How Should We Count "JD Advantage" Jobs in Assessing Job Equilibrium for Law School Grads?

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 all plan to practice law in a private practice, government, or public interest setting that requires the graduate to have passed a state bar exam. Any employment short of that measure is inferior according to this point of view.

By way of background, NALP "is an association of over 2,500 legal career professionals who advise law students, lawyers, law offices, and law schools in North America and beyond."

I intend this posting to simply lay out the data.  I'll comment about it in later postings.

Data Collection Before 2001:

Before 2001, NALP divided employment positions for new graduates into six categories:

• Private Practice
• Business/Industry
• Government
• Judicial Clerks
• Public Interest, and
• Academic

NALP broke down the Business/Industry category into some interesting sub-categories. 

• Accounting-Legal
• Accounting -Other
• Banking-Legal
• Banking -Other
• Insurance - Legal
• Insurance - Other
• Fortune 500 - Legal
• Fortune 500- Other

NALP explained the growth in this category in its undated report entitled: Jobs in Business and Industry 1991-2000 (including an interesting chart showing the trend):

Since 1991, the percentage of employed graduates taking jobs in business and industry has increased by about two-thirds, from 7.5% of jobs in 1991 to an estimated 12.3% in 2000. This percentage reached an historic high of 14.2% in 1998. Translated into job counts, the 4,000 or more jobs taken in business and industry in each of the past five years is more than double the number in 1991.

It should be noted that some of the increase in job counts may be attributable to increased reporting of graduate employment over the years. Also, because the reporting of jobs as "legal" and "other" within the business realm is not entirely consistent, the absolute numbers should be viewed with caution. Nonetheless, they do provide a basis for comparisons of the orders of magnitude involved. [H]eightened interest shown in JD's by accounting firms, insurance companies, and financial institutions has translated into substantial increases in the number of these jobs taken by new graduates compared with ten years ago. This is true despite a decline in recent years in the number of accounting and financial jobs taken

New Data Categories After 2001:

Beginning in 2001, NALP began reporting employment in the following categories:

• Bar Passage Required
• JD Preferred (later called JD Advantage)
• Other Professional
• Other Non-professional

Thus, the table summarizing the employment data for the 2012 graduating class (for example) is more extensive than the comparable table produced before 2001. NALP no longer posts the comparable pre-2001 tables, but this table and this table hint at the data NALP captured.  

NALP explains:  

Prior to 2001, jobs were classified as legal, other professional, and nonprofessional, so direct comparisons with 2001 and later years are not possible. During the 1992-2000 time period, about 40% of business jobs were reported as legal. It is likely that some portion of these jobs were closer to the JD Advantage categorization than to jobs for which bar passage, in addition to a JD degree, were required.

Recent Analysis of Jobs in Business and Industry:

In November 2013, NALP updated its earlier report through 2012 and providing several helpful charts to show the growth of jobs in business and industry for law grads.  In its new report, entitled Jobs in Business and Industry -- Two Decades of Change, NALP explains: 

Over the past 20 years the percentage of employed law school graduates taking jobs in business and industry has doubled, with the doubling point reached in the two most recent years. In the same time period, the number of employed law school graduates taking jobs in business and industry has about tripled, again reaching the tripling point in the two most recent years. 

As the bar chart accompanying this article shows, the percentage of jobs in business and industry climbed steadily through much of the 1990s, then dropped somewhat in the next few years before a decade-long pattern of mostly sustained growth, with a small decline in both percentages and numbers of jobs in 2008 and 2009. (It should be noted that both the number of graduates and the percentage for whom employment status was known have increased in the past 20 years. However, the broad contours of the trend remain, and it is clear that the trend line is up, as shown by the additional chart on the number of jobs reported in business and industry from 1992-2012.)

NALP provided a second graph of the trend:

NALP further explains:

Although other kinds of employers within business are tracked, such as publishing, management consulting, and entertainment/sports management, it remains the case that about half of the jobs in business and industry are with "other" kinds of employers not specifically tracked. This encompasses a wide range of businesses, such as all manner of positions in retail, manufacturing, healthcare, and pharmaceuticals, to name but a few kinds of employers.

Dec. 10, 2013 Update:  This new analysis of BigLaw staffing is a must read: Did the Market for Law Firm Associates Peak 25 Years Ago, by Bill Henderson of The Legal Whiteboard.  In the referenced monograph, the author notes:

[T]he relentless increase in the complexity of business and regulation has caused many clients to strain under the weight of a tradition [BigLaw] time-and-materials billing model  This pressure is fueling the urgency for alternative billing arrangements that would incentivize efficiency and innovation.  It is also opening the door to various types of legal vendors who use process, technology, and labor arbitrage to perform a wide variety of legal work formerly handled by junior lawyers in law firms. 

Dec. 17, 2013 Update:  In my research, I found this list of law schools sued for allegedly providing prospective students inaccurate employment data.   As far as I know, courts dismissed most of these suits.

Dec. 21, 2013 Update:  For an updated summary of the "revolution" happening in the legal field take a look at this blog posting.

Dec. 27, 2013 Update:  One blogger, Matt Leichter, of the Law School Tuition Bubble blog,  has continued to work with the numbers and published a story in the AmLaw Daily here.

Survey Reveals Flexibility of Passionate Pre-Law Students Pursuing a Law Degree

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 they weren't already pursuing a JD.

The growing interest in non-traditional legal jobs comes on the heels of the latest report from the American Bar Association which shows that just 56% of 2012 graduates secured long-term, full-time jobs that required bar passage—a 1% increase over the class of 2011.

I reported on this aspect of the job market for law grads in my recent posting here.

The historical NALP data shows that 55 to 58 percent of law grads obtained or sought jobs requiring bar passage, typically law firm jobs.  Thus, up to 42 to 45 percent of law grads historically pursued "JD preferred" (or "JD advanatge") jobs out of law school.  I am cautious about this last statement because remaining grads could fall into other categories on the NALP reports, including "other professional job" and "non-professional job." But the percentages of law grads falling into these latter two categories tend to be below 10 percent -- when taken together -- even in the 2012 job market.

By comparison, one-third to one-half of established lawyers pursued careers outside of law firms.

The April 2013 Kaplan Test Prep survey of pre-law students also found:

Most students say they’re motivated to go to law school by passion, not money: 71% say the primary reason they are applying to law school is “to go into a career I am passionate about.” Only 5% listed salary potential as the primary reason.   

Passion only goes so far, without financial assistance: 43% say they are likely to postpone or alter their plans to attend law school if they don’t get the financial aid package they were hoping for. That line of thinking aligns with advice proffered by graduating law school students: in a separate Kaplan Bar Review survey** of third-year law students, 87% say a law school’s financial aid package should play a significant role in helping pre-law students determine where to enroll."

So, appropriately, students are looking at the big picture and letting the realities of a recessionary economy and the cost of tuition -- after scholarships -- help them decide whether to invest,-- at this time, and in this particular way -- in themselves and their future careers.

Students should have access to complete and reliable information about each law school of interest to them. As a mediator, I hold as a core value informed decision-making based on high-quality information.

For prospective law students and law grads, they are making their next career decision, and certainly not the last one.

Nov. 3, 2013 Update:  Another law professor commented on this survey here in a much more opinionated way.  

"Jane, You Ignorant Slut": Law Professors Debate Economic Value of a Law Degree

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 substantially reduced the sticker price of tuition.  Some schools are offering top students 100 percent merit scholarships, plus moving or book expenses!

Despite what all the spambloggers are saying, for the class of 2011, only 3,990 (or 9.6 percent) graduates were unemployed and seeking work.  Another 1,044 (2.5 percent) of graduates were unemployed, but not seeking work. 41,623 grads reported their employment status that year.

Preliminary data for 2012 grads shows a .07 percent increase in unemployment, partly or mostly because the class had more graduates in it.  But, the data disclosed so far does not split out the numbers for seeking or non-seeking grads.  And, as I reported earlier, the prospects for 2012 graduates showed an improving trend.

Yes, you might be under-employed directly out of law school for some period of time. But, that is just the next step on your career path, not the determining one.  In addition, other research suggests job prospects improve after the 9-month NALP reporting deadline, especially when the recessionary economy may make employers slower or more cautious in hiring.

Tomorrow: Would I recommend a law school education to new college graduates?

December 26, 2013 Update:  For more about the value of a law degree, see here.

25-Year Law Practice Employment Trends: Solo, Small Firm, BigLaw, or Someplace in Between?

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 firms 51 to 100 lawyers in size (a 5 percent drop); and
• a whopping 42.3 percent of new law grads entered large firms of 101 plus lawyers (a 26.7 percent increase).

According to yet another report available from NALP, in 2007, about 14 percent of new law grads entered business and industry (a 4 percent increase).

About 43,500 students graduated from law school in 2007, an increase of 20,500 grads compared to 1982.

The data varies on each of these reports, but I have tried to use the most recent iteration of the data, which I assume reflects more complete information for each year.

What does this shift from smaller firm practice to larger-firm practice say about new law grads over this 25-year period?  Over time, did they shun more risk-taking jobs in smaller or solo practices.  Did they seek the perceived security and guaranteed higher salary of the BigLaw?   Were more jobs simply available in the larger firms?

What does it say about law practice, the legal client market, and access to justice for people who would more likely retain a small firm practitioner?

Now let's take it forward through the years of the last economic recession.  NALP reported that BigLaw (500 plus) hired 3,600 new associates in 2012, down from 5,100 in 2009, but up from hirings in 2011. Employment opportunities at BigLaw rose 27 percent over the last two years.

But what about employment in small and solo practices.  This data relies on NALP reports for each year available here.  You can see that the data for 2007 varies a bit from the later-reported data shown above.

In pre-recession 2007:

• 576 (2.8%) grads opened solo practices;
• 6,461 (31.3%) found jobs in firms of 2-10 lawyers;
• 4,745 (23%) joined BigLaw (501+).

In 2008, 

• 685 (3.3%) grads opened solo practices;
• 6,479 (31.6%) found jobs in firms of 2-10 lawyers;
• 5,193 (25.3%) joined BigLaw (501+).

In 2009:

• 1,058 (5.3%) grads opened solo practices;
• 6.749 (33.5%) found jobs in firms of 2-10 lawyers;
• 5,156 (25.6%) joined BigLaw (501+).

In 2010:

• 1,039 (5.7%) grads opened solo practices;
• 7,160 (39.1%) found jobs in firms of 2-10 lawyers.;
• 3,750 (20%) joined BigLaw (501+). 

In 2011:

• 1,059 (6%) grads opened solo practices;
• 7,570 (42.9%) found jobs in firms of 2-10 lawyers;
• 2,856 (16.2%) joined BigLaw (501+). 

In 2012 (based on preliminary data):

• 8,200 (about 42.9%) found jobs in firms of 2-10 lawyers.
• 3,600 (19.1%) joined BigLaw (501+).  

The numbers indicate that the recession has forced (or encouraged) more graduates to find jobs in smaller firms or as solo practitioners.  

More recent grads may look at the news coverage of BigLaw layoffs and decide that the opportunities for new associates, over a lifetime, in those firms have become increasingly more limited and full of peril. 

In the interest of full disclosure, I worked at the largest law firm in Oklahoma straight out of law school.  I recall it had over 100 attorneys, but maybe it had about 80 attorneys.  I then moved to what was then the third-largest firm in the world for another three years.   As my career progressed, I moved to a 50 lawyer firm and then a 20 lawyer firm.  Each firm offered stimulating legal work and a very different work environment, culture, management structure, compensation system, hourly billing expectations, client base, and support staffing model.  I enjoyed all but one of those experiences.

Dec. 16, 2013 Update:  A new study shows graphically the shift in the staffing model in BigLaw over the last 25 years.  It shows a dramatic loss of associate positions.  

BigLaw "New Normal" Stories

Mayer, Brown (July 2013): http://www.newrepublic.com/article/113941/big-law-firms-trouble-when-money-dries#

Weil, Gotshall & Manges  (June 2013):  http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/06/24/big-law-firm-to-cut-lawyers-and-some-partner-pay/?_r=0  (60 associates or 7 percent laid-off).

1,000 lawyers and staff laid off on one day in February 2009: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/25/opinion/big-laws-troubling-trajectory.html  (with 2,000 losing their jobs over that month).

Firms shuttering satellite offices:  http://blogs.findlaw.com/greedy_associates/2013/07/mixed-news-in-biglaw-overall-hiring-up-but-layoffs-happening.html

AmLaw 200 layoff list as of 2009: http://www.americanlawyer.com/PubArticleTAL.jsp?id=1202425647706&THE_LAYOFF_LIST&slreturn=20130624105612#wilm

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. 

An Improving Employment Trend for 2012 Law Grads

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 88.7%, which is still 4 percentage points higher than the 2012 employment rate.

About one half (50.7%) of the employed 2012 graduates got a job in private practice, up a bit from the year before.  However, this employment rate lagged behind historical averages of 55-58%.  Firms with more than 500 lawyers offered improving opportunities for new grads by providing 19.1% of law firm jobs, up from 16.2% in 2011.

On the other end of the spectrum, small firms (2 to 10 lawyers) provided 8,200 jobs in 2012 up from 7,600 jobs in 2011.  In 2011, these small firms provided 42.9% of new jobs for grads.  About 6% of new 2011 grads entered solo practice.

Jobs requiring bar passage provided 64.4% of jobs for 2012 grads, falling slightly from the 2011 rate of 65.4% -- but falling ten percentage points below the pre-recession 2008 rate of 74.7%.

Jobs in which employers preferred a J.D. degree, but did not require bar passage, increased from 12.5% in 2011 to 13.3% in 2012.  The 2012 percentage for this category set a new high since 2001, when NALP began tracking the category.

At the same time, the unemployment rate rose a bit from 12.1% in 2011 to 12.8% in 2012.

The National Association for Legal Career Professionals (NALP) has reported preliminary data, which it plans to finalize in August. The press release announcing the data appears here.  The data reports outcomes 9-months after graduation, which may fail to represent long-term prospects for law grads, as I discussed in an earlier blog found here.   Percentages reflect only those graduates responding to the NALP survey.

As we begin a new recruiting season in graduate schools, I wonder how many other professions offer employment rates of 84.7% in this recovering economy.  And, what is the employment rate for new MBAs? If you know, please comment to this blog.


 

Today's Supply-Demand Gap in Legal Jobs: Understanding the Reported Numbers

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 law degree.  It does not consider the other options that might exist for new grads, including:

• Employed -- J.D. Advantage
• Employed -- Professional Position
• Employed -- Non-Professional Position
• Employed -- Undetermined
• Pursuing Graduate Degree Full Time
• Unemployed -- Start Date Deferred
• Unemployed -- Not Seeking
• Employment Status Unknown

The employment number is tricky in another way.  It took me a while to understand the various numbers floating about in the media.  So, here is my understanding of the source of the different employment percentage rates reported by the press. This discussion is my own and should not be considered a statement from my law school.  Are we clear about that?!

The raw data yields at least three different numbers depending on the numerators and denominators used to calculate any employment percentage.

The most reliable number comes from the responses to the survey distributed through the Association for Legal Career Professionals.  See here for more information about NALP.  This very detailed survey captures far more information than does the ABA report most widely available in the press.  ABA Employment Summary for 2012 Graduates by School  The NALP survey report calculates employment rates using a numerator consisting of all categories of employed grads and a denominator consisting only of the number of grads responding to the survey.

Accordingly, for ASL 2011 grads, 75.3 percent were employed, reflecting 55 employed grads out of 73 reporting.  Nineteen ASL grads, or almost 21 percent of our total grads (92) that year failed to respond to the NALP employment survey despite the strenuous efforts of our Career Services Office.

Why does that matter?  Because the ABA then requires law schools to condense the NALP data into its own ABA report.  But, that ABA report does not disclose the number of grads who failed to respond to the NALP survey.  Thus, anyone using this much more ubiquitous report will likely put the number of employed grads as a numerator over a denominator consisting of all grads in that class.  In doing so, it treats the students who failed to reply to the survey as unemployed, whether true or not.

As a result, the employment number for ASL for 2011 falls from 75.3 percent to about 57 percent.  This drop also reflects some differences in the numbers reported:  only 52 employed students and only 91 grads.  For 2012, the ASL number rose to 69 percent (63 employed students/91 grads in the class).

The third number that most frequently circulates in the press, and the one mentioned in the first paragraph of this blog, takes a sub-set of the total grads employed -- specifically those in the "full-time, long-term, bar passage required" category -- and puts that subtotal over a denominator consisting of all grads in that graduating class, including those who did not return the NALP survey.  So again, grads who failed to report get treated as if they had not found any type of job.

For ASL 2011 grads, this approach drops the employment number from 75.3 percent to a fraction less than 31 percent.  For ASL 2012 grads, that number grows to 38.5 percent.  It reflects a 7.5 percent increase from 2011, but still falls 17.7 percent below the national average for all ABA-approved law schools for this specific category of employment.  Several law schools with student profiles similar to ASL's student profile reported lower (or equal) employment numbers, including Ave Maria, Barry, Charlotte, Florida Coastal, North Carolina Central, and Thomas Cooley.    

In short, ASL's employment numbers improved this last year.  Are we doing better in helping students find jobs in this economy?  Or, have more grads responded to the NALP survey so we have fewer non-reporters treated as unemployed in the calculations?  I know our Career Services Office has worked very hard this year on both aspects of this employment picture. 

Which of the three ways to calculate employment rates best represents the job market for law school grads?

ASL students, who must live 2.5 hours from the nearest metropolitan area, have fewer on-campus or pre-graduation opportunities to secure a job within nine months after graduation.  Does that explain the difference between our employment rate and the national average?  How would the employment rates compare 12 months after graduation when our students have settled into the city or town where they plan to practice, have studied for and taken the bar exam, and now have the undivided attention to look more actively for a job?  How would the averages compare after 18 months or two years?

Does a slow start to your law career necessarily counsel against pursuing a career in which attorneys average $100,000 per year in income?  For example, Missouri lawyers earned a median income of between $98,000 and $100,000 in 2010, with one half of responding lawyers reporting higher incomes. See here for the full report.  The Illinois Bar produced a similar report in 2004 showing that the median salary of responding lawyers was $110,000, with half of responding lawyers making more money than that each year.  See Virginia Grant, Highlights of the 2004 ISBA Law Firm Economic Benchmarking Survey, 92 Ill. Bar J. 624 (2004).

Thus, a lawyer, having a 40-year career, making on average a $100,000 year, would earn $4 million over a lifetime.  Women lawyers, unfortunately, average lower incomes than male lawyers, but could still expect to make $50,000 to $75,000 per year over a lifetime. See here for a report on the retention and promotion of women in law firms issued in October 2011.   

And how do law grad employment rates compare to the average employment rates of graduates from other professional and graduate schools in this recessionary market?  I don't know.  Clearly, prospective students need to consider whether they would make more money and be more satisfied with a life spent working in a profession other than law.

I have no regrets about the choice I made to attend law school in 1979.   But, then, I entered the profession during a very different economic time with a more predictable career path in front of me.  At the same time, less than 10 percent of lawyers were women when I graduated in 1982. More on that in a later posting.

October 2014 Update:  For an update and analysis of the date, see here.