As a profession and as an industry we have gotten very good at describing the legal employment market in statistical terms, but behind the statistics are stories of countless individual people.
Is OCI Dead or Is This Just the New Normal? On-Campus Interviews (OCI) in 2012
The latest NALP/PSJD survey of public service employers showed some signs of an improving job market and yielded many tips for job seekers.
The new Best Practices Guide for Reporting Law School Employment Outcomes now in draft form takes advantage of the thing that NALP does best, to tap the collective wisdom of its members and establish consensus about the best and most ethical practices in our field.
A plenary presentation on the legal economy by James W. Jones was among the many highlights of NALP's April 2012 conference in Austin.
Here are some key findings from the NALP Foundation's latest report on associate attrition and the reasons for associate departures.
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.
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.
The Law Practice Program (LPP) in Ontario provides licensing candidates and the legal profession with a new alternative to articling.
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 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.
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.
Members of the NALP Foundation staff share key takeaways from the ninth annual U.S. Alumni Employment & Satisfaction Study, including employment trends, professional satisfaction, educational debt, and experiential education.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Cybele Smith and Jim Tomaszewski explain the importance of listing your law school’s job openings on PSJD.org.
Trends (Updated October 22, 2025)
NALP Research: Trends
Class of 2018 Preliminary ERSS Findings Webinar
In January, NALP surveyed offices of attorneys general in the U.S. states and territories to get a sense of the hiring market. Here's what was learned.
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.
If you take an active interest in the future of large law firms, you should read this new book, and perhaps buy a second copy to sneak onto the desk of your managing partner or dean.
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 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 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.
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.
To be successful, lawyers in the new legal economy have to be more than just smart and a good "fit" with a firm and its clients.
The Emergent Employer Engagement (E3) Task Force is focusing on member resource development in the area of emerging legal jobs and relationship-building with employers hiring JDs for these jobs.
The first 12 in an exciting new series of small books about emerging legal careers are now available from NALP.
Brown Rudnick LLP’s Alexandra Gharghoury and McDermott Will & Emery LLP’s Amanda Ryan examine strategies for lateral associate recruiting in a market with lots of job activity related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
University of Chicago Law School’s Amy Nixon summarizes recent research and trends to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion among law school candidates interested in judicial clerkships.
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.
Bill Henderson deals head-on with the mystery of why today's market leaders, including both law schools and law firms, might struggle to recognize, understand, and adapt to the changes occurring in the legal market.
While the civil legal aid hiring outlook remains bleak, there are ways law students can increase the likelihood of finding a job in this area.
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.
One unintended result of the change adopted by the ABA will be that the ABA's count of jobs that are classified as full-time, long-term, and bar passage required will go down, seeming to signal to consumers a decline in the market that is not actually occurring.
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.
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.
Sarah Jasper of Equal Justice Works and William & Mary Law School’s Moriah Berger Allen share results from an environmental scan of how the public service environment has changed due to the lingering effects of the pandemic.
Employment data for the Class of 2001
Suffolk Law's Accelerator-to-Practice program is designed to address market and practice gaps while also narrowing the justice gap.
We're only a month into a new year, and if we learn from 2014 we have another opportunity to tackle critical issues and get them right.
NALP's Executive Director suggests that Richard Susskind's latest book is one we ignore at our peril.
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.
The most successful lawyers aren’t only “book smart,” but they also show high emotional intelligence. Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP’s Kendra Brodin explains why it matters.
Information on employment trends from the Class of 2016.
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.
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.
NALP President Karl Riehl of Epstein Becker Green emphasizes the importance of well-being among the NALP community during the busy summer and early fall periods, as well as planning time for your personal wellness after more than two years in a global pandemic.
With client demand on the upswing, partners assume that associates would be embracing new billable work. But partners are frustrated because now some associates seem less interested or reluctant to take on more work.
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.
An analysis of data from the 2002 and 2012 NALP Directory of Legal Employers reveals how much the legal market has changed over the past ten years.
Before the JD has the potential to impact law school thinking, focus, and behavior in significant ways, affecting the pipeline of talent depended upon by legal employers. And with so much vested in talent acquisition, it’s no surprise that both school-side and employer-side NALP members are interested in this study.
University of California Berkeley School of Law’s Terrence J. Galligan explores the history of NALP from the years 1990-2008 as part of the association’s 50th Anniversary celebration.
In May I had the privilege of attending my second Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC) conference, a gathering that attracted well over 2,000 attendees from in-house legal departments, technology companies, law firms, and law schools, among others. I came away with a stronger conviction than ever that the legal profession is but a small way through a real revolution that will change everything about the profession and the delivery of legal services.
book review of Richard Susskind's The Future of the Professions
"Why is it that increasingly for all NALP members and the institutions they work for it feels as if the rug is being pulled out from under us on a daily basis?" asks NALP's Executive Director James Leipold.
Are Legal Services jobs up or down?
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.
NALP President-Elect Karl Riehl of Epstein Becker & Green, P.C. explains why the time is now to get involved with volunteer leadership roles at the association.
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.
Learn how Cardozo tapped alumni connections and others to establish a new legal residency program that is employing 18 graduates in its first year.
Some change in legal education has happened but much more is still to come.
William A. Chamberlain responds to Steven Harper's article, looking at the "creative" amid the "creative destruction" now occurring.
NALP is pleased to announce publication of a new, 95-page, free downloadable guide entitled The Emergence of Nontraditional-Track Lawyer Career Paths: A Resource Guide for Law Firms and Law Schools.
The NALP Public Service Section recently conducted its second annual survey of the public service employment landscape. Here are some of the findings.
Given the dramatic changes in the entry-level legal employment market that we have lived through since 2009, how should we be describing employment prospects to prospective law school students?
Technology, the economy, and additional factors are giving rise to new career models within law firms and other organizations. A new resource guide addresses the implications for NALP members and their constituencies.
Equity partners in multi-tier law firms continue to be disproportionately white men. New figures from NALP show that in 2017, only 18.7% of equity partners were women and only 6.1% were racial/ethnic minorities
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.
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.
Many AM Law firms have seen demand for legal work increase over the past few years, but which practices have firms been focusing on? Using publicly-available data tracked by Pirical Legal Professionals (PLP), we've taken a look at some of the key practice growth trends among the AM Law 200 over the last three years.
NALP’s 2021-22 PSJD Fellow Chelsea-Leigh Flucus explores wage transparency and its impact on public service attorneys as employers strive to retain their workers amid the “Great Resignation.”
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 Executive Director James G. Leipold says farewell to members following more than 18 years serving as the association’s chief executive.
Suited Founder and CEO Matt Spencer provides views on some legal industry hiring trends observed in 2022, and why the organization is optimistic the legal profession is headed in the right direction in meeting DEI goals.
Three C-Suite leaders share their insights and perspectives on the legal industry — what’s changing, what’s challenging, and where things are headed.
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.
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.
NALP Executive Director Jim Leipold examines how things have worked out better than expected for employment outcomes related to the Class of 2020, the OCI process, and the remote work experiment-turned-new-reality as the world continues to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
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.
This webinar focuses on the 2010 legal recruiting season, the state of the legal economy, and the legal employment market generally. February 15, 2011
Comprehensive hiring reform has made the pathways to federal employment clearer.
Some trends are emerging in the post-recession employment market, and most law schools could be doing more to prepare their students to take advantage of the opportunities this new job market is going to present.
A recent survey found that 78.3% of public defenders, 73.7% of legal services providers, and 60% of local prosecutors reported hiring no Class of 2010 graduates as of September.
One of the most thoughtful inquiries into the future of the profession comes from a law professor, a law firm partner, and a former general counsel who have jointly authored an essay called "Lawyers as Professionals and as Citizens: Key ROles and Responsibilities in the 21st Century."
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.
One of the collateral developments of the legal ops movement is that it is dissolving the lawyer/nonlawyer distinction when it comes to solving legal problems.
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.
As the summer employment recruiting process (SERP) timeline evolves — with many law firms engaging with students earlier than ever before, the traditional milestones of law school have been reshuffled. While the timeline has shifted, our mission as members of NALP remains the same: working together to support students in making informed career choices through a fair and ethical hiring process while allowing employers to identify candidates with the skills, judgment, and potential to thrive in their organizations.
AI is no longer optional; it is essential to the business of law — changing how lawyers practice, how firms create value, and, ultimately, how many lawyers they need and what kinds of expertise they must have.
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.
This article begins an examination of a post-recession trend: the emergence of full-time volunteer attorney positions in the public interest arena.
