Employment Patterns — 20-Year Trends — 1982 - 2002, NALP Bulletin, August 2003
Does a Gender Pay Gap Exist for New Law Graduates and Has It Changed Over Time?, NALP Bulletin, October 2019
NALP Research: Starting Salaries - Class of 2020
Salaries of public interest attorneys
Four salary distribution graphs provide insight into changes in the distribution of full-time entry-level salaries from 1991 through 2006 -- and offer a better understanding of why medians don't tell the whole story.
The numbers of openly GLBT and disabled lawyers have increased but only slightly
About 47% of offices in the 2009-2010 NALP Directory of Legal Employers reported at least one GLBT lawyer.
An overall decline in minority representation occurred primarily among Black associates, and to a lesser extent among Hispanic associates.
It does not take more than a quick look at the table entitled A Quarter Century Look at Median Starting Salaries by Firm Size — 1993-2017 to see that starting salaries at the largest law firms have increased far more than at smaller firms. The difference is stark: whereas the median salaries at the largest firms (251+ attorneys) have gone up by 157%, at the smallest firms the median has not even doubled. This discrepancy has contributed to the evolution of the bi-modal nature of the salary distribution.
Law school graduates from the Class of 2017 who were transfer students were more likely to be employed as of March 15, 2018, compared to the class as a whole — and to have obtained a job in a large law firm. These are the bottom-line findings based on information on graduate transfer status collected for the first time for the Class of 2017.
In anticipation of NALP’s upcoming Summit on Emerging Careers for Law Grads, this column takes a look at recent changes in the mix of jobs taken by law school graduates for the last half dozen years for which data are available, as well as a more detailed look at JD Advantage jobs taken by the Class of 2017. https://www.nalp.org/viewBulletin/?bulletinID=454&documentID=3980.
employment rate continues upward trend for class of 2018 total number of law firm jobs increases for first time in five years.
Analysis on the timing of job offers to new law school graduates based on data from NALP, the National Association for Law Placement.
From 2014-2016, summer programs saw only modest growth (both in total number of summer associates and in average program size), and it is evident that this modest growth did not occur across all firm sizes or parts of the country.
These are the overall findings about lateral hiring from NALP’s “Survey of Legal Employers on 2017 Recruiting,” which requested information on lateral hiring in 2016 and 2017.
Among attorneys working in civil legal services organizations, as public defenders or local prosecuting attorneys, or as attorneys in public interest organizations, those providing civil legal services have the lowest median entry-level salary, have the smallest increases in salary based on experience, and have seen the slowest growth in salary levels over the past 14 years. This is a key finding from NALP/PSJD’s 2018 Public Service Attorney Salary Survey and is consistent with findings from earlier surveys which have been conducted periodically since 2004.
“Which location offers the most buying power?” The answer — and the dollars that accompany the salary with the greater buying power — often translates into more discretionary income and lifestyle options for new attorneys. And, in fact, when buying power is taken into account, every one of the top cities (based on number of law firm jobs taken) is more affordable than New York City, with the exception of Miami. These are some of the questions you can answer using a NALP resource called the “Buying Power Index”
Here are summary findings on the salaries of primary, second, and third law school career services professionals.
NALP research takes a look at trends in law firm summer programs over the years.
NALP Director of Research Danielle A. Taylor provides analysis on employment outcomes by race/ethnicity for Class of 2019 law school graduates from the recent Jobs & JDs publication.
NALP Director of Research Danielle Taylor details some of the key takeaways from NALP’s Class of 2020 Employment Report and Salary Survey, including the first indications of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the legal employment market.
NALP Director of Research Danielle Taylor shares key findings from the latest Survey of Legal Employers on 2020-21 Recruiting, which shows that the percentage of early offers for law students in 2L summer programs has increased for the fifth year in a row.
Director of Research Danielle A. Taylor examines NALP data on how fall recruiting for summer programs at law firms has changed over time, as well as the impact on callback ratios during the COVID-19 pandemic.
NALP Director of Research Danielle Taylor highlights changes in the racial and ethnic representation of summer associates since the Great Recession from NALP’s 2021 Report on Diversity in U.S. Law Firms.
Director of Research Danielle Taylor provides analysis on the results from NALP/PSJD’s 2022 Public Service Attorney Salary Survey.
NALP Director of Research Danielle A. Taylor shares highlights on legal employment findings for the Class of 2021 from NALP’s annual Employment Report and Salary Survey.
According to the latest findings from NALP’s Employment Report and Salary Survey, the Class of 2022 attained the best employment rate in 35 years and a record share of graduates working in bar passage required jobs, among other highwater marks.
Although most lawyers typically make the move to in-house counsel positions after several years of private practice experience, a small percentage of law graduates obtain entry-level positions directly out of law school. For the first time, this article will explore how this group compares demographically to new law graduates overall, as well as to their peers working in the business sector more broadly.
NALP’s 2025 Associate Salary Survey report reveals that although many large firms raised their entry-level associate salaries to $225,000 in late 2023 and early 2024, those higher salaries have not yet become the prevailing wage across all law firms, or even within BigLaw.
NALP Research, Law Firm Diversity Wobbles: Minority Numbers Bounce Back While Women Associates Extend Two-Year Decline, 2011
NALP Research, Perspectives on Diversity (2014)
Research: LGBT Representation Among Lawyers in 2016, NALP Bulletin, January 2017
NALP Research: Representation of Women and Minorities Among Equity Partners Has Increased Only Slightly, 2017
Every two years, NALP conducts a nationwide survey of U.S. law school career services offices to collect data on staffing, salaries, and operational changes. In total, 83 offices responded to the 2025 U.S. Law School Career Services Survey, reporting information as of May 1, 2025, or the 2024-2025 academic year, as applicable.
Employment data for the Class of 2003
NALP Research: Race/Ethnicity & Gender
Compare NALP's bimodal salary curve over several years
NALP Talk: The Official Podcast of NALP
NALP Research: A Demographic Profile of Judicial Clerks 1992-2007, June 2008
A look at average hours worked and average billable hours.
NALP periodically compiles information on law firm job opportunities compared with changes in population in a variety of cities across the country.
diversity; women; minorities; minority women
The most recent NALP research analyses suggest that while hours worked and billed started to bounce back somewhat in 2010 after two years of decline, the picture at smaller firms is more mixed.
One of the ways NALP has documented the salaries of law school graduating classes is with a picture. This column looks at salary distribution curves and salary medians over time.
NALP and the NALP Foundation have partnered to undertake new research that will measure law school graduate employment status and career satisfaction on an annual basis at three years and seven years post-graduation.
NALP's Research Director takes a look back at salary trends from 1985-2013 in both current dollars and constant dollars.
After two years of declines, lateral hiring nudged up in 2014, finishing the year not quite 5% higher than in 2013.
Overall, based on aggregate hiring of just over 1,500 lateral lawyers in 2009, the volume of hiring decreased by 52% compared with 2008.
What do the NALP numbers really mean? Are we experiencing a major recession or, alternately, a fundamental reordering of the legal services industry? Professor Henderson asserts that we are in the midst of changes affecting both law firms and law schools.
Here are excerpted findings from the 2010 Public Sector and Public Interest Attorney Salary Survey .
Here are new NALP analyses on both grant-funded positions and job start dates for Class of 2011 law graduates.
Over the past two decades there has been both remarkable change and constancy in the entry-level legal employment market.
Can NALP research shed light on how to achieve a target size for a law firm summer program?
Over a period of 25 years (1992-2017), the apex of law school graduates taking jobs in business, measured as either a percentage of all jobs taken or as a number, occurred for the classes of 2011-2014.
The overall percentage of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) lawyers reported in the 2018 NALP Directory of Legal Employers (NDLE) increased to 2.86%, compared with 2.64% in the 2017 NDLE. Increases were seen across all lawyer types and ranged from less than a 0.1 percentage point gain for counsel and non-traditional track attorneys to about a 0.35 percentage point gain for associates. The percentage of offices reporting LGBT counts has been relatively stable at about 90% of offices since 2008. About half of these reporting offices reported at least one LGBT lawyer among partners and associates in 2018.
As summer programs wind down and fall recruiting begins, the topics of target sizes for the next year’s summer program and of how to achieve those targets and desired yields may become subjects of discussion. NALP research has long documented summer program sizes and outcomes, as well as the level of fall recruiting activity for 2Ls and those outcomes, in annual Perspectives on Law Student Recruiting reports. There is an additional question that NALP’s research can answer: How many callback interviews are needed to result in one accepted offer for the summer program?
Public service attorney salaries are a key indicator of public service attorneys’ experiences of work — and one that NALP has been watching and reporting on for some time. In our reports, we’ve worked to give these salary figures context, mostly by comparing them with the salaries of private firm associates with similar experience. For legal aid attorneys tending bar and driving rideshare on the side, a more relevant — and more threatening — figure than what they might make if they changed careers is what they need to make to pay rent: the cost of living. That’s why I’m proud to report that the online, interactive version of NALP’s Public Ser...
New figures from NALP show that in 2015, only 17.4% of equity partners were women and only 5.6% were racial/ethnic minorities.
Is the job market better? The short answer is yes, and no, as the Class of 2015 illustrates.
The overall employment rate for the Class of 2015 was 86.7% of graduates for whom employment status was known, unchanged from the rate for the Class of 2014. Here is a look at trends from 1985-2015.
Judith Collins recaps the effects of NALP’s research on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the legal profession as part of the association’s 50th Anniversary in 2021.
NALP Director of Research Danielle Taylor outlines key findings on first-year salaries for associates from the 2021 Associate Salary Survey report, which is available at www.nalp.org/bookstore.
Research Director Danielle A. Taylor summaries key trends on race and ethnicity from Jobs & JDs: Employment and Salaries of New Law Graduates, Class of 2021.
NALP Research, A Demographic Profile of Judicial Clerks — Patterns of Disproportionality, 2010
NALP Research, A Closer Look at NALP Findings on Women and Minorities in Law Firms by Race and Ethnicity, 2011
NALP Research, Women and Minorities at Law Firms by Race and Ethnicity - An Update, 2014
NALP Research, Women and Minorities at Law Firms by Race and Ethnicity - An Update (2015)
NALP research on the employment experience of the Class of 2013.
Trends (Updated October 22, 2025)
NALP Research: Trends
NALP’s 2023 Report on Diversity in U.S. Law Firms shows that overall, women and people of color continued to make incremental improvements in their representation at major U.S. law firms as compared with 2022.
This article examines five years of trend data to understand how employment outcomes vary by both level of parental education and race/ethnicity. First-generation college students consistently find employment at lower rates compared to their continuing-generation college and JD peers.
When comparing compensation across cities, the salary figure alone doesn’t tell the whole story. NALP's research looks at the relative buying power of the U.S. dollar in a location and how far a new law graduate’s paycheck will stretch as an important consideration as well.
Class of 2018 Preliminary ERSS Findings Webinar
NALP Research: Class of 2018 Buying Power Index, November 2019
NALP Research: What Share of 2L Summer Program Offers and Acceptances Are a Result of Precruiting? October 2021
Summary Salary Findings from NALP's 2018 Survey of Legal Career Professionals, NALP Bulletin, November 2018
Even as the percentage of racial/ethnic minority graduates has increased over the last 15 years, minority representation among court clerks has continued to lag behind minority representation among all graduates by about 5 percentage points
NALP research analyses track the career services changes since 1975. With a commentary from Karen Britton on behalf of the NALP Research Advisory Group.
For the Class of 2006, for the first time non-minority and minority graduates were equally likely to be employed in public service positions.
Your important constituencies rely on you for information about hiring practice. This NALP Research publication provides helpful answers.
The numbers of GLBT lawyers reported in the NALP Directory of Legal Employers increased again in 2009. Will your organization be reporting these statistics in 2010?
Recently NALP and the NALP Foundation worked with two NALP sections to create and implement the 2010 Survey of Law School Experiential Learning Opportunities and Benefits.
The overall employment rate for the Class of 2011 was 85.6% of graduates. Here's a look at employment trends over the past two decades.
These studies revealed differences in the value placed on law school experiential learning opportunities by law firm associates and public service lawyers.
The overall percentage of openly LGBT lawyers reported in the NALP Directory of Legal Employers in 2013 increased to 2.19% compared with 2.07% in 2012.
In 2014, a JD degree is typical, particularly among directors and managers in the professional development realm.
Information on employment trends from the Class of 2016, in particular demographic profiles of judicial clerkships.
The overall employment rate for the Class of 2015 was unchanged from that for the Class of 2014, at 86.7% of graduates for whom employment status was known, but that statistic doesn't tell the whole story.
NALP Director of Research Danielle Taylor shares Selected Findings on employment outcomes and salaries from Jobs & JDs: Employment and Salaries of New Graduates, Class of 2019.
University of California Berkeley School of Law’s Terrence J. Galligan looks back at NALP’s history following the Great Recession from 2009 to present day 2021, the last of a three-part series celebrating the association’s 50th anniversary year.
There has been positive progress in reducing disparities in employment outcomes for graduates of color as compared to White graduates. NALP’s Class of 2023 Employment Report and Salary Survey shows modest progress yet significant gaps persist for Black, Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and other Pacific Islander graduates and NALP plans to closely monitor this data moving forward.
NALP Director of Research Danielle A. Taylor analyses data from the Class of 2021 that show disparities continue to persist for new law graduates of color in obtaining judicial clerkship positions, particularly at the federal level.
NALP's Judith Collins explores jobs data from 1991-2021 to identify trends.
NALP’s individual graduate employment data, which includes a variety of demographic information, allows us to compare general characteristics with more detailed information on law school graduates and the kinds of jobs they take.
NALP Research, LGBT Representation Up in 2012, January 2013
NALP Research: Women and Minorities at Law Firms — What Has Changed and What Has Not in the Past 25 Years (2018)
NALP Research, Racial/Ethnic Representation of Class of 2019 Judicial Clerks, February 2021
New NALP Research on LGBTQ Lawyers By Gender in U.S. Law Firms, November 2023
Employment data for the Class of 1999
Class of 2019 Attains Highest Employment Rate in 12 Years as Uncertainty Looms for the Class of 2020
Demographic Profile of Judicial Clerks, NALP Bulletin, July 2003
Summary Findings from NALP’s 2017 US Law School Career Services Survey, NALP Bulletin, December 2017
According to NALP's employment information for the Class of 2005, more than half (55.8%) of employed graduates took jobs in law firms, and of those jobs, almost half were taken in the 20 cities providing the most jobs to this class.
Employment Trends 1985-2005 and Law Firm Jobs by Firm Size -- Classes of 1982-2005
Attorneys of color accounted for 4.63% of partners and 15.62% of associates. The comparable figures for women were 17.29% and 44.12% respectively.
The NALP Directory of Legal Employers provides some insights on law firms' professional development staff, evaluation practices, rotation of junior associates, and billable hours credit for training time.
Aggregate statistics about the representation of women and minority lawyers at law firms are widely cited, but these national averages don't tell the whole story.
NDLE data provide insights on the way PD is administered in law firms as well as on the frequency of evaluations, the prevalence of upward reviews, and more.
Over time, women and minorities have been less likely to take jobs in law firms and more likely to take jobs with government and public interest employers.
Since the mid-1990s, law firms of all sizes have increased their first-year associate salaries, but the percentage of increase at the largest firms is double that of the smallest firms despite the fact that large firms in some markets backed off from starting associates at $160,000.
About 60% of the openly LGBT lawyers reported in the current NALP Directory of Legal Employers are accounted for by just four cities: New York City, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
trends in law graduate employment in business and industry over the last 20 years
The overall employment rate for the Class of 2013 was 84.5%, and although the employment picture for this class contained some positive markers as graduates found more jobs than the previous class and more of these jobs were full-time and long-term, the large size of the class more than offset these gains.
The Class of 2013 reported taking 820 jobs in legal services, but that number would look far different without positions funded by law schools.
What factors influence student selections of employers?
NALP’s 2017 Law School Career Services Survey for US schools collected information on office staffing and salaries for career services offices as of May 1, 2017. All in all, a total of 106 law schools responded to the survey. The schools represented every region, enrollment size, and a mix of public and private law schools. These schools collectively reported on over 400 career services professionals.
The overall percentage of openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) lawyers reported in the NALP Directory of Legal Employers (NDLE) in 2017 increased to 2.64% compared with 2.48% in 2016.
NALP Director of Research Danielle Taylor outlines key findings on law firm partner data for women and people of color from the 2020 Report on Diversity in U.S. Law Firms, which is available at www.nalp.org/reportondiversity.
NALP’s new 2019 Associate Salary Survey report shows that the overall median first-year base salary as of January 1, 2019, was $155,000, up $20,000 (14.8%) from 2017, the year of the most recent previous survey administration. In both survey years law firms of 251+ lawyers accounted for about 70% of responses.
NALP’s Board of Directors and staff are positioning the organization to address the tremendous changes that the legal profession is undergoing and will continue to respond to the needs of the NALP membership, now and in the future.
Findings on JD Advantage jobs in the legal profession from NALP’s graduate employment data from the Class of 2018.
Unlocking similarities and differences among various generations in the legal profession, including Baby Boomer, Gen X, and Millennial partners and associates.
NALP and the NALP Foundation report on the 10th annual U.S. Law School Alumni Employment and Satisfaction Study for the Class of 2009.
This timeline looks at historical milestones in the legal careers profession since 1975 when the first "Jobs & JDs: Employment and Salaries of New Law Graduates" report was issued.
NALP’s "Perspectives on Law Student Recruiting Report" depicts a 2024 recruiting season that was more accelerated than ever before. The report documents not only how the recruiting timeline for summer programs is shifting earlier but also how recruiting methods are changing.
NALP Research, Changes in the Racial/Ethnic Representation of Summer Associates Since the Great Recession, May 2022
The lateral hiring market showed continued signs of a course correction in 2023, with lateral lawyer hiring down 35% overall, following 2022’s decline of 11.5%, according to the latest analyses from NALP’s "2023 Lateral Hiring Survey."
Perspectives on Law Student Recruiting
Multiple Generations in Law Firms: Working Together, report, April 1, 2020
NALP Research: Buying Power Index Class of 2012, September 2013
NALP Research: Race/Ethnicity and the Geographic Distribution of Law Firm Jobs Taken by New Graduates , October 2008
The number of GLBT lawyers reported in the NALP Directory of Legal Employers -- and also the number of disabled lawyers reported -- remains small.
Among law firm employers listed in the 2007-2008 NALP Directory of Legal Employers, 5.40% of partners were minorities, but only 1.65% of partners were minority women.
Law firm jobs taken by new law graduates; minorities in private practice.
Even as the percentage of minority graduates has increased substantially over the last 15 years, minority representation among court clerks has not shown similar growth.
This article takes a closer look at minority representation in the ranks of partners and associates, providing information on Asian/Pacific Islander, Black/African-American, and Hispanic lawyers.
Recognizing that US News & World Report is now using "at graduation" employment statistics in its annual law school rankings
Historically, women and minorities are less likely to take jobs in law firms, but when they do, they are more likely to obtain those jobs in large firms. But the fuller picture is more complex.
After two years of year-over-year double-digit increases, from 2009-2010 and again from 2010-2011, aggregate lateral hiring has now declined for the second time in a row from 2012 to 2013, finishing out the year just over 7% lower than in 2012.
This article takes a look at the latest NALP findings on billable hour requirements, associate hours worked, and law firm leverage.
For the most part, salary medians have increased by about $1,000 per year for the public service attorneys whose earnings have now been researched for a decade by NALP.
Data submitted for the NALP Directory of Legal Employers yields information on the number of hours associates are working and on law firm pro bono programs.
With the Class of 2009, NALP introduced the concept of an adjusted salary mean for its analyses of reported starting salaries for full-time jobs, and in particular law firm jobs.
The volume of entry-level associates starting work in 2009 plunged by an estimated 40%.
Are equity partners in multi-tier law firms disproportionately white men? The answer is decidely yes, and new NALP data help to describe the unequal representation of men and women and minority and non-minority law firm partners in these firms with greater precision.
Among all employers listed in the 2012-2013 NALP Directory of Legal Employers, just 6.71% of partners were minorities and 2.16% of partners were minority women, but that's not the whole story.
NALP analyses provide a look at long-term employment trends.
Not only was the overall employment rate for the Class of 2010 the lowest rate since 1996, but NALP research analyses reveal a job market with many underlying structural weaknesses.
While the representation of minorities as a whole among associates increased in 2011 after sliding in 2010, a closer look reveals that the bounce-back can be attributed to an increase in Asian associates — and representation of women among associates declined a bit again for the second year in a row.
This article takes a look at key lawyer professional development information reported in the NALP Directory of Legal Employers.
Lateral hiring volume decreased dramatically during the recession in 2008 and 2009, and then experienced a big rebound as the legal economy recovered in 2010 and 2011. Since then changes have fluctuated from a double-digit loss to double-digit growth. In 2018 aggregate lateral hiring was up by over 14%. This follows an aggregate increase of less than 2% from 2016 to 2017. Lateral associate hiring surged by almost 22%, accounting for almost all of the net increase in lateral hiring. Partner lateral hiring was off by not quite 1%. Overall lateral hiring averaged 16.5 lateral hires per office/firm, but volumes and per office figures varied great...
With the advent of the ABA employment data reviews and the ABA's new Employment Protocols, law school members may wonder how best to answer student questions about how their employment data is being stored, used, and shared with the ABA and NALP.
It is important for women law students — and those who advise them — to be aware of where early pay gaps may exist and of how those gaps may widen over time in their chosen employment sector.
Over the past 20+ years, law school graduates have become an increasingly diverse group, yet NALP employment data for graduates over this period shows that in some job categories women and minorities continue to be under-represented, while for other type of jobs women and minorities are over-represented.
NALP Director of Research Danielle A. Taylor explains how lateral hiring at law firms plummeted according to information in the 2020-21 Survey of Legal Employers on Recruiting.
Director of Research Danielle Taylor provides details on results from NALP’s Survey on 2021 Lateral Hiring, which shows an 111% increase in lateral hiring last year in comparison to 2020.
Director of Research Danielle A. Taylor analyses data on graduates self-reporting disabilities from NALP’s Jobs & JDs: Employment and Salaries of New Graduates, Class of 2021.
Director of Research Danielle Taylor looks at results of NALP's Survey on 2022 Lateral Hiring.
Director of Research Danielle Taylor examines data on LGBTQ lawyers.
NALP Research, Increasing Diversity of Law School Graduates Not Reflected Among Judicial Clerks, 2014
NALP Research: Women and Minorities at Law Firms by Race and Ethnicity - New Findings for 2016, February 2017
Employment data for the Class of 2006
Employment data for the Class of 2005
Employment data for the Class of 2001
NALP Research: Salaries & Compensation
Information for law school career services regarding NALP's annual Employment Report & Salary Survey (ERSS)
NALP Research: Class of 2024 Buying Power Index
NALP Research: Perspectives on Law Student Recruiting annual report, March 2020
NALP Press Releases - Current Year
Judicial Clerks Remain Less Diverse than Law Graduates Overall, NALP Research, October 2022. judicial clerks, judicial clerkships, diversity
Research results depend on participants
Lateral hiring has outpaced entry-level hiring for the most recent three years for which data are available from the NALP Directory of Legal Employers.
NALP research; Employer Survey
Most employers doubtless have a good sense of what the acceptance rate from their summer program will be. However, a look at the broader picture and trends over time provides a better understanding of the larger market.
It would have been hard to miss the news last month that NALP and the ABA were at odds with each other over the best way to collect law school graduate employment data.
Whatever form the eventual compromise between NALP and the ABA takes, it will likely bring about a more transparent process that will benefit current and prospective students as well as the legal profession as a whole.
This table offers a look at full-time starting salaries reported by the Class of 2010 by employer or job type.
The overall percentage of openly LGBT lawyers reported in the NALP Directory of Legal Employers in 2014 increased to 2.30% compared with 2.19% in 2013, although there are wide geographic disparities in the numbers reported.
It's the perfect time for law school career services professionals to start thinking about how to collect survey information from 2010 graduates.
The most recent information available makes it evident that both the average number of hours worked and the average number of billable hours worked per year has declined since 2007.
The overall percentage of openly LGBT lawyers reported the the 2012 NALP Directory of Legal Employers increased to 2.07% compared with 1.88% in 2011.
Because a graduate's initial nine-month employment status has never been an adequate measure of either career satisfaction or the value of a legal education, NALP and The NALP Foundation are launching an exciting new research project to measure and report on law school alumni employment status and career satisfaction three years after graduation.
NALP Director of Research Danielle Taylor shares results from a third round of “pulse” surveys on racial justice and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts at U.S. law schools and law firms.
Analyzing decades of NALP Employment Report & Salary Survey data as part of NALP’s 50th Anniversary Commemorative Edition Bulletin.
representation of LGBT lawyers at major U.S. law firms
As has been the case since 2011, there is a definite skew among women and minority lawyers who are partners toward non-equity status.
NALP’s reporting on the presence of women and minorities in large firms now spans 25 years. Findings have been reported out year by year over that time period, but summary findings are presented here all together for the first time at www.nalp.org/0218research. Here are a few highlights.
As Judy Collins teased in her companion article, NALP will be breaking new ground with the 2018 Public Service Attorney Salary Report by releasing it simultaneously as a traditional, static PDF and an interactive web tool. The core of the tool will be a series of visualizations that readers will be able to tweak to their needs. We are excited to share this tool with you later this summer, when it will be released on www.psjd.org/salary-report, free to PSJD subscribers and for purchase to non-subscribers. We hope this new way of presenting our research will bring the survey data and Judy’s findings to life in a way that engages your students, ...
Much of our current economic landscape, not only within the legal market but more generally in the U.S. and indeed globally, could be described using a bimodal curve.
NALP has updated data collection efforts for its Employment Report & Salary Survey (ERSS) to reflect evolving language for gender identification and race/ethnicity.
A UCLA study from the Lowell Milliken Institute for Business and Policy examined the economic impact of the financial crisis on law firm hiring at NLJ 250 firms in Los Angeles, compared to five other large cities.
NALP Director of Research Danielle Taylor explains how to use NALP’s Buying Power Index, a resource that helps compare the buying power of legal salaries for 93 cities.
What Do We Know About Transgender Law Graduates?, NALP Bulletin, December 2019
NALP Research: Law School Career Services — Then and Now (2005)
NALP Research: Legal Recruitment — Then and Now (2002)
Employment data for the Class of 2002
Employment data for the Class of 2000
Employment data for the Class of 2010
NALP Research on Diversity & Demographics
NALP recently launched its inaugural Canadian Associate Salary Survey to study associate, summer student, and articling student compensation within Canadian law offices. This article shares the high-level findings from this new study with NALP members.
NALP Research: Buying Power Index Class of 2011, January 2013
Salary Findings from NALP's 2016 Survey of Legal Career Professionals, November 2016
A 15-year retrospective on law firm starting salaries as reported by law graduates.
According to information reported by offices in the 2006-2007 NALP Directory of Legal Employers, lateral hiring has outpaced entry-level hiring by about 25% in the two most recent years for which data is available.
Lateral hiring levels continue to be strong, with the overall volume increasing for the fourth year in a row, although the results of this year's survey suggest a moderating pace of growth.
NALP's graduate employment data show that, historically, women and minories are less likely to take jobs in law firms and more likely to take jobs with public sector employers.
Most employers doubtless have a good sense of what the acceptance rate from their summer 2006 program will be, but comparing experiences with NALP research findings can be instructive.
A look back at the work of the NALP Research Advisory Council.
Just what were the "JD Advantage" jobs reported by the Class of 2011? This article takes a closer look.
Despite continuing signs of structural weaknesses in the market, there were some positive signs amid NALP findings on the Class of 2012.
A look at employment trends over the past decades.
women and minorities representation
What impact did those $180,000 first-year salaries have on NALP's survey findings for 2017? The answer is different than you might think.
NALP Director of Research Danielle Taylor explores NALP Research on early offers prior to OCI from the Survey of Legal Employers on Recruiting.
NALP’s Judith Collins explores the impact of the association’s research and member surveys on the legal education field.
NALP Director of Research Danielle A. Taylor lays out changes to include more data about first-generation college students who graduate with the Class of 2020 in the annual Employment Report and Salary Survey (ERSS).
NALP Director of Research Danielle Taylor highlights employment outcomes by level of parental education from Jobs & JDs: Employment and Salaries of New Law Graduates, Class of 2020.
NALP’s 2018 Survey of Legal Career Professionals reveals that individuals whose jobs involve primarily professional development at the department head or first level, as a group, earn more than individuals whose jobs involve primarily recruiting or those whose jobs are a mix of both. Among second-level positions, the difference reflects at least in part the greater incidence of coordinators/administrators at this level on the recruiting side than on the professional development side.
The overall percentage of openly LGBT lawyers reported in the NALP Directory of Legal Employers in 2015 increased by a very small amount to 2.34% (from 2.30% in 2014), with most of the increase attributable to associates.
Why is NALP’s data on employment outcomes for a school sometimes different from the ABA’s data published for that school?
NALP Research, Women and Minorities in Law Firms by Race and Ethnicity, 2010
NALP Research, The Demographics of Equity - An Update, 2013
NALP Research, LGBT Representation Up Again in 2013, January 2014
NALP Research: Race/Ethnicity and the Geographic Distribution of Law Firm Jobs Taken by New Graduates - Class of 2015, November 2016
Although the market was extremely strong for the Class of 2024, future law graduates should brace for a likely contraction in BigLaw and federal hiring. NALP’s "Perspectives on 2024 Law Student Recruiting" report indicates that many firms pulled back on their 2024 and 2025 summer associate hiring, suggesting that there will be fewer graduates employed by large firms over the next few years.
NALP research on member salaries, including career services offices and legal employer personnel in the U.S. and Canada
Each year NALP surveys the graduating JD class to learn about the employment experiences of new law graduates.
Law Firm Jobs Taken by New Graduates - Class of 2001, NALP Bulletin, April 2003
Median salaries have doubled for graduates accepting jobs in private practice in the last 15 years -- but what does that really mean?
Legal Recruitment Then and Now
NALP research staff will be conducting a survey in mid-October to gather information about what, if anything, law schools are currently doing to increase the pool of minority candidates for clerkships.
Lateral hiring was down by more than 25% in 2008.
Analyses of data reported in the NALP Directory of Legal Employers provide insights on how many hours associates really work and how pro bono hours are counted.
A look back at more than 20 years' worth of data on law school graduate employment trends.
Median salaries at the largest firms have remained quite stable for the past five years, in contrast to the mid to late 1990s.
NALP's employment data from 1994-2004 reflect changing demographics; however, as the table shows, in some job categories women and minorities continue to be significantly under-represented, while in others women and minorities are over-represented.
Over the last ten years, the overall number of judicial clerkships obtained by law school graduates has decreased significantly, and over this same time, minority representation in general has increased slightly but the representation of African-American/Black men has eroded significantly.
Are Legal Services jobs up or down?
After two years of year-over-year double-digit increases, the pace of lateral hiring was tempered in most markets in 2012.
A closer look at the 20 cities providing the most jobs to Class of 2010 law graduates reveals a number of variations among the markets.
Are equity partners in law firms disproportionately white men? It turns out that the answer is probably yes, and no, according to new NALP analyses.
NALP has been extraordinarily lucky over the years to retain many senior staff members for more than 15, 20, and even 25 years. One of my jobs as the staff leader is to plan for the inevitable transitions as those staff members eventually make decisions to move toward retirement. NALP’s longtime Director of Research Judy Collins will be stepping back on May 1 to take on a new part-time role as our Senior Research Associate for Special Projects. It is not possible to quantify all of Judy’s contributions over the years, but suffice it to say that virtually all the NALP resources you rely on that are powered by research and data were created by ...
In 2016, aggregate lateral hiring was down for the first time since 2013, finishing out 2016 almost 11% lower than in 2015.
Since NALP began tracking law school-funded jobs with the Class of 2011, the number of school-funded jobs has fluctuated from about 1,400 to 1,700.
NALP’s latest analysis from the 2023 Public Service Attorney Salary Survey shows that civil legal services/legal aid organizations continue to pay lower salaries as compared to other public service employers, such as public defenders and other non-profits.
There have been long-standing disparities in employment outcomes for graduates of color as compared to white graduates and new data from NALP’s Class of 2022 Employment Report and Salary Survey show that while some of these gaps have narrowed, others have widened.
Research: Women and Minorities at Law Firms by Race and Ethnicity - New Findings for 2015, NALP Bulletin, January 2016
NALP Research: Women and Minorities Maintain Representation Among Equity Partners, Broad Disparities Remain, 2016
NALP Research, Representation of Women and Minority Equity Partners Among Partners Little Changed in Recent Years (2019)
NALP Research, How Is the Racial/Ethnic Representation of Summer Associates Changing? (2025)
NALP Research: Law School Career Services - Changes Over Time (2007)
Summary Salary Findings from 2020 Survey of Legal Career Professionals
NALP Research: Special Topics
NALP’s latest analyses from the "Class of 2024 Employment Report and Salary Survey" reveal that despite the decreasing number of graduates entering JD Advantage careers over the last decade, the vast majority of these positions (86%) remain high-quality jobs in terms of being both long-term and full-time.
NALP Research: Law Firm Jobs — Where They Are and Who Takes Them — Class of 2000, NALP Bulletin, July 2001
The 10-year span of NALP's Public Sector & Public Interest Attorney Salary Survey documents public interest salaries
NALP Research: Entry-level and Lateral Hiring
NALP Webinar: Disparate Outcomes: A New Look at NALP’s Employment and Salary Data Webinar. Discussion of employment outcomes for the Class of 2019. Presented Oct. 29, 2020 by James Leipold and Danielle Taylor.
NALP Class of 2021 Preliminary ERSS Findings Webinar
This column takes a look at trends in graduate employment from 1985-2007, as well as law firm jobs taken by firm size by the classes of 1982-2007.
Insights into lawyer hiring activity just before the slow-downs of 2008.
A 14-Year Retrospective on law firm associate salaries as reported by firms.
Findings about career services professionals over time.
While most firms now collect GLBT lawyer information, the number of openly GLBT lawyers reported remains small.
New survey reveals some gains in public sector salaries -- but also a widening gap between the public and private sector.
There are a few numbers from the last six months that stand out and are worth carrying around with us -- in part because of the stories they tell and in part because of the questions they raise.
Only 0.23% of the lawyers reported by private law firms in the 2009-2010 NALP Directory of Legal Employers were identified as having a disability.
Over the past year, the Research Advisory Group, other NALP members, and NALP staff reviewed a number of NALP's existing survey instruments and discussed potential topics for additional research.
The overall percentage of openly LGBT lawyers reported in the 2010 NALP Director of Legal Employers rose slightly compared to 2009, although the numbers remained relatively small.
A new post-OCI survey for 2Ls as well as new ERSS peer group reports will soon be available to law schools.
At NALP’s inaugural Summit on Emerging Careers for Law Grads in early October, summit attendees were provided with an in-depth look at JD Advantage jobs, based on a deep dive into NALP’s graduate employment data, and most of which has not been previously published. This column highlights just a portion of the findings presented at the summit.
As has been reported earlier, in the February 2018 NALP Bulletin and in NALP’s Report on Diversity in U.S. Law Firms in 2017, just over 8% of partners at major US law firms in 2017 were minorities and almost 23% were women. For associates the figures were just over 23% and about 45.5%, respectively. These figures have generally gone up over time.
NALP is changing the way it collects information about a variety of demographic categories, including race and ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation.
Findings on lateral hiring trends in the legal profession from NALP’s “Survey of Legal Employers on 2019 Recruiting.”
The employment and salary data for the Class of 2014 will stand apart for several reasons, and will in many ways mark the beginning of a new era in our long historical conversation about law school outcomes.
NALP research takes a look at employment trends for the Classes of 1985-2014, including law firm jobs taken by firm size by each class.
Starting with the Class of 2014, NALP expanded the demographic information collected on law school graduates to include sexual orientation and gender identity, thus yielding NALP's first employment outcome analyses in this area.
Since the mid-1990s, the percentage of employed law school graduates taking jobs in business and industry has increased from 12% to 18%. Here are some additional insights into those statistics.
NALP's research director takes a look at average associate hours worked and average associate billable hours as reported in the NALP Directory of Legal Employers.
Read about NALP’s 50th edition of our annual Jobs & JDs report, a publication that provides detailed analyses on the employment and salaries of each class of graduates.
Data on the timing of job offers is available in "Jobs & JDs: Employment and Salaries of New Graduates, Class of 2023." An interesting finding is that NALP data shows the recruiting cycle for 2024 law firm summer associate positions was the softest since the Great Recession. A decline in hiring by large firms, which make up a substantial share of pre-graduation offers, will likely impact pre-graduation offers for the Class of 2025 as well.
Director of Research Danielle A. Taylor shares key findings from NALP’s Survey of Law Students Who Interviewed with Law Firms for a Summer 2022 Position.
Judith N. Collins analyses 30 years of NALP data on law school graduate employment data to identify trends around the number of opportunities, population changes, and job density for various large U.S. cities.
NALP Research, LGBT Representation Among Lawyers in 2014, March 2015
NALP Research: LGBT Representation Among Lawyers in 2015
NALP Research, Women and Minorities at Law Firms - Additional Findings for 2017
NALP Research, Representation of Women and People of Color in U.S. Law Firms in 2020, June 2021
Employment data for the Class of 2008
Employment data for the Class of 2009
Based on findings from NALP’s annual Employment Report and Salary Survey, Danielle Taylor examines challenges first-gen college students encounter and also their unique blend of grit, resilience and determination that can be of benefit to the legal profession.
Race/Ethnicity and the Geographic Distribution of Law Firm Jobs Taken by New Graduates - Class of 2008, NALP Bulletin, October 2009
Two Perspectives on Military Veterans, NALP Bulletin, February 2020
NALP Research: Full-time Salaries for Jobs Lasting at Least One Year, by Employer or Job Type — Class of 2020
NALP Research: Class of 2020 Buying Power Index
Research: Salary Trends for New Law Graduates - 1985-2013, NALP Bulletin, January 2015
A sampling of findings from NALP's Workplace Questionnaire (WQ), based on the offices that had completed the WQ as of mid-June 2005. Comparisons with findings based on the WQ as of June 2003 are also provided.
A look at employment trends over more than 20 years.
How often have YOU called the NALP office to ask when a research report would be available -- or whether a report contained statistics for your city?
Results of the Snapshot of the Recruiting Season survey
Among Class of 2007 law school graduates, 1,379 reported taking jobs in state government -- a small but nonetheless important source of jobs -- and only about 35 to 40% of these jobs were in state capitals.
While some law schools have had longstanding bridge-to-practice fellowship programs, many more have introduced similar programs in recent years. This article shares research findings based on the Class of 2011.
The conversation about law school bridge-to-practice programs continued at a recent conference session and will continue through an additional NALP survey.
Among law school graduates taking jobs in private practice, minorities are more likely than their non-minority peers to take jobs in one of the 20 largest employment markets for new graduates.
While the overall percentage of the Class of 2012 taking jobs in private practice remained down from 2009, law firm hiring varied considerably from city to city.
Learn about new gender identity and sexual orientation questions coming with data collection for the Class of 2014 — and about why the LGBT Section will soon become the SOGIE Section.
The overall representation of minorities among judicial clerks has increased only marginally since the mid-1990s and has essentially flat-lined over the past ten years.
New figures from NALP show that in 2014 only 17.1% of equity partners reported in the NALP Directory of Legal Employers were women and only 5.6% were racial/ethnic minorities.
Over time, women and minorities have been less likely to take jobs in law firms, and more likely to take jobs with government and public interest employers.
Over two-thirds of the offices represented in the 2009-2010 NALP Directory of Legal Employers reported two or more partnership tiers, compared with fewer than half reporting two or more tiers in 2001 and just over one-third in 1995.
NALP Director of Research Danielle Taylor shares results from a Pulse member survey on the impacts of COVID-19 on law schools and law firms.
This year NALP’s Jobs & JDs: Employment and Salaries of New Graduates — Class of 2019, available at www.nalp.org/bookstore, features the first in-depth analysis of employment and salary outcomes for non-binary law school graduates.
NALP Deputy Director Fred Thrashes highlights trends in member demographics and leadership over the past 50 years as part of NALP’s 50th Anniversary in 2021.
Director of Research Danielle A. Taylor provides an overview of key takeaways related to JD Advantage jobs from NALP’s Class of 2020 Employment Report and Salary Survey.
Not quite two-thirds of the offices represented in the 2016-2017 NALP Directory of Legal Employers reported two or more partnership tiers.
Aggregate lateral hiring was up for the second year in a row, finishing out 2015 8.5% higher than in 2014.
Here's a closer look at differences and similarities in the salary distribution curves for the six largest legal employment markets for the Class of 2014.
Among law school graduates taking jobs in private practice, minorities are more likely than their non-minority peers to take jobs in one of the 21 largest law firm employment markets for new graduates. This general pattern did not hold for Black/African-American graduates, however.
NALP Executive Director James G. Leipold highlights the positives, and the work that remains, from the association’s 2021 Report on Diversity at U.S. Law Firms, available at www.nalp.org/reportondiversity.
NALP’s Judith Collins highlights some of the insights gained from comparing 2020 data to the recently released 2022 NALP Survey of Legal Career Professionals in Employer Organizations.
Judith Collins examines employment outcomes for Native American and Alaska Native law students and graduates since 1991.
NALP Research on Non-Binary Law School Graduates, December 2020
NALP Webinar: Disparate Outcomes: Another Look at NALP’s Employment and Salary Data, October 20, 2021
LGBTQ Lawyers & Graduates
NALP Survey on 2025 Lateral & 3L Hiring
NALP Research: Buying Power Index - Class of 2014, March 2016
NALP Research: Class of 2016 Buying Power Index, April 2018
NALP Research: Trends in Median Reported Salaries — Class of 2020
This webinar focuses on the 2010 legal recruiting season, the state of the legal economy, and the legal employment market generally. February 15, 2011
Law Firm Jobs Taken by New Graduates - Distribution by Race/Ethnicity, NALP Bulletin, August 2004
Of law firm jobs taken by the Class of 2007, just over half (51%) where taken in the 20 cities providing the most jobs to that class.
NALP's "Snapshot" survey has documented five years of aggregate increases in lateral hiring, and in some cases substantial aggregate increases, but the patterns vary from market to market.
Next to salaries, one of the most sought after law firm statistical benchmarks is the billable hours requirement.
The average salaries of female lawyers continue to be lower than those of male lawyers, a fact that has led to multiple theories about the causes of the gap.
Sometimes a picture is worth 1,000 words -- as these two images from NALP research analyses prove.
NALP research calls some assumptions about billable hours requirements into question
Equity partners in multi-tier law firms continue to be disproportionately white men according to the latest NALP research analyses.
A look at race/ethnicity and geographic distribution in the 20 cities where the most jobs were obtained by Class of 2008 law graduates.
It should not be surprising that the demographic composition of graduates taking certain kinds of jobs — or jobs in certain sectors — diverges from the demographic makeup of employed graduates as a whole. But the divergence is especially stark in some instances. For example, compared to their representation among employed graduates as a whole, white males take legal services jobs at about half the rate (19%) of the Class of 2017 as a whole (38%). Figures going back to 2002 show roughly the same proportions.
How many callback interviews are needed to result in one accepted offer for the summer program? The answer has been surprisingly consistent over the last 16 years.
Analysis of data on law firm summer programs in comparison to entry-level Big Law hiring from NALP’s Employment Report and Salary Survey (ERSS), Survey of Legal Employers on Recruiting, and Perspectives on Law Student Recruiting report.
Exploring NALP’s early history from 1971-1991, the first in a three-part series in the NALP Bulletin leading to the 50th Anniversary celebration at the 2021 Annual Education Conference in Scottsdale, AZ.
NALP’s Judith N. Collins highlights the importance of NALP’s data gathering efforts related to the Associate Salary Survey and its effect on the compensation for associates.
The overall employment rate for the Class of 2017 was 88.6% of graduates for whom employment status was known, up by 1.1 percentage points compared with 2016. The Class of 2017 is only the third to record an increase since 2007. Thus, the overall employment rate remains more than 3 percentage points below the 91.9% reached in 2007, which stands as the highest rate since 1988.
This article details the launch of NALP's latest members-only resource page, providing access to all of our Canadian research reports from one exclusive hub.
NALP Research, The Demographics of Equity, 2011
NALP Research, LGBT Representation Among Lawyers in 2018, February 2019
Employment data for the Class of 2004
Employment data for the Class of 2019
NALP press releases on research topics and other news are available here.
Jobs for New Law Graduates — Trends from 1991-2001, NALP Bulletin, August 2002
NALP Research: Buying Power Index Class of 2010
NALP research on public interest salaries
NALP Research: Survey of Law Firm Competency Expectations for Associate Development, November 2020
NALP Research: Employer Types with Average Salary for Class of 2020
outcomes of summer programs
Not all firms require 2,000 billable hours according to NALP research analyses of data submitted for the 2007-2008 NALP Directory of Legal Employers.
One of the core objectives expressed in NALP's 2005-2010 Long Range Strategic Plan is to provide vision and expertise in research concerning professional development.
Here is an overview of information on evaluation and training included in the NALP Directory of Legal Employers for the first time in 2006.
A 12-year retrospective of associate pay as reported by law firms.
Representation of Blacks/African-Americans among associates has slid for four years in a row according to the latest NALP research.
Together, the data submitted for the NALP Directory of Legal Employers and the data submitted to NALP by law schools as part NALP's annual survey on employment outcomes provide multiple perspectives on diversity within the legal profession.
More than 1,700 jobs taken by the Class of 2011 were funded by the graduates' law schools through a variety of bridge fellowship programs, grants, and other programs.
NALP research findings provide a picture of summer programs and fall recruiting outcomes from 2007 through 2012.
Lateral hiring was up by 48% in 2011 compared with 2010.
This new survey on experiential learning sought responses from government and nonprofit lawyers.
Selected findings from the 2009 Law School Career Services Survey and a retrospective look at findings from 1975 to 2009.
Second wave findings from After the JD now available.
Overall, a NALP survey found that the volume of lateral hiring was up by 38% in 2010 compared with 2009.
NALP Director of Research Danielle A. Taylor examines racial/ethnic representation among judicial law clerks from the recently released Jobs & JDs: Employment and Salaries of New Graduates, Class of 2019.
NALP research analyses take a more in-depth look at the representation of women and minorities among partners and associates.
Equity partners in multi-tier law firms continue to be disproportionately white men. New figures from NALP show that in 2018, just one in five equity partners were women (19.6%) and only 6.6% were racial/ethnic minorities. NALP’s findings on women equity partners continue to mirror those of the National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL), which in its most recent report found that women comprised about 20% of equity partners in 2018, and minorities accounted for about 8%.
Recent findings on the salaries, job types, and other key statistics related to military veterans among lawyers and law students, including data on veteran lawyers who work in government and private practice.
NALP administered the 2024 U.S. Survey of Legal Career Professionals in Law Firms and Employer Organizations in April and May of 2024 to provide members with essential benchmarking information on compensation, job responsibilities, professional experience, and credentials.
NALP’s latest report examines the lateral hiring market that declined in 2022 and 2023, as firms course corrected from the over-hiring that took place in 2021’s red-hot lateral market. However, in 2024, the lateral hiring market bounced back, with hiring increasing by nearly 14% overall, and lateral associate hiring rising by almost 25%.
NALP Executive Director James G. Leipold analyzes the data from the Perspectives on 2021 Recruiting report, which shows increased competition for entry-level talent amid a surge in the demand for legal services.
New research on the comparative buying power of Class of 2022 entry-level lawyer salaries in over 100 U.S. cities.
NALP Research, Women and Minorities at Law Firms by Race and Ethnicity - An Update, 2013
The Representation of Women and Minorities Among Equity Partners Sees Slow Growth, Broad Disparities Remain, NALP Bulletin, April 2014
NALP Research: LGBT Representation Among Lawyers in 2019
NALP Research, Native American and Alaska Native Law Students and Lawyers, December 2023
NALP Research, Women and People of Color in U.S. Law Firms, 2024
Learn about changes to the NALP Directory of Legal Employers for 2026, including an earlier deadline and updates to the demographics data.
NALP Report on Diversity, December 2019
