Pasadena, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/09/2011 -- Washington & Lee Law School is making an effort to educate its students on the employment prospects they face in the next few years.

This makes it one of the few schools to do so in a sector that many new graduates say needs to be more transparent and provide clear data about future prospects. Although most of the information provided by the school is public, taken primarily from the NALP, it reveals some interesting information.

The school reveals that the average reported starting salary for its graduates in 2009 was almost $102,000. Half of 1Ls (first year students) will be doing unpaid internships this year. The range of salaries was $37,500 to $165,000.

The past year has not been very good for attorneys in big law firms either. Several of the top law firms experienced double digit layoffs. The biggest ones in terms of percentage were Fish & Richardson and Butzel Long, each with 17.7 percent decline. However, nine firms increased their headcounts by over 10 percent.

CEO A. Harrison Barnes of LawCrossing says that although the large law firms are laying off attorneys, there are opportunities in smaller firms across America. “Going solo is not the only solution if you are laid off; we have been able to gather thousands of openings from smaller and mid-sized firms.” LawCrossing has been able to find over 37,000 attorney jobs across the country.

LawCrossing is a job aggregator site for all types of legal jobs. Its database carries attorney jobs (37,967), law student/clerkship (23,219), legal staff jobs (14,073), partner jobs (299), postgraduate clerkship (513), and summer associate/ internships (933).