The Red Velvet Lawyer

JD Advantage Jobs:  The Data In November, I tried to support Prof. Organ's prediction that new law-related jobs would exceed the number of graduates in 2015 or 2016. That posting has gotten a lot of attention since then.  Top law blawger, Brian Leiter , first drew attention to it. Then Ohio Professor Debra J. Merritt made further calculations on her blog . Then the Wall Street Journal picked up the story. Then the National Jurist cited my posting in its December issue.  One feature of that conversation is how to count a category of jobs that NALP began tracking in 2001 -- the "JD Advantage" (or "JD Preferred") jobs versus the "Bar Passage Required" jobs. Some people suggest, including many scambloggers, that the JD Advantage jobs should not be considered when reporting the employment rate of law graduates.  Apparently, these folks believe that all prospective law students choose law school because they al...

Here's the headline: Adapting to the Current Realities of the Employment Landscape for Lawyers, Half of Pre-Law Students Say They Plan to Use their Law School Degree in a Non-Traditional Legal Job So started an April 11, 2013 news release published by Kaplan Test Prep.  It goes on to report: The employment stats don’t paint a pretty picture for pre-law students looking ahead, but flexibility about their future career and their passion for it is driving them forward. According to a recent Kaplan Test Prep survey of more than 200 pre-law students, 50% say they plan to use their law degree in a non-traditional legal field. Of that 50%, nearly three out of five (58%) said the current job market for lawyers factored into this decision.   Forty-three (43%) percent of survey respondents overall said they plan to use their law degree to pursue a job in the business world rather than in the legal world—which helps explain why 42% said they’d likely pursue an MBA if t...

Michael Simkovic, one of the authors of the new report -- The Economic Value of a Law Degree , is debating the author, Brian Tamanaha, of the 2012 book --  Failing Law Schools .  The debate began earlier this week and appears at Brian Leiter's Law School Reports .  It should be an interesting exchange that will go on for a while. Both authors are law school academics. Simkovic serves as an Associate Professor of Law at Seton Hall University School of Law.  Brian Tamanaha, serves as the Dean of Washington University School of Law (my alma mater ). I summarized Simikovic's paper  here .  Tamanaha's book is available  here  (yes, I am encouraging you to use Barnes & Noble, and not Amazon). One of the factors affecting both authors' projections is the cost of law school tuition. Given the drop off in applicants to law school -- from about 100,000 in 2004 to about 50,000 this past recruiting season -- lower-tiered law schools have substant...

I graduated from law school in 1982.  At that time, 7.6 percent of new law graduates became solo practitioners;  40.3 percent entered small law practices (2-10 lawyers);  about 11 percent entered firms 51 to 100 lawyers in size;   only 15. 6 percent of new law grads entered large firms of 101 plus lawyers, and more women did that than men; and  NALP, the Association of Legal Career Professionals, did not keep a separate category for firms with more than 500 lawyers. See trend report here .  According to an earlier trend report , in 1982, about 10 percent of new law grads entered business and industry. About 23,000 students graduated from law school in 1982. Fast forward to 2007, the year of record employment among lawyers, NALP reports that: 3 percent of new law grads became solo practitioners (a 4 percent drop); about 33 percent entered small law practices (2-10 lawyers) (a 13 percent drop);  about 6 percent entered f...

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 occup...

Some qualified good news.  Overall employment for 2012 law grads suggests an improving trend. The 2012 grads obtained more jobs than 2011 grads, but the class also had more graduates in it. Accordingly, the percent of employed fell to 84.7% from 85.7% the previous year.  The 2012 grads entered law school in the fall of 2009, and so the larger class size apparently indicates the choice of many college graduates to attend graduate school rather than face a job market deep in recession. The NALP Executive Director, James Leipold, stated: "I continue to believe that the Class of 2011 represented the absolute bottom of the curve on the jobs front . . . ." Many of the stories about job prospects for law school grads compare current employment rates to the pre-recession rate of 2007.  This comparison misrepresents the situation because employment that year represented a 24-year high of 91.9% according to NALP.   I compute the 20-year average (from 1988 to 2007), as ...

Yesterday, I posted about the supply and demand for legal services some time in the future as more Baby Boomers retire.  Today, I want to explore the supply-demand gap existing today. Just recently, the ABA released data on employment rates for law school grads nine months after graduation for all ABA-approved law schools.  On average, for 2012 grads, 56.2 percent of grads found long-term, full-time positions that required bar passage.  These jobs include solo practitioners, law firm positions, business and industry positions, government jobs, public interest jobs, clerkships, and jobs in legal education. In 2011, fewer grads found that type of employment -- just 54.9 percent.  Grads who reported they still sought employment increased a bit from 9.2 percent in 2011 to 10.6 percent in 2012.  ABA 2012 Law Graduate Employment Data -- All Schools This measure of employment success is narrow, but admittedly reflects the aspirations of most students seeking a ...