Students entering law school may feel from time to time like a tourist walking a road adorned with no-vacancy signs - an excess of quality law graduates pining for jobs that are hard to come by.

But contrary to the current beliefs of many pessimistic students, the job market for law school graduates is on the rise after a period of employment decline, said Treat Anderson, Kaplan Educational Center's director of law school programs.

In a Kaplan survey, pre-law students who were preparing to take the Law School Admissions Test expressed a concern for the number of jobs that will be available in their field of study after graduation.

The survey said 84 percent of pre-law students think the job outlook in the field of law is down from previous years and is getting worse.

Anderson said a saturation of law graduates entering the market, lower hiring rates and negative media publicity has made the job market in the past few years a bit tougher.

"There were more people graduating than there were employment positions within law. Big law firms were cutting down on the number of associates they recruited, and there were not as many job openings available" he said.

He also said the media has a huge influence on how people view the legal profession.

"It is much easier for the media to bash the legal profession and focus on the negatives, than to focus on positives," Anderson said.

According to the National Association for Law Placement, the employment rate for graduating law school classes is rising - from a 1993 low of 83.4 percent to 86.7 percent in 1995.

Anderson said the increase is attributed to more non-traditional legal careers and to a stronger economy.

"Non-traditional (non-legal) careers in areas such as business, finance, real-estate, and teaching are the biggest (job market) increases," he said. Non-traditional careers offer jobs in areas of business and management, where more traditional legal careers actually practice law.

Mary Birmingham, assistant dean of career services for the University of Arizona's Law College, said the economy affects the legal market - a market that has been very tight since 1989.

"Jobs and opportunity for growth in the legal market are directly correlated with the economy. It is better now and is starting to strengthen up," she said.

Birmingham also said the employment increase can be attributed to a national decline in the number of law school applicants in the past 4 to 5 years.

In correlation with the national average, the UA began to experience the decline of law school applications two years ago, she said.

Although the job market is starting to get better, it appears getting a good job that can be enjoyed is still difficult.

At a law school admissions seminar sponsored by the Princeton Review, Eric Rau, second-year law student, said it is difficult, but not impossible to find a job.

"One of the things they really don't tell you (in law school) is how difficult it is to get a job in the law market. It is not impossible, but there are people who graduated from Ivy League schools that cannot find a job," he said.

Ildi Laczko, Princeton Review office manager and campus liaison, said law students need to work hard.

"You have to do a lot of the foot work," she said. "Knowing what you want to do and knowing what you want can help all the more because you can work in the direction you want to go."

Rau also stressed the importance of a law school's location.

"Even here in Tucson it can be difficult to get a job coming from the UA or ASU," Rau said. "The large firms are also interviewing Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and Michigan. It is harder to get a job."

Considering the competitive job market and amount of work a student of law must dedicate to his profession, students say they choose to go to law school for many reasons - they want to serve the community and hopefully earn a hefty salary.

Mike Peri, philosophy senior, said he would like to make money in the law profession, but his main concern was finding a job that he likes.

"I am scared to death about becoming a really angry man and becoming a grump that never smiles," he said.

Birmingham said students choose the law profession because they want to serve people's legal needs, be associated with a "sophisticated" profession, and they want a large salary.

Sixty-nine percent of those surveyed by Kaplan cited a long-term interest in law or the intellectual appeal as what most attracted them to the field. Sixty percent of participants surveyed, however, said their peers are motivated by the thought of financial gain.

Chantelle Dupuy, political science senior, said money was not the issue when she decided to go into law.

"I found an interest in law when I worked at the County Attorney's Office. Money was not really the issue," she said.

Anderson said recently, however, starting salaries have been increasing.

"First-year associate salaries at the top 20 New York law firms have increased their starting salaries for the first time in five years, which is an indication that they are becoming more aggressive in their recruiting and they are hiring more first year associates," he said. "This is an indication nationwide of a recovery in legal employment."

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