Legal job market tightens

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Employment opportunities for legal professionals, usually plentiful and lucrative, are drying up as the global economy crumbles.

2007 was the legal sector's strongest showing in 20 years, with 92% of graduates finding jobs in their field, according to the National Association for Law Placement.

But this year the legal industry endured eight consecutive months of decline, with 1,100 jobs lost in October, according to the Labor Department. The 150,000 students who enrolled in law school last year face a job market that is contracting for the first time in recent history.

In the past several months, some of the nation's largest law firms, which also recruited and hired the most aggressively, have started laying off lawyers and staff members. This fall, San Francisco firm Heller Ehrman shut down all together, putting nearly 700 attorneys out of work.

While hiring is slowing in certain areas, including real estate and M&A, there are other opportunities for lawyers that are flourishing in the current climate, specifically litigation, intellectual property, white-collar crime and bankruptcy.

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