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Even as a new class of future lawyers descended upon Lewis & Clark Law School last week, Libby Davis was dealing with the task of how to motivate the school鈥檚 recent grads as they face one of the worst job markets in history.

It wasn鈥檛 a new challenge for Davis, Lewis & Clark鈥檚 associate dean of career and professional development. She鈥檚 had to deal with it many times since the economy took a nosedive.

鈥淭he job market is still super competitive, but I see graduates who are tenacious and creative about how they are going to get started, especially after they pass the bar (exam),鈥� Davis says.

From working as independent contractors to agreeing to part-time hours, law school grads have had to adapt to the recession鈥檚 employment realities. So have law schools. The growing number of grads going solo led Lewis & Clark to add a course in law practice management that includes practical tips for running one鈥檚 own firm. The course, offered for the second time this fall, already had a waiting list, Davis says.

Amid the dismal job market and skyrocketing debt load for law students, enrollment for first-year students at Willamette University College of Law has decreased from 148 students last year to 138 this year, says Carolyn Dennis, the law school鈥檚 admissions director.

Lewis & Clark enrolled 245 first-year students during the 2011-12 academic year. The law school did not provide this year鈥檚 enrollment figure, but reportedly is considering limiting enrollment to 200 students per year.

A recent study on starting salaries for new associates doesn鈥檛 do much to brighten the picture, particularly in light of the rising debt load that law students face. According to the National Association for Law Placement, the median starting salary for 2011 graduates fell 5 percent from the previous year, and has decreased nearly 17 percent since 2009.

The NALP study, released in July, found that the median starting private-practice salary fell more than 18 percent from 2010, and since 2009 has plummeted by 35 percent.

“This drop in starting salaries, while expected, is surprising in its scope,” says NALP Executive Director James Leipold. “Nearly all of the drop can be attributed to the continued erosion of private-practice opportunities at the largest law firms.”

The NALP also reported that the overall employment rate for 2011 law school graduates for whom employment status was known was 85.6 percent, compared to the historic high of 91.9 percent for the 2007 graduates.

Of graduates whose employment status was known, only 65.4 percent found a job that required passage of the bar exam. With about 8 percent of those jobs reported as part-time, the percentage employed in a full-time job requiring bar passage is just 60 percent. Because some of those jobs will last less than one year, the percentage employed full time in jobs requiring bar passage that will last at least a year is only 56.7 percent, according to the NALP.