On Sept. 13, the New York City Corporation greeted scores of new attorneys fresh from 32 law schools who will go to work for the citizens of the largest city in the United States working a diverse array of legal matters that range from police brutality to land use to sidewalk slip-and-fall cases.

The city's Law Department, which has a roster of more than 800 attorneys, serves a sprawling municipal government with more than 300,000 employees, a $100 billion budget, and contracts totaling nearly $37 billion