One of the major media talking points coming out of the Obama CNBC Town Hall Forum is the 30 year old recent law school graduate who asked President Obama if the American Dream is dead. The predicate for that extremely loaded inquiry was that this particular 30 year old recent law school graduate cannot find a job, is swimming in student loan debt, and apparently doesn't have the means to contemplate getting married and starting a family. This particular law student also laid his poor job prospects, inability to pay his debt, and his failing love life at the feet of the president, who has apparently allowed the inspiration that was cultivated back on the campaign trail die. He now complains after the town hall that President Obama didn't answer his question.
Having been there myself (graduating from law school without a job and a lot of student loan debt), I don't want to pick on this guy's misery too much. However, I think it is important to understand just who this guy is, where he is coming from, and the most likely causes of his predicament. I would argue that his situation is certainly not the fault of President Obama, has nothing to do with "letting inspiration die," and should in no way be seen as a valid assessment of the viability of the American Dream.
First, a disclaimer. I don't personally know Mr. Brassfield, or know anything about his situation firsthand. My source of information about Mr. Brassfield is an interview he gave to the National Law Journal, which can be found here.http://www.law.com/... The following is my interpretation of Mr. Brassfield's situation, based upon my personal knowledge of the law, law schools, law firms, and the legal job market. I candidly admit that I could be wrong about these conclusions, so if anyone personally knows Mr. Brassfield or anything about him, please feel free to chime in and correct me.
His name is Ted Brassfield. He is originally from Colorado. He now lives in Washington, DC. He apparently had the good fortune to attend Princeton University for his undergraduate education, as he found out about the CNBC Town Hall through the Princeton Club of Washington, DC, and submitted a question through the club (denoting membership). For those who might not know this, Princeton is generally considered to be one of the very best colleges in the entire country, if not the best.
Based upon Mr. Brassfield's current age (30), he most probably graduated from Princeton in 2001 or 2002. After Princeton, did not immediately decide to attend graduate school or law school, but instead entered the job market. He apparently worked from around 2001-2002 to 2006, when he entered law school. He describes his work experience in this manner:
"I had worked a variety of jobs before landing a gig as a researcher in a management consulting agency. I built myself a potentially lucrative career and had some really good prospects, but I didn't want it."
Again, I don't know this guy, but if someone who was applying for a job with me described his work experience in this manner, I would presume that he had worked in retail or restaurants right out of Princeton, took some job that didn't pay a lot but that dangled the promise of commissions if he generated business, and that he did not succeed in this endeavor (note "potentially lucrative" and "really good prospects" -- not "lucrative" and "had some really good clients"). I would also presume that his level of academic achievement at Princeton was, shall we say, less than exemplary.
So, in 2005, with the economy in full-throttle mode (height of the housing market), Mr. Brassfield decides to leave his "potentially lucrative" management consulting career, and to apply for law school. He is accepted to law school at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law -- Bloomington. Now, don't get me wrong -- Indiana U. is a fine law school, currently ranked Number 27 in the country by the US News and World Report rankings. I also personally happen to know some very fine lawyers who are graduates of that school. However, Indiana U.'s law school is not Yale or Harvard. Generally, one must really excel (top 10% or 15% of the class) at a law school like Indiana to even be considered for a job at one of the law firms ranked in the American Lawyer Top 100, under even the best economic circumstances. I would also posit that for people who do not graduate in the top third or at least top half of the class at a school like Indiana, it has been more difficult to obtain any legal job than one might be led to believe by law school admissions, even in the best of economic times.
I might also add that Mr. Brassfield's acceptance at Indiana U. is a further indication that he was not at the top of his class at Princeton, and most likely had an undistinguished academic record there. He would have been an out-of-state student at Indiana (he is from Colorado), paying out of state tuition (which is no bargain -- over $40000 per year in 2010-2011), so it is unlikely that he was accepted to some more highly rated law schools but declined to attend for economic reasons. It is more likely that Indiana was the best law school to which Mr. Brassfield was accepted.
Despite being accepted to Indiana Law in 2005, Mr. Brassfield then decides to defer his admission for a year. Again, this is just the way in which I would interpret this if I was interviewing Mr. Brassfield and was presented with his story, but my sense would be that his "really good prospects" got the better of him in 2005-2006 (when the economy was rolling) so he decided to chase the dollars and put off law school for a year. He of course now regrets deferring, because had he not deferred, he would have graduated from law school in May 2008, prior to the market crash of September 2008 and in a marginally better legal job market.
Needless to say, things didn't work out for Mr. Brassfield in 2005 with whatever he was doing, so he ultimately matriculates at Indiana Law in 2006. While Mr. Brassfield indicates that he "didn't want to work for a private law firm while in law school," this is just law student doublespeak for "I didn't get the kind of grades to land a job at a private law firm." As a consequence, Mr. Brassfield takes interesting but unpaid internships in the government (HUD, EEOC, US Attorneys' Office) as his law school jobs. However, these types of internships typically do not lead to permanent legal jobs. Unfortunately for Mr. Brassfield and for thousands of other law students who do not get top grades at any law school outside the Top 15, this is just the extremely harsh reality of the legal job market -- highly competitive even in good economic times, and brutally competitive when the economy took its precipitous fall.
Mr. Brassfield then graduates from Indiana Law in 2009, presumably in May 2009. It can be reasonably inferred that he has failed the bar at least one time, as he reports that he is not a licensed attorney, and is awaiting the results of the Colorado bar examination. For those not in the know, the bar exams are offered twice a year -- in late summer/early fall, and again in midwinter (usually February). So, if Mr. Brassfield is awaiting the results of the Colorado bar examination in September 2010, that is most probably the August/September 2010 session of the bar exam, meaning that he might have already failed twice (late summer 2009 and midwinter 2010).
It should also be added that Mr. Brassfield reports now living in Washington, DC, which is one of the most competitive legal markets in the country, again without regard to the state of the economy. This certainly isn't helping his current job prospects.
Again, I don't know Mr. Brassfield. He is probably a very nice guy, and I'm sure that he is freaked out about not being able to find a permanent legal job. But to suggest that this is somehow the fault of President Obama, that the president is letting inspiration die, that the current economy has anything at all to do with this . . . come on, Mr. Brassfield. You know that you yourself have something to do with the situation in which you now find yourself. The legal job market is a hard one even in the best of times. You've also probably figured out that law school admissions sold you a bill of goods about your potential employability, so if you want to point the finger someplace, I would start there.
Oh, and the American Dream? Still alive and well, thank you.
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