For students, one question towers above almost every other consideration when choosing a law school: Will I have a job when I graduate?
The answer increasingly depends on more than rankings or reputation. It depends on whether a law school begins preparing students for the legal marketplace on day one, whether it builds meaningful employer relationships, whether it teaches students how to navigate a changing profession and whether it creates opportunities for practical experience before graduation arrives.
To gauge law school employment outcomes, we looked at the American Bar Association data comparing the difference between two time periods, Classes of 2012-2014 and the Classes of 2023-2025. We used three-year averages of a modified employment rate to track the quality of jobs obtained by graduates.
Our analysis found that legal employment moved beyond recovery in 2021 into a more stable phase in 2025, signaling the current market strength is structural, not temporary.
Law schools capitalizing on the gains in the market, those with marked improvement in post-grad employment rates, had the most room to grow. Many of the law schools have now moved into the 80% to 90% range or higher, shifting from turnaround stories to consistent performers.
Schools that were 60% to 75% in the early period and are now 80% to 90% include Northeastern University School of Law, University of Oregon School of Law, Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law, Villanova University Charles...
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