Jobs & JDs: Employment and Salaries of 2012 Law School Graduates

NALP ReportA new study finds that the U.S. law job market has begun to recover, although challenges remain ahead.

U.S. law students who graduated in 2012 have found more jobs than graduates in the previous year. Yet, the legal job market remains tight. As a recently released report by The National Association for Law Placement (NALP) shows, law firms – particularly the large ones – have ramped up their hiring, resulting in an increase in the number of employment opportunities. Nevertheless, due to increased class sizes, the overall employment rate actually sank, continuing a downward trend that began in 2008:

[T]he overall employment rate for new law school graduates fell to 84.7%. Even though the overall number of jobs obtained by this class was higher than the number of jobs obtained by the previous class, the Class of 2012 was also bigger. When coupled with fewer law-school funded positions, this resulted in the overall employment rate for the Class of 2012 falling almost a full percentage point from the 85.6% measured for the prior year.

In short, the absolute number of jobs has increased, but not enough to make up for the even bigger increase in the number of newly minted lawyers.

The NALP’s report predicts that law school graduates looking for jobs in 2013 still face severe challenges – a situation which is likely to continue for the time being. On the bright side, the report also finds that despite “markers that signify continuing weaknesses in the entry-level legal job market … some signs of improvement are also evident.”

A summary of the significant findings of this report – which despite its focus on J.D.s has implications for LL.M. students seeking employment in the U.S. – can be accessed here (PDF).

 

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