Law students brace for bad job market

Rebecca Verona, director for career planning at Rutgers School of Law in Camden, said approximately 20 third-year students set to graduate had been deferred and the longest deferral period was one year. The students were deferred from firms such as Ballard Spahr, Blank Rome, Schnader, Morgan Lewis & Bockius, Reed Smith, and Montgomery McCracken & Walker.

"It's really uncharted territory for us," Verona said. "Sometimes, the first place you find out about these deferrals is through the press or on the Internet. First you read about it, and then you go to see which of your students was affected."

The legal job market anxieties are even affecting first-year students.

Peter Richman, 22, who is completing his first year at Temple, has come up empty in his search for a paid summer legal position. He's been offered an unpaid internship in Washington.

"I think a big problem with a lot of law schools is there's this myth that you go to law school for three years and come out making six figures," Richman said. Law schools "help create that. The reality is you're coming out $200,000 in debt."