Law graduates facing bleak job prospects

Few prospects

Li, the Fudan student, specializes in administrative law. She has become more anxious since beginning work as an intern at a law firm about a month ago.

"What I am doing at the firm is dealing with specific cases, such as company mergers. The basic legal thinking I learned at school seems a bit general for the work," she said.

In her class of about 200 graduates, less than 20 percent have job offers, she said.

"We chose the major because we were interested in it. Then we found we're not so fond of the job availability at the end," Li said. "But after several years of study, it seems there's no turning back."

She received her bachelor's degree three years ago from East China University of Political Science and Law but decided to pursue an advanced degree at Fudan on account of the gloomy employment picture.

Now, many universities have created a law major, and all students can take the judicial and civil exams - "which means law graduates have few advantages, and everyone has a finger in the pie", Li said.

Increasing numbers of students have pursued a bachelor's degree in law, with the total reaching about 80,000 in 2012, according to eol.cn.

Yi, the lawyer, said the sharply increasing number of law graduates is both good and bad.

"The good is that the major gets high attention. After the country's leadership emphasized judicial reform and highlighted the rule of law, the legal environment started improving," Yi said.

But there's a downside for graduates. For example, salaries for judges and prosecutors are small, yet the number of cases they handle in a year is big, which cools the interest of some law graduates, Yi said. He added that the number of judges and prosecutors will be reduced further under the reforms, which means some experienced insiders will switch to being lawyers.

"A stable judicial job, including work opportunities in undeveloped areas, such as legal aid providers in a county, is not as attractive for most students as being a lawyer with a good income," he said.