Pasadena, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/25/2010 -- The tough job market has hit fresh graduates of laws schools. To counter this, law schools and law firms are trying out unconventional methods to help them out.

Duke University has a “Bridge to Practice” program since 2008 and is paying 30 of its students who graduated this year stipends, in return the students work at law firms who do not have to pay anything. Washington University School of Law has a summer program where first and second year law students get to shadow attorneys for six weeks, but the program costs around $8000. Law firms are also taking on new graduates as apprenticeships instead of junior associates, and in turn are paying less than they would traditionally be paying.

According to the National Law Journal, firms like Howrey, Drinker Biddle, and Frost Brown are claiming substantial savings with this new arrangement. Even getting pro-bono work is getting difficult for deferred or furloughed lawyers. The Legal Aid Society got over 100 applications for its 38 positions in New York.

“What this means is that the high paying jobs for new graduates and junior partners are scarce. But again, this means people just need to be more flexible about where and what kind of work they want to do” says A. Harrison Barnes, CEO of LawCrossing, a job aggregator site for people in the legal field. “Fresh graduates can find work in smaller firms and get valuable real courtroom experience.” Barnes’s optimism stems from the fact that his company, LawCrossing, was able to gather 843 summer associate and 16,656 law student and clerkship jobs.

For more information on LawCrossing, please visit http://www.lawcrossing.com.