One-third to One-Half of 1.5 Million U.S. Lawyers Do Not Work as Lawyers
That’s right. A very large number of law graduates choose
not to practice law. Instead, they
pursue careers in banking, other financial institutions, insurance, technology
and e-commerce, management consulting, corporate
contracts administration, alternative dispute resolution, government regulation
or compliance work, law enforcement, human resources, accounting, the military,
government executive positions, legislative positions, administrative agencies,
teaching, journalism, risk management, judicial clerkships, law school
administration, law firm professional development or CLE training, or other professions.
In the report I summarized in yesterday's blog, authors Simikovic and McIntyre analyzed data for 2009 from the U.S.
Census Bureau and the Survey of Income and
Program Participation (SIPP) to conclude that about three out of five law
graduates work as lawyers. Fifty-eight
percent of all law degree holders report “lawyer” as their occupation. If you count only “working” law graduates,
the percentage increases to 65 percent. So, one-third to one-half of law grads do not work as lawyers. In 2009, approximately 1.5 million people in
the U.S. had law degrees.
NALP, the Association for Legal Career Professionals, began
tracking different career paths by identifying “JD Preferred” jobs, and then in
2011, switching to “JD Advatage” jobs.
It defines JD Advantage jobs as a category “in which the employer
sought an individual with a JD, and perhaps even required a JD, or for which the
JD provided a demonstrable advantage in obtaining or performing the job, but
are jobs that do not require bar passage, an active law license, or involve
practicing law.”
Data for 2012 Law
Graduates
Preliminary data (as of February 15, 2013) provided by NALP shows that 64.4 percent of 2012
law grads found employment in jobs requiring bar passage. Those jobs mostly comprise jobs in private law
practice (50.7% of 2012 grads).
But, 13.3 percent of the 2012 graduates took “JD Advantage”
jobs in which the employer did not require bar passage. And, another 4.9 percent of the graduates
took other professional jobs.
NALP reports that its data spanning 39 years shows that 55 to 58 percent of new grads found jobs in
private legal practice. Accordingly, the
2012 rate of entry into those jobs is about four to seven percentage points
behind that historical rate. The 2013 data covered 44,339 graduates. So, possibly 1,774 to 3,104 grads that year
did not find law firm employment within 9 months of graduation.
Data for 2011 Law
Graduates
Data for 2011 law graduates is even more interesting. As of February 15, 2012, 12.5 percent of
41,623 law graduates took JD Advantage jobs, which was double the rate of 6
percent in 2001. Nearly half of those
jobs were business-related jobs. This
category also includes legal temp agency jobs and academia. Another 5.3 percent entered other
professional jobs.
For 2011 law grads, 65.4 percent (or 27,224 grads) entered
jobs requiring bar passage. Of those, 16,589 grads entered private law
practice.
Remember the Context
I provide this data for a very specific reason. Many of the so-called “scamblogs” focus on the
rate at which a law school’s graduates obtain full-time jobs requiring bar
passage -- preferably, the bloggers suggest, in private legal practice. I suggest that we keep in mind, that even
historically only 55 to 58 percent of all law grads got (or preferred) that
type of work.
As Simkovic and McIntyre’s research suggests, a law degree
confers many advantages no matter what career path a graduate chooses. They said: “Exploratory results suggest that
even law degree holders who work in non-lawyer occupations do substantially
better than bachelor degree holders.” The Economic Value of a Law Degree
(unpublished manuscript 2013) at n.10 found here.
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