The market for legal jobs in the workplace is trending upward, with projections indicating those who hold a law degree will have plenty of lucrative employment options. The energy sector is only one industry demanding graduates who hold a law degree.
The energy and manufacturing sectors will see hundreds of new jobs in 2018, buttressing a Texas economy that’s projected to grow 3 percentthis year, outpacing the 2.5 percent growth of 2017, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. The Houston metropolitan area may account for 75,000 new jobs, theFederal Reserve forecasts.
“With Houston being such an integral market for energy and oil and gas, that’s definitely good news for us, because that means there are more opportunities for our students,” said Nazleen Jiwani, head of the Career Resource Center at South Texas College of Law Houston.
Opportunities for new lawyers are created along with such growth, says Tammy Brennig, who, as the hiring partner at law firm Andrews Kurth Kenyon, has her finger on the pulse of the job market for lawyers in Houston.
While energy is at the forefront of the Houston economy, there are other sectors driving demand for new lawyers, Brennig said. Houston is a rising star in technology, for example.
“In Houston, we are blessed with a robust job market in the legal industry,” Brennig said. “Houston is the epicenter of the energy and the oil and gas industry, but being the fourth largest city in the U.S., there are a lot of other attractive industries that promote legal growth, including real estate, finance, tech and health care. Over the last few years, we’ve seen a lot national firms – New York- and Chicago-based firms – open offices here.
“We have survived a lot of the effects of recession that some other cities have not been so fortunate with, (giving) law students and young lawyers real opportunities here in Houston,” Brennig said. “You no longer have to go to New York to chase that premier job. We have them right here in Houston.”
For law firms, law schools are the most fertile recruiting grounds to find new lawyers, according to Brennig.
“Law schools are always where we start,” Brennig said of her firm’s recruiting practices. “We have a great pipeline, and we start early on with law students in their first year and continue to recruit them throughout their three years in law school.”
First-year associates hired by big firms after graduating from South Texas College of Law can expect to make $150,000 to $180,000 a year, Jiwani said. Law grads hired by medium- or boutique-sized firms typically earn $90,000 to $120,000 in their first year, while first-year salaries are in the $70,000 to $90,000 range at smaller firms.
While money is rarely the primary motivating factor for people interrupting their careers to pursue law degrees, the reality is that law school isn’t cheap and there needs to be some gold at the end of the proverbial rainbow, said Alicia Cramer, assistant dean of admissions at South Texas College of Law.
For law students, the rainbow sometimes leads to somewhere other than a law firm. A law degree is remarkably versatile, applicable in nearly any field.
“People recognize the importance of an advanced degree and that the J.D. (degree), more than another, opens more doors and allows you the flexibility of how to use it,” Cramer said.
Companies in every industry have in-house lawyers, and there are also opportunities in fields such as financial advisory, planned giving, compliance, health care administration and in Houston in particular, technology. Cramer has seen several engineers enroll at South Texas in pursuit of career in IP law.
“You have to have a certain amount of engineering background (to practice intellectual property law),” Cramer said, “You’ve got people in that world saying, ‘You know what? I could make a little bit more money if I had my J.D. versus doing some of the things that are almost like being a lawyer that don’t require the credentials.’”
Of the 900-plus students at South Texas College of Law, about 24 percent are “non-traditional,” meaning they have full-time jobs and are taking classes on a part-time basis at night. Most of these non-traditional students have a good idea about what they want to do with their law degrees once they get it, but many change their minds along the way, Cramer said.
“They’re A-type personalities who are very hard workers and are used to being successful,” Cramer said. “(Their mentality is), ‘I just need to get in and do the work and prove myself and I can get a job. I can make it happen.’”
Learn more about the versatility of a law degree at South Texas College of Law Houston.
