By Lily Altavena and Berenice Garcia
Washington Square News, NYU

(UWire)--Times are tough for law students these days.

Because of the economic downturn, many law firms across the nation are not hiring, leaving NewYork University law students and recent graduates with fewer job prospects than last year.

students will compete for half of the jobs they were competing for last year in the country's top law firms this hiring season

The NYU School of Law has recently confirmed that this hiring season, students will compete for half of the jobs they were competing for last year in the country's top law firms.

Irene Dorzback, assistant dean for career services at the School of Law, acknowledged the recent decrease.

"Some firms that traditionally had a have a 12-person summer program have gone down to three," Dorzback said. "A pretty large percentage of firms are making some changes to the sizes of their summer and entering classes."

Dorzback said though the number of job interviews NYU law students have had is similar to past years, the issue lies in the number of students who are actually hired.

"The bigger drop is at the callback stage," Dorzback said. "Because of the smaller summer programs, they don't need to bring as many people back."

Despite these statistics, according to the school's website, 99 percent of 2008 law alumni landed their first- or second-choice job.

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Robert Betances, a second-year NYU law student, said the situation is still unpromising.

"Some of the summer associates are being deferred to summer 2011," Betances said. "It's that bleak."

Betances said that one of his friends recently worked at a firm whose class size decreased to 19 from 70 associates.

Dorzback said she has been working with firms to help NYU students receive more job opportunities.

As a result of the decreased private sector job opportunities for many law students, some have turned to the public sector, particularly government jobs.

"I'm doing mostly federal government work," Betances said. "The public sector is seeing mostly quality candidates that would usually be working in big firms."

Dorzback said turning to the public sector is not always the answer.

"They are not looking to employ everyone who is unsuccessful in finding a private sector job," she said. "They want people who have a commitment to public service and will stick around."

Although the decreased job prospects leaves many students worried, some are optimistic.

"I think it shifts where NYU is in a good place and people are still interviewing," said Amy Marshak, a second-year law student. "It's still earlier in the hiring season."

Dorzback also said the School of Law is in a good position.

"We have very strong relationships with law firms, and they want to maintain their relationships with us," she said. "They respect the school. We have so many alums that are at these firms."