Hey guys, I asked this in General. I am moving back to the area in a year, (did my undergrad at MTSU). My Fiancee should be attending Vanderbilt Law, (I say should, because she has a top 75% LSAT Score, and She has a 3.9 from a highly regarded Animal Science Program. She hasn't applied yet though.) I am graduating law school myself. I know Nashville is a rapidly growing city, and employment is good in general there in the Tri-County area. Does anyone know how it is for lawyers?

It sucks...


There are three schools pumping out lawyers in Nashville; Vandy, Belmont, and Nashville School of Law. Each has its own pluses and minuses, but they all keep the market full of baby lawyers.

A little off topic, but my daughter looked in Nashville and surrounding areas for 6 months 3 years ago trying to get a job as an RN since many of her friends had moved to the "Boro" and Smyrna area.  She ended up having to take a position here at home in Jackson at General Hospital.  Same deal with all the nursing schools in the area pumping them out like crazy.

I once counted the yellow pages by profession. Attorneys had twice as many pages as any other. You can also check the booking logs. Cases?  All you can handle bro.

In general, the legal profession is not doing well. In the Vol state, figures seem to indicate the law schools are pumping out twice as many lawyers as needed:

TN No Exception to Lawyer Surplus

I took and passed the Bar Exam in 1974, was admitted to practice in three states, Federal system, and SCOTUS. I worked a number of corporate jobs (for profit and not for profit) as legal counsel, was in private practice and retired recently. We are retiring to Tennessee. Here's what I can tell you:

For what it's worth, I have never seen the profession is worse shape. Mega-firms are laying off hundreds of lawyers.

The other part of the mix are the new graduates, a lot of whom "really don't want full time employment," for whatever reason. For example, a large number of newly-coined women lawyers want to either work-from-home, start and raise a family, or just "play at" being a lawyer. These work 20 hours or less a week; they get paid peanuts, but they don't mind it (for whatever reason.) As a consequence, when a slot opens up full-time at law firms, a lot of them figure: "humm..do we pay $100k+ (includes bennies) for a full time staff lawyer or do we take that money and hire 4 or 5 part-timers and work them to death for peanuts and no benefits?' See where I am going? Awful cut-throat out there.

Of course, what they don't tell you in law school is to network like crazy among your peers since you're so busy busting your tail to get good grades. Where am I going with this? Simple: those in your class who DO land plum jobs will be the "go to" people for you WHEN there's a good slot open. They can recommend and vouch for you. Grease the skids so to speak.

Sad to say, some of the dumbest and obnoxious law school graduates I have seen have an "in" with moderate and big firms, since Daddyo or Mummy work there, belong to the same country club , frat house or sorority, or are related. Man--I have seen some horribly stupid lawyers making millions that don't know squat, BUT they do know people and connections. Fact of life. Example: you go to a court pre-trial in chambers on a case, and the judge asks your opposing counsel: "How'd you play hole seven last Saturday at "The Club" where I saw you?"  Increasingly, it's becoming not WHAT you know, but WHO you know. I'm sorry, but that's what I've found out the hard way in the legal trenches.

If you are fortunate enough to get a job, be prepared. Law firms will usually hire new lawyers and then promptly work the living hell out of them. No lie. Your billing has to be astronomical, which requires your constant time, energy, and wits. They will give you the hardest grunt work for a few years to see how you do. Can you handle it? Then, they may make you an "associate." This is further broken down into three following categories: A-you just might make partner or B-you wlil always and forever be an "associate," or C-the dreaded: "we regret to inform you that we must terminate your employment for "X" reasons (fill in the blank.) You busted your hump, made the firm a ton of money, and now they are chucking you for "fresh meat" who will work like the dickens like you first did before you caught fire, crashed and burned out.

One way to get a good-paying job is to "hire in" along with a pack of clients you bring with you, who love you so much as a lawyer, they will follow you wherever you go. But if you don't have a client-base as a new layer, for get this.

In the back of you head--think about specializing in some boutique area of the law: like spots law, entertainment law, defending white-collar crooks--then you can write your own ticket. You make yourself "indispensable." But this is all on you--you make it happen.

Oh, and then there's that wonderful aspirational (and mandatory legal) dimension called "ethics. Today, a lot of the clients (corporate or otherwise) want to use the attorney-client relationship as a shield for their own nefarious workings, some of which are blatantly criminal, like outright theft, fraud, Ponzi-schemes, or the like. I once worked as divisional legal counsel for a "Fortune 500 company." The CEO wanted me to do something clearly illegal. I advised him of the situation, and the answer I received was; "Do this or you're out the door." I replied I'd be in on Saturday to clean my office out and walked out. How do explain to your wife and family that you're now unemployed because of "ethics?"

My advice: send out resumes, call, email, schmooze with anyone offering a slot. You can always move up. Try (I know this rubs some people the wrong way) but try a government job to start: county prosecutor, city attorney, or at the Fed level, the "alphabet soup" agencies--FBI, DOJ, FCC, etc. They are always looking for help and pay fairly well.

Something you should not do to start: go solo and start your own practice. Brutal.

Peace and blessing, Brother! I've earned my keep--I'm going fishing in that sweet "Land Between the Lakes!" I need peace. Been warring too long in an adversarial profession, which engenders a man's fighting spirit to knock the other guy down with your fists straight away, but you have to do it with legal "briefs" or "memos" or arguments in front of walnut podiums before sleeping judges in black robes, who, sometimes, don't give a hoot about what you;'re saying.

 

I'm not a lawyer (currently in pharmacy school), but I can tell you that the education bubble in TN is reaching critical mass for both professions. Just too many schools in TN now, and as you can imagine, there aren't many people that come to Nashville and don't want to stay.

I have multiple friends graduating from law programs and trying to come back to Nashville and having a lot of trouble. I know another guy from Vandy law that was even struggling to find summer clerkships (I may be using the wrong term here ) that used to be very cushy and aplenty.

I think a lot of people went back to school during the latest recession (2008 onward), and too many schools have opened (greedily, IMO) to sop up the demand.

Seriously, if you want to stay in Nashville and remain employed, the law is not a good field to enter. I read your thread in GD, and you were given much the same advice as here. High LSAT scores and grades are fine, but the days of sliding from school into a cushy firm are dead and buried. It's a cat-eat-dog world now and only the well-connected will survive.

I am a paralegal and have the degree and volunteer experience to be a good one. I made many connections within the legal community but still was unable to find work after five months of searching. There are a lot of unemployed lawyers working as paralegals just to stay in their field, as well as many more non-practicing attorneys in town.

Make connections now or reconsider law school; that's my advice.

As most here mentioned the law scene in Nashville is rough but not impossible to find a job.

With that said, I would think hard about Vanderbilt.  A 75 percentile LSAT would make it very difficult to get into Vandy considering that their 25 percentile student is 87 percentile among all test takers.  In all likelihood it would make it difficult coming out to get a job in comparison to her classmates (if you buy into the LSAT is a predictor of success notion).  I'm not as tied into Vandy law as I am Belmont, but both graduating classes are having a real hard time placing people, though both have 3Ls that will be working at major Nashville firms.

Unless you are at the top of the class, prepare to take temporary/contract work as many firms have transitioned to hiring laterals. WeI currently have 2 contract lawyers working for my firm, both top notch and they have had a helluva time finding permanent work.  

Some specialization works, patent prosecution in particular, but it can backfire.  One isn't going to land a sweet entertainment law gig right out of school.  

Let me know if you have any questions about specific areas of law in Nashville or firms.  Happy to assist.

Need a male 43 year old, big, scary-looking, Sioux Indian paralegal?

I was told by someone who is tuned in to the local job scene that my troubles are simple. Lawyers who can afford paralegals want eye-candy who can knock out 90WPM all day and look good in a skirt and heels. The middle-aged female office managers want their friends working with them, and nobody wants someone like me.... Unless it's to walk them to their cars after dark.

It is all in who you know.

Deal!

Wish you all the best!