Even as the economy shows sporadic signs of improvement, the seventh annual New Jersey Legal Almanac documents significant hits to the legal profession.

Most obvious are stagnant or reduced job opportunities. The clearest indication of growth on hold is the number of law firms with 20 or more attorneys — 114, the same as in 2009, compared with 110 in 2008 and 105 in 2007.

And if summer hiring continues to be a harbinger of the availability of jobs, there is cause for concern. New Jersey's largest firms hired 77 2Ls, a big drop from 106 in 2009 and 124 in 2008.

This year's Almanac also bears out leaner opportunities in state jobs. The number of public defenders fell to 466 from 482 in 2009 and 506 in 2008. Ditto for the Attorney General's Office; it employs 670 lawyers, compared with 706 the year before and 737 in 2008.

Some law firms say they are spending less on minority recruitment as a result of budget problems. Indeed, the number of minority lawyers at New Jersey's largest firms dropped for the third straight year. In 2010, minorities made up 3.28 percent of partners and 11.64 percent of nonpartners. Those figures were 3.8 percent and 12.7 percent in 2009 and 4.3 percent and 12.9 percent in 2008, respectively.

But there is some positive news. Deals of $20 million and above in the first half of the year made a bit of a comeback, hitting 36, compared with 27 in 2009, though nowhere near the 62 in 2008.

And, as our demographics section illustrates, New Jersey continues to be dominated by solo attorneys. They make up 74.78 percent of the profession.

This extensive collection of information was made possible by the hard work of our researcher, Alexander Lewis, and I thank him for his resourcefulness.

I invite you to contact me at 973.854.2902 or [email protected] with questions or comments.

Pamela E. Brownstein
Executive Editor

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