Because of the sour economy, employment is down for law students who graduated in 2008, according to a July 9 report from the National Law Placement Center.

Although 89.9 percent of 2008 law graduates were employed as of Feb. 15, this rate represents the first decrease in the employment rate for recent law graduates since 2003.

The report tracked 2008 graduates for whom employment was known.

Other signs pointed to a weak job market. The rate of part-time employment stood at 6.5 percent for 2008 graduates compared to about 5 percent in recent years.

In addition, the percentage of graduates opting to pursue an LLM, legum magister or master of laws, or other graduate studies full-time increased.

Some lucky graduates reached the fabled plateau of a first-time salary of $160,000.

Although 23 percent of law school graduate salaries were $160,000, 34 percent were $55,000 or less.

Many more graduates started work in small firms of 50 or fewer lawyers or in non-firm settings than at firms of more than 100 lawyers, the report indicated. The most common employment setting was private practice within a law firm.

Of graduates known to be employed, 56.2 percent obtained their first job in a law firm. The percentage employed in private practice has fluctuated between 55 percent and 58 percent since 1993.

Public service employment, including government jobs, judicial clerkships and public interest positions, accounted for 26.8 percent of jobs taken by employed graduates, comparing with 27.3 percent for the prior year. Jobs with public interest organizations, which includes public defenders, accounted for 5.4 percent of jobs.

Compared to the overall median starting salary of $72,000, the law firm private practice median was much higher – $125,000, a jump of more than $16,000 over that for the Class of 2007.

Medians for jobs in government, public interest organizations and as judicial clerks, increased by only about $2,000. Public sector jobs paid less than the private sector. They ranged from $52,500 for government, $43,765 for pubic interest organizations and $50,000 for judicial clerks.

In private practice, more than one-third of the salaries were $55,000 or less, compared with about 47 percent at more than $75,000.

About 48 percent of employed black/African-American graduates took jobs in private practice, compared to 59 percent of employed white graduates and more than 62 percent of employed Asian/Pacific Islander graduates.

Employment patterns also differ between men and women, with women more frequently taking government, judicial clerkship and public interest positions. Not quite 31 percent of employed women took these types of positions, compared to about one-quarter of employed men.

Older graduates were less likely to go into private practice and more likely to enter academic or business settings. About 45 percent of employed graduates age 41-45 and 37 percent of those age 46 or older entered private practice, compared with 61 percent of employed graduates age 20-25.

About 26 percent of employed graduates age 41-45 and 33 percent of those 46 or older took jobs in business/industry, rates more than double that of employed graduates age 20-30.

In some cities, such as Atlanta, Dallas and New York City, jobs in private practice accounted for almost three-quarters of the jobs taken by new graduates. Cities such as Boston, Indianapolis, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Miami and Phoenix offered more government or clerkship opportunities. Opportunities in business were relatively abundant in Cleveland, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Houston and Seattle.