University of Texas School of Law - Peregrinus Yearbook (Austin, TX)

Page 14 text:

Placement Office Becomes Career Services Office to Reflect Mission, Purpose, Function Arietta Tompkins has been the Director of the Placement Office for six years. But the Placement Office name is now changed, and Tompkins explained that the process of securing a lau job has changed too. She described how the Law School has responded. CAREER SERVICES OFFICE (Jj Whai's the name “Placement OTlicc being changed to? At Career Services Ollice. Why the change? y4.’ I'he Dean fell it said more about what we did — we don't just place ix'ople. A lot of what we do is counsel jH-ople. we deal with the Alumni extensively. Placement Ollice just sounds like you walk in one door, get placed, and you walk out the other door. We do a lot more than that. Qj Whai's the percentage of I I Law students getting jobs out there? A.' My feeling is the numlxrs are going down, just from the feedback we're getting. It's gone down lor the May graduates of 90. but not very much. What I'm worried about is that that doesn’t really reflect what s hapjK'ned to a number of them, because some of our statistics said, they were employed, but I know they've been laid oil. ()’ You mention people Ixing laid ofT. is that a real problem now? A Yes. Yeah. The biggest thing we're doing with | eople at this |M int is those that have Ixen out either as May graduates last year, or that have been out two or three years, that have been laid oil. (A Why is that happening? A. There are a number ol firms dissolving, and others that are letting a number ol |»eople go. and a bunch of those people are ours. II you’re talking about firms in Texas letting [xrople go. some of them have got to be ours. How many firms come on campus to interview? A.' Well, it's gone down. From the height two years ago we had 554. Last year we had a little under 500. let's see — 400. But we still gel the same firms from Texas. We were gelling firms from New Hampshire and Minnesota, but it wasn't economical for them. We doubled the number of firms coming from Florida, but we weren't having anyone going to Florida. not even for clerkships. We lost some firms from New York, but that makes sense because they're really hitting the skids up there. (Jj There are approximately 1500 students in the Law School. How many ol them will eventually use the services this ollice oilers? A! We don't really have a way to show except by those that sign up lor on campus interviews. There are I more now than in the really good I limes Ix'canse so many ol those students would get jobs during Christmas or before the on-campus season I began. Two years ago you'd have about 80% ol the second years sign up lor on campus interviews, and about | 80% ol the third years. This year we hadalxmt 80%. of the third years sign up. (A I low large is the office’s stall? 10 Career Sr» i,r Ollier

Page 13 text:

MOOT COURT TEAMS John Marshall Moot Court Team Octofinalist Gina Brock Guadalupe Cuellar Dave Moore Matt Ritchie Coach Lin Hughes Pace Environmental Law Moot Court (Endowed by: Fulbright and Jaworski National Simifinahsts) Kaye Schulz Carrie Hclmcamp Lee Ann Alexander Coach: J.B. Ruhl Douglass Moot Court Team Team 1 Regional Champions National Champions Best Brief at Nationals Ethel Johnson Theodore Marcus Best Advocate at Nationals Team 2 Region Octolinalist 2nd Place Briel at Regionals Kameron Johnson Cecilia Willis Coach: A. Nick Pittman Jessup International Moot Court Team Third Place at Regionals Dave Finn Linetie Harris Yianni Pantis Paul Stone • Best Advocate. Fourth Place Best Advocate. Second Place Coach. Doug Alexander National Moot Court Team Regional Quarterlinalists Marianne Baker Camille Johnson Mauldin Richard Moultrie Misti Mukherjee Coach: Greg Ellis State Bar Moot Court Team Summer 1990 Gregory Reed Annette Davis Lonnie Roach 1st Place Best Briel Award • Best Advocate Summer 1991 Allison A ransom Robert Madden Katherine Mize Coach: 1990-Kathy Allen Coach: 1991-Phil Durst Giles Sutherland Rich Intellectual Property Moot Court Team (Endowed by: Arnold, White and Durkee) Regional Champions Best Briel Award at Regionals National Scmifinahsts Gene Spears David Ball Coach: Craig Morgan Robert F. Wagner Sr. Labor Law Moot Court Team (Endowed by: Matthews and Branscomb) National Octolinalists Jeffrey Kaplan Kathy Moran Barbara Szalay Coach: John Williams ABA Moot Court Team. Spring 1991 Team 1 Regional Quarterlinalists 4th Place Brief Marianne Baker Richard Moultrie Misti Mukherjee Team 2 2nd Place at Regionals Best Brief Award Becky Smith Laura Barringer Joe Jaworski Coach: Greg F.llis ABA Moot Court Team. Summer 1990 Team I Regional Champions National Quarterlinalists Bob Bragalone Greg Reed Barlsara S alay Team 2 Regional Finalists Joe Jaworski Misti Mukherjee Becky Smith Coaches: Kappy Allen and Bob Roller OTHER TEAMS ABA Client Counseling Team James Kramer Gregory Reed ABA Negotiations Team Regional Finalists David Dawson Rick Leeper Coach: F.d Sherman Moot Court Teams — 9

Page 15 text:

 A. I have three and a half, and a temporary. We actually have a temporary almost all the time because we've just gotten so much busier with Job lairs and we do a great deal of counseling. Right now our counselor is setting up a presentation lor some of our current students who’ve been out there a while who haven’t found a job. on how you can set up your own practice. I think that's an option that wasn't even considered by jpeo-ple three years ago. Which is real unusual because there are a lot of law schools out here with a majority of their graduates going out and setting up their own practise. Jj If you had to give a percentage oFhow many IT Law students will get a job. what would it be? .4 I think it's gonna be right around .r 0, which is certainly down. In the past it's been 80. maybe even 85%. Qj There have been complaints that the Placement Office, because employers base their hiring decisions primarily on grades, is really just a place where people in the top third of their (lass can go. How do you read to that complaint? A' I sent statistics out to all the students with the (percentages of the dassesand how many ol those (people received clerkships through the Placement Office, and we have always done well throughout the (lass — even in the Ipotlom half, one-third of those get their (positions through t lis office. There is that perception — and it's the (perception ol all the schools out there. Some are worse than we are. because although a firm can ( os( its hiring criteria we don't keep anyone from signing up for them. We never restrict. There's nothing in our computers which says red light, red light, this person doesn't meet the criteria. We've al- ways had the philosophy, we don't care about a person's grades. All we say is that grades play an important role in how one should market himself. hat are some of the most memorable comments you've received and what are the general comments you get in feedback from employers about U T students, and vice versa? I.’ The general comment from employers is that they are always astounded at how well prepared our students are, and that really pleases me. That's certainly not the case at a lot of schools. I've had comments like. I thought last year's was the best dass ever, but every year we're more and more impressed.” That tells a lot about the kind of students in this Law School. Usually it's the employers I get complaints about. Sometimes I've had problems with lawyers that have too much lunch — they drink it. 'They've done some pretty amazing things. The worst one was when the student asked them their name's, so they wrote their first names on their post-it pads and stuck them on their forehead for the entire interview — they went through the whole interview with lorn and bob written on their foreheads. My favorite story involved a guy from New York. All through the morning of Ins interviews he kept going out the back depor to the men's room. We'd alpout decided he had come into Austin and partied too much, but then he asked us to call him a taxi because he Iclt like he had to go to the hospital. It ends up he had had ap|pcudicit is and had to have an emergency operation, lie calls over the next morning saying he felt really bad about the kids, he was sup-(posed to see and asked if we could call all ol those and arrange lor them to come over to the hospital to interview. I hat was dedication. (Jim Srmi rs (PN'mc I I