Your Unemployed Lawyer has spent the day watching football and completing the links to more than 200 law firm job boards for this site. I noticed that some beloved teams won (whether deservedly or not) and others lost (whether deservedly or not) and it somehow struck me as a metaphor for the whole bloody situation that we're all in. May I say that getting beaten up will sometimes get you there and sometimes won't?

I also noticed, while reading all the job boards, that there are jobs out there: for associates, for partners, and for staff attorneys or counsel (more on that another time). From my own selfish perspective, I wonder how it can be that there are so many jobs, but none of them where I am! From my perspective as your Unemployed Lawyer, I find it sad and troubling that there are so many jobs, but most of them far away from the loci of all the mass firings (e.g., NYC, Chicago, LA, San Francisco). In other words, most of the available attorneys are far away from most of the open jobs. NYC is probably the exception. I found open jobs there, and I believe that many unemployed attorneys roam the streets of The Naked City[1] wondering what has happened to their lives.

However, very few of the open jobs I saw, wherever located, were commercial litigation jobs. One or two at the most. Overwhelmingly, the jobs were IP jobs, with corporate transactions (hmmm, wonder why?) running second, followed by a fair number of health care and real estate openings. Surprisingly, very few of the jobs were bankruptcy jobs; your Unemployed Lawyer thought demand would be rising.

I ramble. What I saw today is that we unemployed lawyers who wish to forward our careers are also going to have to forward our mail. I don't see any way around it. We can't move on unless we move.

So much for your spouse's job, or the school your kids attend. Say goodbye to that house you love whose payments you've been struggling to make. Kiss your friends and family members a fond farewell, because you'll be making your home in another state, if not another region of the country. You'll be glad to do it, too, despite the tears and broken ties. Leaving is the only way you can make a living.

Those of us with child custody issues or the need to care for sick or elderly relatives will just have to grin and bear it. To leave those things behind is too heartbreaking to contemplate. Keep looking, keep hoping.

And, someone please talk to me.

[Title] Okay, I know it's not a movie title, but it's a great old Woody Guthrie song.

[1] Hellinger Productions, 1948, directed by Jules Dassin, starring Barry Fitzgerald, Don Taylor, and Howard Duff.