Top Law Schools

For each ABA-accredited law school, the database includes key employment statistics; charts that break down the percentage of graduates in lawyer and non-lawyer jobs; graphs that detail whether jobs were long-term or short-term; maps showing the states in which the largest percentage of graduates found jobs; salary breakdowns; and the jobs reports that schools submitted to the ABA and NALP.

Law School Transparency has calculated an "employment score" for each school, accounting for all graduates in jobs that require a J.D. but subtracting those in solo practices and those in short-term jobs. ...

By contrast, the raw employment score that law schools historically have submitted to the ABA lump all jobs together, regardless of whether they require a law degree or are for the long term. (The ABA has introduced reforms intended to extract more detailed jobs information from schools in the future).

Law School Transparency has calculated what it calls the "under-employment score" for each school — the percentage of graduates who are unemployed; are in jobs that don't require or prefer a law degree; are in part-time jobs; or are enrolled in a degree program.

The database's "key stats" tab includes the percentages of students from a given school whose employment status is unknown; who reported salary data to their school; in jobs funded by the school itself; in jobs at law firms with 100 or more attorneys; and in public service jobs.

The public service statistics includes only graduates in government or public interest jobs — not judicial clerks or graduates working in academia. "If you go to law school saying, 'I want to work for the public good,' the public service figure will tell you how many people from a specific school do that," McEntee said.

The percentage of students who report their salaries to their law school reflect how happy graduates are with their professional lives, he said, on the theory that only students who are pleased with their jobs are likely to report their salaries.

Law School Transparency's calculations generally offer a different view of a law school's employment statistics that those reported to the ABA or NALP. For example, Law School Transparency's "employment score" for American University Washington College of Law is 54.3 percent — meaning that slightly more than half the class of 2010 found long-term legal jobs, excluding solo practitioners. By contrast, the ABA report for the class of 2010 shows an employment rate of 83 percent, which includes graduates in short-term jobs and in jobs that don't require law degrees. ...

Finally, the database covers tuition including a total debt projection for the classes of 2015 and 2016. The debt projections include interest, inflation and additional factors that many prospective students don't consider when taking out loans, McEntee said.

bk187 wrote:Looking at salary page, you say "X% of this school's graduates made $Y or more." Just took a quick look at some T14's (which generally have quartiles all at 160k) and you only add up 2 of the quartiles rather than 3. So, for example, each quartile of salary data covers 19% of Columbia grads so since the 25th percentile is 160k, we know that 57% of them make 160k or more. But the site only says 38% of them make 160k or more.

jenesaislaw wrote:Thanks, made the change.

ThreeRivers wrote:I have a question.

Is "school-funded" positions considered "bar required." If so does it count in the employment score?

I noticed it stated bar required - solo practioners - short term firm jobs)... so are short-term law school funded positions included in there?

Twit wrote:This is fantastic. Thank you, guys.

Can someone explain to me why Cornell brings up the bottom of the T14 with employment numbers like that? No respect.

Tarheel1234 wrote:Hi all, I called the ABA and spoke with Ken, who is the Data Specialist, to ask when Class of 2011 data is expected to be released. He said within around three weeks it should come out. I received their contact information from here:

http://www.americanbar.org/groups/legal ... ct_us.html

He also stated the reporting format will include a litte more information than how the Class of 2010 statistics were presented.

answer23 wrote:Can you explain why Georgetown's score is so low at 67%? Is it possible that the JD preferred jobs that their student's are getting might be desirable ones in dc think tanks etc.

In the alternative, if you're affiliated with Vanderbilt's or NYU's law school, you might try to help your alums out a little more, so that your extremely intelligent, hard-working, and public-spirited graduates don't end up with quite so much time on their hands.

jenesaislaw wrote:

answer23 wrote:Can you explain why Georgetown's score is so low at 67%? Is it possible that the JD preferred jobs that their student's are getting might be desirable ones in dc think tanks etc.

Sure, it is possible that the JD-preferred jobs are desirable ones in DC, but it's more likely that these were not their first choices unless the composition of GULC's class has drastically changed. It's also likely that a good number are people returning to their pre-law school employer (or stayed with their current employer if they were part-time students.)

Just a few years ago GULC had just a small, small handful of people in JD-preferred jobs. We're talking about 2% of the class compared to over 19% for the class of 2010.

What makes more sense: GULC graduates are having trouble getting the jobs they want or GULC admitted significantly more people who want to pursue JD-preferred jobs? The truth is that the thinktank jobs have always been hard to get, and this didn't change, especially not as nonprofit funding has dried up.