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Home › About › Communications › Outreach › 2011 Outreach Summaries › New Lawyers Face Different, Difficult Pathway To The Profession
New Lawyers Face Different, Difficult Pathway To The Profession
Originally Published in November/December 2010 N.C. Lawyer
Summary Date: Friday, June 03, 2011
Written By: Patrick Norris
When you decide you want to be a lawyer, what comes next? The most common – even stereotypical – path is obvious: you finish your undergraduate studies, get accepted to law school, graduate, pass the bar and then get hired by a large firm.
That method has worked for thousands of North Carolina lawyers over the years, but is it the path that many new lawyers have taken in today’s legal job market?
Four lawyers at the North Carolina Bar Association’s recent Practical Skills Program, an annual CLE offering for newly admitted lawyers, shared their path to becoming lawyers.
Each of the four lawyers – Adriene Davis, Paul Fogleman, Rick Scott and Amy Townsend – showed an interest in the legal profession as children.
Hanging a Shingle
Davis is a 2009 graduate of the North Carolina Central University School of Law and opened her office in Durham, Byars & Davis, with law partner and law school classmate Quinn Byars in May. Davis, perhaps like many of her generation, discovered the profession on TV and in movies.
Upon passing the bar, Davis decided to open her own practice – a path that to many has become a necessity if you want to get a job straight out of law school. When Davis and Byars opened their practice they faced many issues.
“The biggest concern was being able to get the capital and opening up our practice with what we needed from the start,” Davis explained. “We didn’t have any experience practicing, but we are ambitious individuals and are happy that we opened our own office.
“In hindsight maybe we should have tried to get some more experience before opening our practice, but we looked for jobs and couldn’t find any,” Davis continued. “We both were constantly looking for jobs but had few options because we were being told we were overqualified.”
No Job, Plenty of Debt
Fogleman is a 2010 graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law who is currently searching for his first job while residing in Chapel Hill. He fit the profile of a young lawyer following in the footsteps laid out before him by his family. His father practices law in a small firm and his cousin is a judge.
Fogleman is finding it difficult to get his foot in the door as well and has contacted district attorneys’ offices across North Carolina hoping to find interest once the hiring freeze ends. With a background in economics, Fogleman has considered finding employment in that field while waiting on the legal profession to begin hiring again.
“Since I went straight in to law school I never really used my economics degree so I don’t even know if I have the experience that the economics’ jobs require right now,” Fogleman said.
Fogleman can’t afford to wait to find employment, however, as his student loan repayment of over $80,000 started in November with a monthly payment of $750.
Delayed Start to Legal Career
Townsend is a 1999 graduate of the Pepperdine University School of Law who didn’t take the bar until a decade after graduation as she first pursued a corporate career and worked with at-risk children.
After Townsend graduated she was intent on practicing law in California. She returned home to North Carolina for her sister’s wedding and in the process met her future husband and moved back east.
“At first I didn’t want to practice law in North Carolina based on the difference that I knew of between here and California law,” Townsend explained. “After moving back to North Carolina I initially worked for Wachovia and later with at-risk children.”
Her husband, Matt Stockdale, is a lawyer and decided that he wanted to start his own law office. He eventually got to the point where he needed help in his new office to keep up with the workload.
“I think I needed time to decide that I was ready to take on practicing law in North Carolina, and we both decided that we got along fine and figured we could work together,” Townsend said.
Small Town Lawyer
Scott is a 2009 graduate of the Campbell University School of Law and has practiced in Shallotte with McGougan Law since February. His interest in law stems from the FBI, where he applied before heading to law school.
For Scott, being a lawyer in a small town has afforded him the opportunity to learn from other attorneys and to function as a general practitioner while trying to find his niche and preferred area of practice.
“I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a lawyer my first year of law school, but once I got in the courtroom I really got the attorney bug,” Scott explains. “And being in a small town has been great for me, because everyone is very friendly and you pretty much know all of the lawyers here in the 13th Judicial District bar. They help you out and teach you how to practice efficiently each day.”
The path to becoming a lawyer isn’t defined or set in stone, but the common ground among all attorneys is still the excitement and love of practicing law.
Do you know of an attorney or law firm that has been active in the community or has made significant charitable contributions? The outreach section of the NCBA website is designed to highlight these efforts. Contact Amber Smith, Assistant Director of Communications for Community Outreach and Social Media for the NCBA, at asmith@ncbar.org.
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