Law graduates employment

Duke Takes Top Spot in Above the Law’s Top 50 Law Schools

Duke University’s Law School ticked up three spots to take top billing in the 2022 Above the Law Top 50 Law Schools. The ranking, which relies solely upon graduate outcome data including legal employment (quality and quantity), educational cost, and student debt (see full methodology here), may be of particular interest to prospective law students interested in pursuing law firm employment.  

Duke Law is followed by the University of Virginia, Cornell, University of Chicago, and Vanderbilt, which jumped ten places from 2021 to enter this year’s top five. University of Michigan Law dropped out of the top five in 2022. Yale, Harvard, and Stanford all dropped from the top ten in 2022 due to lower scores in the employment categories. 

New Department of Education Data Shows that Only 11 Law Schools Report Positive Debt-to-Earnings Ratio for First-Year Graduates

Late last week, the American Bar Association Journal reported that “most law students earn less money per year after graduation than the amount they borrowed for law school.” This is based off data recently released by the U.S. Department of Education. The article goes on to share that graduates from only 11 law schools reported higher median first-year earnings compared to median federal debt for graduates in 2015 and 2016. Further, the median debt-to-income ratio among law schools is 1.86, which means that graduates took out a median of 86 percent more in loans during law school than the median amount received in their first year working after graduation; median debt upon program completion for graduates was about $110,000 and median first-year earnings were about $53,000. 

Using the same Department of Education data, Law.com published a debt-to-earnings ratio for the U.S. News and World Report’s Top 14 law schools, as well as for New York-based law schools. We have compiled the data into some charts below for both the top-ranked, as well as NYC-based schools. They show the debt-to-income ratio, median first-year earnings for graduates, and median federal debt incurred for 2015 and 2016 graduates. It is important to note that these data points do not include private loans, loan interest, or borrowing for undergraduate or other graduate programs. So, the ratios may show slightly more positively than the full debt-load that many law school graduates are facing.

If you are considering law school, and you will be paying your own way through federal or other loan programs, you will want to assess this data during your school selection period. Ultimately the program that will best fit your needs should balance strong academic rigor and meaningful experiential learning opportunities with your future debt burden. The debt-to-income ratio rankings, as you can see, do not line up exactly with the school’s academic rankings, and the median debt and median earnings should be one of the many factors in your decision-making process. Additionally, these figures may provide insight into how much time you will want to spend researching fellowships and scholarship opportunities that can also ease the total cost of your schooling, particularly if you’re interested in pursuing lower paying career paths, such as public interest law.

Law School Graduates Enter Best Job Market Since Recession

Employment outcomes for the law school class of 2018 are showing a rebound back to pre-recession levels according to selected findings released by the National Association for Law Placement earlier this summer. The full report, Jobs & JDs: Employment and Salaries of New Law School Graduates — Class of 2018, is expected to be released in October 2019.

The employment rate, which has increased over the past three years, is up to 89.4 percent from 88.6 percent in 2017 among those with a known employment status, despite the total number of jobs declining by about 150 overall compared with 2017. Seventy-one percent of graduates obtained full-time, long-term, bar passage required work, which is even higher than rates measured prior to the recession. And, the number of employed 2018 graduates seeking a different job, 13.2 percent, is the lowest percentage recorded since 2002 and down 11.4 percentage points from the class of 2011’s record high of 24.6 percent.

James G. Leipold, NALP’s Executive Director says, “Certainly, the overall employment rate has improved because of two intertwined factors. First, and most importantly, the smaller graduating class has meant that there is less competition for the jobs that exist. Second, large law firm hiring has increased steadily since 2011, adding more than 1,900 jobs in seven years.”

Despite the positive employment report, Kaplan Bar Review Survey results released earlier this week show that most recent law school graduates say the job search process was more time consuming than they expected. Fifty-two percent of the 417 surveyed say the search required more time than anticipated while only 11 percent say it required less time. The remaining 37 percent say the amount of time required was in line with their expectations. Additionally, the survey asked respondents to grade their alma mater’s career services for their support with assisting them in finding a job. While 23 percent of those surveyed graded their alma mater an “A” and 30 percent a “B”, 23 percent gave a “C” and a combined 25 percent gave marks of a “D” or an “F”. 

Students were more positive regarding their alma mater’s ability to prepare them with the necessary legal skills. When students were asked to grade their alma mater on how well it equipped them to successfully transition from a student to a legal professional, the marks were considerably higher. One-third of students gave their school an “A”, 45 percent a “B”, 16 percent a “C” and only 6 percent a “D” or “F”.

Anecdotally, students shared that while grades are important, they may have overinflated their importance in finding a job while also underestimating the value of networking. Students said that they wished they had known to start early and to focus more on networking throughout law school and the job-search process, including using social media connections.

Commenting on the survey results, Vice President of the Kaplan Bar Review, Tammi Rice, advises that, “The job market for newly graduated lawyers has not been this strong since the start of the Great Recession, which is promising, but that doesn’t mean that jobs are just going to fall into their laps. It requires networking, starting the process early, and often passing the bar exam, as many employers won’t hire you until you’ve secured your license. We encourage all recent law school graduates to take advantage of the resources and guidance your alma mater’s career services office can provide you. They have a vested interest in seeing their graduates succeed, so they want to be helpful as you look to land a job that requires that you passed the bar.”

The Latest Law School Employment Rates from The American Bar Association

A helpful resource for prospective law students, The American Bar Association Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar published a report detailing the employment of 2016 law school graduates based on different employment classifications, including Bar Passage Required and JD Advantage (without bar passage).

For the graduating class of 2016, 64.5 percent of law school graduates were hired into Bar Passage Required employment, an increase of two percentage points from 2015 (62.4 percent). Additionally, 14.1 percent were hired into JD Advantage positions and only 8.8 percent were described as Unemployed/Seeking, both statistics slightly improved from 2015.

We have compiled the list of Top 20 Schools based on the percentage of graduates who reported having a full-time, long-term position in a Bar Passage Required role for the class of 2016. The graph also shows the percentage of students who held full-time, long-term JD Advantage Positions as well as the percent of students who are classified as Unemployed (Seeking). This chart shows that there are many law schools with excellent job placement, which may help to inform and broaden your search. 

 

Additionally, the ABA report includes information on what types of employment graduates are obtaining. The graph below shows the same schools, but with the percentages of full-time, long-term employees in various legal industries. If you are confide…

Additionally, the ABA report includes information on what types of employment graduates are obtaining. The graph below shows the same schools, but with the percentages of full-time, long-term employees in various legal industries. If you are confident in the career path you are seeking after law school, it is worthwhile to see where previous graduating classes have found employment. It can provide valuable insight into the existing alumni network you will have access to.

Use the links provided below to find additional school-level and detailed information on employment for the class of 2016.Individual School Summary Reports (Includes information on the size of law firms where graduates are employed): http://employme…

Use the links provided below to find additional school-level and detailed information on employment for the class of 2016.

Individual School Summary Reports (Includes information on the size of law firms where graduates are employed): http://employmentsummary.abaquestionnaire.org/

Summary Class of 2016 Employment: https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/legal_education_and_admissions_to_the_bar/statistics/2016_law_graduate_employment_data.authcheckdam.pdf