Excerpt: It was the best of times in 2004, when attorney Dave Dineen graduated from Boston University School of Law and landed a job at a top Massachusetts corporate firm, Foley Hoag LLP.

By 2007, the National Association for Law Placement was reporting the most promising year in two decades. Nearly 92 percent of graduating attorneys were employed, and the median starting salary at private practices had increased by $13,000 --to a total of $108,500 a year.

But times have changed.

In the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the legal industry is taking an unprecedented beating from the sputtering economy and housing meltdown. Dineen, 37, lost his job as layoffs and salary freezes have spiked at law firms across the country during the past three months.

Rather than just hand out a severance package with the pink slip, Foley Hoag gave Dineen an option. He could work for Greater Boston Legal Services, a legal aid group serving people living in poverty. The firm agreed to pay Dineen about a quarter of his former salary for a year. Dineen, who needed to support his wife and a newborn daughter, accepted.
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"This gave me a chance to do something different with my legal career, and help out people who generally don't have access to public service," said Dineen, who now works on foreclosure cases helping victims of predatory lending.

Foley Hoag is among many megafirms across the country using the economic slump as an ideal time to lend a hand to cash-strapped public interest and legal aid firms. The massive corporate layoffs and program cuts could redirect thousands of young graduates and experienced attorneys from corporate firms into the public sector, legal experts say.

Once insulated, law firms are shedding young and mid-career associates at extraordinary rates. This is especially true at large corporate firms that overestimated their growth and extended too many offers to associates last fall.

White & Case LLP, a leading global firm with headquartes in New York, made a second round of cuts last week. In addition to about 70 associates laid off in November, the firm last week let go of another 400 people, including 200 attorneys. Other well-known firms such as Heller Ehrman LLP and Thelen Reid & Priest LLP on the West Coast have gone bankrupt in recent months.

At least 2,149 attorneys have been laid off in 2009, bringing the total to 3,045 since January of last year, according to Lawshucks.com, an industry Web site tracking the slump. Hundreds more associates set to start jobs this fall are bracing themselves for rescinded offers and deferred start dates. Some students are finding their summers wide open as law firms like Luce Forward, based in California, have canceled internship programs.

Amid all this dark news, there might be a silver lining. It could transform the legal profession.

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