Griffin Hall, 27, who graduated from Campbell University's law school last year, takes aluminum and brass scrap to TT&E Iron & Metal recycling in Garner, N.C., to make extra money. Hall got a job as a lawyer but then was laid off amid the downturn.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Even lawyers are hurting. Once guaranteed a shot at the good life, a growing number of those who practice law are finding themselves among the unemployed.

This spring, out-of-work attorneys are being joined in the brutal job market by hundreds of newly minted lawyers graduating from the state's seven law schools, many planning to take the bar exam this summer.

"It's not a happy picture," said Allan Head, director of the North Carolina Bar Association, a voluntary professional organization with 13,500 members across the state. "I can't remember a time when lawyers were being laid off."

A Raleigh newspaper reported the Bar Association started a program to help unemployed lawyers, offering aid in dealing with the stress, job placement services and encouraging the unemployed lawyers to think of different types of jobs where a law degree can be used. So far, less than a hundred are participating, but Head suspects they're just seeing a fraction of those who have been sidelined.

Nationally, the unemployment rate in 2008 for the legal profession, including paralegals as well as lawyers, was at the highest it has been in years — 2.6 percent, about 44,000 people, according to data compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That compares to an overall 5.8 percent national unemployment rate.

The national unemployment rate has since risen to 9.4 percent, and while state and federal governments haven't compiled numbers for lawyers yet, their unemployment rate is thought to have climbed, too.

Griffin Hall doesn't need to see the numbers to know how bad it is. The 27-year-old graduated from Campbell University's law school last year and thought he was on his way to a new life after he was certified as a patent lawyer.

But he was laid off in mid-April from a small family firm specializing in estate work and has been looking for a new job in law since, with little luck. He's only gotten one call for an interview, for a position in the Harnett County district attorney's office.

He also has $110,000 of law school debt. Hall said he's been able to defer making payments, but he worries about the mounting interest on the loans.

To make ends meet, Hall has been working at a job he had in high school and college, making trophies for a small family company. He's hoping to do some work for a company reviewing electronic legal documents, but he hasn't gotten a contract yet.

He'll be moving back into his parent's Apex home next month.

"I figured I'd be picking up a few Ferraris my first year," Hall said. "I didn't think I'd still be sponging off my parents at 27 years old."

Law schools around the state say their graduates are emerging into the toughest economic climate they can recall in years. At UNC-Chapel Hill's law school, many of the May graduates had job promises but were being told their start date would be six months to a year later than they had initially thought.

Others were given reduced pay by firms and have been doing pro bono work, said Brian Lewis, the law school's assistant dean for career services.

Head said the legal market generally lags about six months behind that of the larger economy, meaning the decline in the job market for lawyers, as well as the recovery, may be delayed.