Askew quoted his favorite philosopher Lily Tomlin, saying, “The problem with the rat race is that, even if you win, you’re still a rat.” The commencement speaker told the new graduates, “The call of professionalism is not a call to the rat race but to the unselfish service to clients, to community, to society.”
One wonders why the college could not be so ‘unselfish’ as to provide free education to law students instead of saddling them with huge debts. The calls to help the nation and join public service were clearly to veer the subject away from the lack of jobs and gaps in employment data.
The present class of 2012 has few other options and has already donated 24,557 recorded hours of free legal service since 2009 and worked 11,264 hours in externship programs.
The grand news carried by the postandcourier.com also carries a remarkably astute observation of a commenter who identified himself as Chris Marley:
“Congratulations. Ladies and gentlemen you are screwed. If you are volunteering at Legal Aid for 6 years while working at Starbucks or delivering pizzas, your chances of landing a long-term legal job are going to be poor. A very small percentage of grads, more from top law schools and a few from the bottom tier law schools will land long-term permanent jobs. Today, the numbers of long-term high paying legal jobs are so small relative to the number of job seekers, and the jobs are so unstable because there are so many job seekers while every year more young fresh-faced legal commodities are pumped into the system by the nation’s law schools. Consequently, the odds of working as an indentured lawyer and netting more than a janitor in the public sector, on a long term basis after you take into account paying your student loans to obtain your law license, are very small. You have bought your lottery ticket. Now, good luck and let the drawing begin.”