UC Irvine Employment Statistics Forum

[Employstats1]

I have been pouring over LSTreports as I consider which school I will attend next fall. I just wanted to get some additional thoughts/insights on the UC Irvine School of Law employment statistics. In the range of schools I am looking at it seems to be an outlier in terms of employment opportunities and I am wondering if these statistics are sustainable, inflated, not representative of what I will be faced with by the time I graduate, better/worse than what I should expect, etc.

2015 Graduates: 110

Job Outcomes

- Public Interest: 15.5% (17)
- Government: 18.2% (20)
- State/Local Clerkship: 1.8% (2)
- Federal Clerkship: 12.7% (14)
- 501+ Firm: 10.9% (12)
- 500-251 Firm: 1.8% (2)
- 250-101 Firm: 2.7% (3)
- 100-51 Firm: 2.7% (3)
- 50-26 Firm: 2.7% (3)
- 25-11 Firm: 5.5% (6)
- 10-2 Firm: 6.4% (7)
- Solo Firm: 0% (0)
- Business: 2.7% (3)
- Education: 0.9% (1)
- Long Term Part Time: 0.9% (1)
- Non-Employed: 14.5% (16)

Bar/Funding/Unemployment

- Bar Passage Required: 65.5% (72)
- J.D. Advantage: 1.8% (2)
- Law School Funded (Bar Passage Required): 18.2% (20)
- Non-Employed: 14.5% (16)

State

- California: 69.1% (65)
- Washington D.C.: 5.3% (5)
- Hawaii: 5.3% (5)
- Unknown State: 17.3% (19)
- Non-Employed: 14.5% (16)

The Non-Employed

- Pursuing Graduate Degree Full Time: 2.7% (3)
- Unemployed - Deferred Start Date: 1.8% (2)
- Unemployed - Not Seeking: 2.7% (3)
- Unemployed - Seeking: 7.2% (8)

Class of 2015 LSAT/GPA profile

Enrollment: 119

LSAT
- 25th: 162
- 50th: 165
- 75th: 167

GPA
- 25th: 3.29
- 50th: 3.51
- 75th: 3.68

Class of 2019 LSAT/GPA profile

Enrollment: 140

LSAT
- 25th: 160 (-2)
- 50th: 163 (-2)
- 75th: 165 (-2)

GPA
- 25th: 3.32 (+0.03)
- 50th: 3.54 (+0.03)
- 75th: 3.68 (0)

Bar Passage Rate

- Overall: 82.5%
- California: 80.6%

Overall Thoughts

The things that really stand out to me when looking at this data is a) the small class size, b) number of school funded jobs, c) high federal clerkship placement, d) relatively low unemployment - seeking.

I have been told that UCI expects next fall's class size to be ~150 students.

I have roughly calculated the Biglaw/clerkship % which is commonly cited on TLS as 'favorable employment outcomes' as the following

- Federal Clerkship: 12.7% (14)
- 501+ Firm: 10.9% (12)
- 500-251 Firm: 1.8% (2)
- 250-101 Firm: 2.7% (3)

The reason I have included Firm's with 100+ Employees instead of the traditional 501+ is that from the research I have done there are Biglaw type firms that are local to Orange County (the market that UCI Students most heavily place in) that have an employee account somewhere between 100-500. In order to account for this assumption not being completely accurate, I am discounting 2 of the graduates that placed in this bracket.

This leaves me with a total of 29 graduates who obtained this outcome, or 26.4% of 2015's graduating class.

Another thing that I have found in my research is that because of UC Irvine's demonstrated commitment to Public Interest/Government work most likely causes students who are not inclined to pursue biglaw (participate in OCI, etc.) to be positively self-selected to attend the school. Accounting for the graduates who obtained high grades but did not participate out Biglaw recruiting, I think that a student in the top 30-35% of their class at UCI have/had a fair chance at this type of placement (assuming 5-10% of graduates who ended up in PI/Gov't jobs had no interest in the biglaw route during law school)

On a side note, I have also read online that most graduates of UCI law (maybe law schools in general) who have clerkships already have jobs lined up in Biglaw after their clerkship is over, so that clerkship % mostly includes graduates who are pursuing Biglaw.

This compared to unemployment statistic I found to be most indicative of graduates who were unable to find a job after graduation (I could be wrong about this), Non-Employed - Seeking which equaled 7.2% of the class or 8 graduates, seems like relatively good employment prospects compared to the ~30% who have a shot at Biglaw/clerkships.

In addition, I am not positive about this, but I believe that the 20 students who are in school funded positions are largely a function of the UC Irvine fellowship program that pays students who are working in Public Interest type fields. There could also be more true school funded positions (i.e. something in admissions/administration) but it is difficult to tell given the available data. (Bar passage required makes me inclined to believe that these are indeed practicing attorneys who are taking advantage of UCI Law's fellowship program, which I'm pretty sure is modeled after Skadden/EJW fellowships).

My main questions are,

- are there any mistakes/misinterpretations in my analysis of this data
- will a class size of 30+ more students cause these statistics to hold closer to the numerical value of graduates or the percentage of graduates in these job categories
- There is conjecture over Dean Chemerinsky stepping down to a professor's role sometime within the next 1-4 years, what are people's thoughts on how this could affect employment outcomes for the Class of 2020
- Is such a high federal clerkship placement sustainable, at this point I think not, but I also don't think it will completely disappear over the next few years.
- Do people believe that the reduction of 2 LSAT points across UCIs 25th-75th class from 2015 to 2019 graduates will have an affect on the employment outcomes 2019s obtain v. their 2015 counterparts
- Do people think a large change, positive or negative, in UCIs USNWR ranking (currently #28) will have a large effect on employment outcomes for the Class of 2020

I am sorry that this post is so long-winded but any thoughts or insights on any of the above information is greatly appreciated.

[A. Nony Mouse]

No duplicate threads, thanks.