If you were to check only one statistic before attending a law school, this is the one you should look at: long term/full-time employment in jobs requiring bar passage for 2018 law school graduates.
These numbers give you a quick look at what percentage of students are obtaining the kind of jobs that law graduates seek. Some things to bear in mind:
- This statistic tells you nothing about the underlying quality of the jobs. On top of having stellar employment numbers, the top schools are placing the overwhelming share of their students into highly desirable jobs at the largest law firms. Though
University of Tulsa, for example, ranks high on the list, you can be assured that graduates of this school are finding very different work than the grads at high-ranking Northwestern one up the list. - Factored into the calculation are school-funded positions. Although desirable, these jobs typically do not provide indefinite employment. For a considerable number of schools, school-funded positions represent up to around 10% of hiring. A detailed accounting can be found here: 2015-2018 Law School Funded Positions Granular Data
Now, on to the data. Duke, Columbia, Cornell, University of Chicago, and
Although Yale and Stanford, top three schools, are the lowest for the Top 14 schools, bear in mind that grads of these schools often choose non-traditional career paths including non-legal work. Legal hiring is robust at all of the top 14 schools.
The bigger point to pull from this list is that legal hiring remains a tale of two cities. You have very strong hiring at the top, but then the vast majority of the list is placing fewer than 75% of grads into full-time work that requires bar passage. A significant proportion of schools come in under 60%. Given that nearly all law students at the middle and lower-ranked schools are seeking such employment, the number failing to find such work should serve as healthy dose of realism to anyone considering law school.
| Law School | % of Grads in Full Time Long Term Law Jobs |
|---|---|
| Duke University | 93.78% |
| Columbia University | 92.82% |
| Cornell University | 92.08% |
| University of Chicago | 92.06% |
| University of Virginia | 91.55% |
| University of Pennsylvania | 90.63% |
| University of Michigan—Ann Arbor | 90.39% |
| New York University | 88.64% |
| University of California—Berkeley | 88.20% |
| Harvard University | 86.72% |
| Vanderbilt University | 86.17% |
| Washington University at St. Louis | 85.83% |
| University of Southern California (Gould) | 85.65% |
| University of Georgia | 83.98% |
| University of Alabama | 83.21% |
| Stanford University | 82.74% |
| Seton Hall University | 82.63% |
| Baylor University | 82.31% |
| Northwestern University | 82.26% |
| University of Tulsa | 81.40% |
| LSU — Baton Rouge (Hebert) | 81.32% |
| University of Oklahoma | 80.77% |
| University of Notre Dame | 80.68% |
| University of Minnesota—Twin Cities | 80.49% |
| Yeshiva University (Cardozo) | 80.14% |
| Washington and Lee University | 79.80% |
| University of Kentucky | 79.65% |
| Boston College | 79.41% |
| Temple University (Beasley) | 79.26% |
| University of Texas—Austin | 79.20% |
| University of California—Los Angeles | 79.05% |
| University of Illinois—Urbana-Champaign | 78.17% |
| University of Iowa | 77.37% |
| University of New Mexico | 77.36% |
| University of New Hampshire | 77.05% |
| Rutgers—Newark | 76.84% |
| Georgetown University | 76.83% |
| Lincoln Memorial University | 76.47% |
| Ohio State University (Moritz) | 76.36% |
| University of Colorado—Boulder | 76.19% |
| University of Utah (Quinney) | 76.07% |
| William and Mary | 75.96% |
| Hofstra University (Deane) | 75.95% |
| University of Florida (Levin) | 75.93% |
| Southern Methodist University (Dedman) | 75.85% |
| University of Cincinnati | 75.71% |
| Belmont University College of Law | 75.64% |
| Boston University | 75.58% |
| University of Missouri | 75.49% |
| Villanova University | 75.47% |
| University of Miami | 75.38% |
| University of Nevada—Las Vegas | 75.19% |
| Wake Forest University | 75.14% |
| University of California — Irvine | 75.00% |
| Yale University | 75.00% |
| Pace University | 74.71% |
| West Virginia University | 74.53% |
| University of Montana | 74.39% |
| Arizona State University (O’Connor) | 74.24% |
| University of Wisconsin—Madison | 74.21% |
| University of Missouri—Kansas City | 74.07% |
| University of Nebraska—Lincoln | 74.04% |
| University of Tennessee—Knoxville | 73.00% |
| St. Louis University | 72.73% |
| Florida International University | 72.26% |
| St. John’s University | 71.96% |
| Pennsylvania State University | 71.93% |
| Emory University | 71.86% |
| Brooklyn Law School | 71.74% |
| University of California—Davis | 71.26% |
| University of Louisville (Brandeis) | 71.23% |
| Marquette University | 71.20% |
| Ohio Northern University (Pettit) | 71.15% |
| Drexel University | 70.97% |
| Albany Law School | 70.91% |
| University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill | 70.77% |
| Florida State University | 70.42% |
| University of Denver (Sturm) | 70.24% |
| Fordham University | 70.20% |
| George Washington University | 69.75% |
| Northeastern University | 69.72% |
| University of Memphis (Humphreys) | 69.70% |
| Mercer University (George) | 69.60% |
| Georgia State University | 69.57% |
| Texas Tech University | 69.54% |
| CUNY | 69.15% |
| Syracuse University | 69.13% |
| University of Washington | 68.93% |
| University of Kansas | 68.60% |
| Creighton University | 68.32% |
| Loyola Marymount University | 68.23% |
| University of South Carolina | 68.12% |
| University of Arkansas—Fayetteville | 68.10% |
| Touro College–Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center | 67.97% |
| University of Richmond (Williams) | 67.79% |
| Indiana University—Bloomington (Maurer) | 67.23% |
| Penn State Dickinson | 67.21% |
| University of Wyoming | 67.14% |
| Willamette University (Collins) | 67.00% |
| University of Houston | 66.23% |
| Washburn University | 65.98% |
| Oklahoma City University | 65.65% |
| University of Connecticut | 65.36% |
| University of Arizona (Rogers) | 64.84% |
| Texas A&M University | 64.48% |
| University of North Dakota | 64.06% |
| Tulane University | 64.00% |
| Liberty University School of Law | 63.79% |
| Stetson University | 63.50% |
| Duquesne University | 63.49% |
| University of Arkansas—Little Rock (Bowen) | 63.33% |
| Howard University | 63.11% |
| University of Pittsburgh | 63.04% |
| Campbell University | 62.86% |
| Gonzaga University | 62.62% |
| Concordia University School of Law | 62.50% |
| Samford University (Cumberland) | 62.32% |
| University of Mississippi | 62.18% |
| Loyola University Chicago | 62.16% |
| Drake University | 62.11% |
| Quinnipiac University | 61.90% |
| University of Oregon | 61.54% |
| SUNY Buffalo Law School | 61.18% |
| George Mason University | 60.53% |
| University of Idaho | 60.42% |
| University of Baltimore | 60.27% |
| St. Mary’s University | 60.20% |
| Case Western Reserve University | 60.14% |
| Brigham Young University (Clark) | 60.00% |
| Northern Illinois University | 60.00% |
| Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago-Kent) | 59.64% |
| Pepperdine University | 59.64% |
| Texas Southern University–Thurgood Marshall | 59.38% |
| University of San Diego | 59.31% |
| Michigan State University | 59.31% |
| University of Akron | 59.17% |
| Widener University | 59.02% |
| Regent University School of Law | 58.97% |
| University of California (Hastings) | 58.93% |
| University of Hawaii—Manoa (Richardson) | 58.33% |
| University of South Dakota | 58.21% |
| Seattle University | 57.89% |
| University of Maryland (Carey) | 57.14% |
| Nova Southeastern University–Shepard Broad College of Law | 57.08% |
| Loyola University New Orleans | 57.04% |
| Wayne State University | 57.02% |
| Santa Clara University | 56.62% |
| John Marshall Law School | 56.49% |
| Lewis & Clark College (Northwestern) | 56.28% |
| Vermont Law School | 55.65% |
| University of Maine | 55.42% |
| University of Toledo | 55.26% |
| Indiana University—Indianapolis (McKinney) | 55.22% |
| Southern Illinois University Carbondale | 55.17% |
| University of Massachusetts–Dartmouth | 55.10% |
| Catholic University of America | 54.95% |
| DePaul University | 54.78% |
| Chapman University (Fowler) | 54.73% |
| St. Thomas (Florida) | 54.70% |
| Widener University Delaware | 54.13% |
| Roger Williams University School of Law | 54.10% |
| Capital University Law School | 53.85% |
| California Western School of Law | 53.81% |
| University of St. Thomas | 53.28% |
| South Texas College of Law | 53.02% |
| American University (Washington) | 52.96% |
| Appalachian School of Law | 52.38% |
| Mitchell Hamline | 52.30% |
| Cleveland State University | 52.14% |
| Mississippi College School of Law | 51.64% |
| Northern Kentucky University | 51.61% |
| UNT Dallas | 51.52% |
| New York Law School | 51.04% |
| University of Dayton | 50.00% |
| Faulkner University | 49.35% |
| University of San Francisco | 49.02% |
| University of the Pacific (McGeorge) | 47.33% |
| Suffolk University | 46.69% |
| Barry University | 46.30% |
| Southern University Law Center | 45.63% |
| Charleston School of Law | 44.55% |
| Western State College of Law at Argosy | 43.84% |
| University of Detroit Mercy School of Law | 43.71% |
| Florida A&M University College of Law | 43.61% |
| Southwestern Law School | 43.51% |
| Western New England University | 42.57% |
| Florida Coastal School of Law | 40.76% |
| Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School | 40.00% |
| Ave Maria School of Law | 39.51% |
| Valparaiso University Law School | 38.40% |
| New England Law— Boston | 38.21% |
| Golden Gate University School of Law | 37.93% |
| Arizona Summit | 34.44% |
| Elon University School of Law | 34.07% |
| University of La Verne College of Law | 31.58% |
| Western Michigan University (Cooley) | 30.68% |
| North Carolina Central University School of Law | 30.06% |
| Whittier Law School | 29.53% |
| University of the District of Columbia | 26.76% |
| Thomas Jefferson School of Law | 23.56% |
| University of Puerto Rico | 20.48% |
| Inter American University School of Law | 8.77% |
| Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico, School of Law | 0.73% |
If you are thinking about law school, these numbers should just be a starting point in your research. Have questions? Let us know in the comments.
1 Comment
Great post! I’ve been looking for all of these employment ratings in one place but I haven’t see it anywhere else. Super helpful as always. Thanks guys!