Legal News

Happy Days! Over a Dozen (Good) Lawyer Jobs Could Come Soon

By Ashby Jones

Laid off lawyers, we like to deliver good news on the job front as often as we can. And today, there’s a crescent of blue in an otherwise slate-colored sky. That’s right, if all goes according to plan, we could be staring at 13 new bankruptcy judgeships at some point soon.

We know, we know: it might be hard for an unemployed lawyer with a year of experience drafting interrogatories to snag those nominations. But look at it this way: even if you throw your hat in the ring and come up empty, there’s this: Maybe the judiciary will entice a few bankruptcy partners away from their rainmaking practices, opening up more opportunities for a handful of go-getting bankruptcy associates.

In any event, the news comes from the NLJ’s Marcia Coyle.

Coyle reports that the Judicial Conference, the policymaking arm of the federal courts, is seeking 13 new, permanent bankruptcy judgeships in 10 judicial districts; the conversion of 22 existing temporary bankruptcy judgeships to permanent in 15 judicial districts, and the extension of two existing temporary bankruptcy judgeships for five years.

U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn of the Northern District of Texas, head of the Judicial Conference Committee on the Administration of the Bankruptcy System, told a House Judiciary subcommittee recently, “Our judicial resources are strained, and the cost to society of an overburdened bankruptcy system, especially in this economic climate, is enormous.”

In any event, we figure that lawyers working on the Chrysler and GM bankruptcies could use a few more bodies to help out. According to this Reuters story, in the first 45 days of Chrysler's bankruptcy, attorneys filed more than four times the number of pleadings than over the same period for collapsed corporate giants WorldCom or Enron.

More than 4,200 pleadings were filed in the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. In the first 16 days after General Motors for bankruptcy, almost 1,800 pleadings were filed.

Photo: iStockPhoto

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on June 18, 2009 (boomark / email).