After Carefully Reviewing Your Qualifications, We Regret to Inform You . . .

With blockbuster merger announcements and even Internet initial public offerings once again making headlines, it's only a matter of time before the legal job market soars back to its late '90s heights. Right?

Don't hold your breath. Though a robust market for litigators and intellectual property specialists continues apace, opportunities for transactional lawyers, both at firms and in-house with corporations, remain elusive.

"Nobody's leaving," notes one frustrated headhunter. "Everyone's holding onto their job because they're still scared."

The lack of attrition within corporate legal staffs has driven many legal employers to curtail new hiring and is one major reason many job-seekers in the legal profession, like their counterparts in other industries, are experiencing something of a "jobless recovery."