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Employment Prospects Survey |
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Career services has improved over the past few years, and the addition of a new
career services Dean, Dean Almond, seems to have helped. Although that being
said there a few problems with career services at Alabama which are largely out
of the hands of the career services administrators.
1L Positions
The city of Birmingham is unique in that it hires a great deal of 1L's for
summer associate position. The top 10-20% of the class after their first
semester all accept positions with the big Birmingham firms to work for the
summer after their first year of school. During on-campus interviews for 1L
summer positions, it is largely limited to these Birmingham firms, and the only
people that are selected for an interview with these firms is the top 25% of the
class. So in essence the top 10-20% of the class primarily get jobs with the big
firms in Birmingham (Bradley Arant, Burr & Forman, Balch & Bingham, Maynard
Cooper & Gale, etc.), and the rest or left to pretty much fend for themselves.
That being said, Alabama does offer a few great programs for those that are not
fortunate enough to find themselves in the top 25% of the class. There is an
externship program which gives you the opportunity to have an internship with
places like the U.S Attorney's Office, District Attorney's Office, clerk for a
Judge, etc., while earning class credit. There is also a program that allows
students to take classes in Australia or Switzerland that Alabama offers for a
pretty affordable price.
2L's & Beyond
The biggest problem that comes with 2L on campus interviews is a product that is
largely created by the students themselves. In years past, many of the big
Atlanta firms came to campus (Alston & Bird, King & Spalding, etc.), and while
there are still a few that come that number is dwindling due to the large amount
of students in the top of their class that choose to work in Birmingham. There
is a huge disincentive for the big firms in other locals to come to campus when
they can't get anyone from the top 20% of the class to even interview with their
firm. There is still a few big Atlanta firms that come to campus (Troutman
Sanders, Kilpatrick Stockton, Smith Gambrell & Russel) but they have to drop down
the ranks quite low to find enough people interested in interviewing with them.
Birmingham seems to lock the top students in during their 1L summer which has the
effect of on-campus interviewing once again being largely limited to Alabama
firms. However, that being said, if you send some unsolicited resumes on your
own to firms in other cities, you typically can have some luck as you are a
rarity in the sense that you are an Alabama student that has realized there are
other cities in the Southeast other then Birmingham. This trend may stop as
Alabama continues to attract more and more students from out-of-state. However,
my class had a fair amount of these students and they still seemed to be sucked
in with the allure of Birmingham.
The career services office consists of 4 people, the dean who is an Alabama law
grad, and 3 other helpful women. They are all helpful in that they do
legitimately want to help you find a job. However, you have to realize that if
you do not get a job through on campus interviewing, it is largely up to you to
put forth the effort to send out unsolicited interviews, and network network
network to find that dream job.
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University of Alabama School of Law Admission & Application Surveys
