is aware, is that Florida has no reciprocity with North Carolina. So he would have to sit for the bar here in February before being licensed to work here.
A 2010 grad isn't likely to meet the reciprocity standards anyway (I believe NC requires 5 years of practice?).
A 2010 grad isn't likely to meet the reciprocity standards anyway (I believe NC requires 5 years of practice?).
North Carolina's reciprocity rule is the same as whatever state you're coming from. So if Illinois says you need seven years of practice in North Carolina to waive into Illinois, then an Illinois lawyer needs seven years of practice in Illinois to waive into North Carolina.
Florida doesn't have reciprocity with North Carolina, so North Carolina doesn't have reciprocity with Florida.
Doesn't matter how long you've practiced in Florida -- five months, five years or five decades -- a Florida lawyer will have to sit for the bar here.
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