Becoming a lawyer requires more than paying tuition and passing the bar exam; students must also pass multiple law-related courses such as Socratic Method and legal writing courses before becoming legal professionals.
Law school life differs significantly from college campus experiences. Students typically pursue more professional and career-related goals while attending.
1. About 80% of students are accepted to a law school.
Law schools give accepted students a good chance of finding employment as lawyers after graduation, with higher employment rates at top schools (typically private, prestigious schools that can be difficult to gain entry to) than lower-tier ones, where graduates tend to find other types of jobs such as non-legal ones.
This year, enrollment at 196 ABA-approved law schools that offer Juris Doctor (JD) programs saw a slight decrease, although overall enrollment remains higher than its peak level reached in 2022. Furthermore, enrollment in non-JD law programs (e.g. masters and certificates) also rose compared with last year.
Enrollment at ABA-approved programs has increased over its previous levels at this point in 2023, which may be partly attributed to this being the first admissions cycle since the Supreme Court’s June decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard College wherein they ruled against law schools discriminating based on race and other factors when admitting applicants.
LSAC data indicates an overall 13% increase in applications to law school compared with last year, as well as an increase in applications from women and people of color – two welcome trends.
As demand for law degrees continues to drop, some schools are increasing their acceptance rates – this trend being most evident among the nation’s 15 most selective law schools.
Law school acceptance rates are an essential consideration when making your decision to attend law school. They indicate the number of accepted applicants per available seat – generally around 80 students at most American Bar Association-accredited law schools.
As part of an application for law school, it is also essential to consider bar passage rates. These numbers represent how successful each jurisdiction’s law schools have been at passing bar exams; generally speaking, top law schools boast higher bar passage rates than their less prestigious peers.
2. About 85% of students graduate.
Law school can be expensive and time consuming to complete successfully. Once graduated, law students can feel prideful of themselves for making it through, yet many will also carry large student debt loads that make managing life after graduating difficult. Furthermore, these debts could make some graduates delay important decisions like buying a house or having children due to financial obligations.
Recently, graduates have seen an upswing in legal employment after entering law school; this increase can be attributed to less people entering law school rather than more graduates landing legal employment jobs. According to the American Bar Association, law school graduates typically accrue over $100,000 in debt – higher than any national average for all college graduates – putting them more deeply into debt than average college graduates overall. Most graduates have taken positions with private companies, law firms or government offices where corporate law, criminal law or employment law practices may be prevalent among new lawyers.
Two-thirds of ABA-accredited law schools experienced first-year enrollment increases this fall. They opened accounts and announced there were 42,718 new Juris Doctor students nationwide–an increase of about 12 percent year over year. According to the American Bar Association, this increase could have been caused by renewed interest in law following COVID-19 pandemic events such as George Floyd murdering and Ruth Bader Ginsburg death.
Law school applicants often enroll with hopes of becoming lawyers and many believe a degree from one of the nation’s premier law schools will guarantee employment or at least high pay in this industry. While more graduates than ever before are landing legal jobs after graduating from law schools, that does not indicate satisfaction with their careers.
ABA research found that roughly half of new lawyers reported feeling discontented with their job and salary, especially regarding pay increases; one reason given for attending law school included helping others and advocating for social change.
Law school graduates typically assume they will begin their legal careers at a large law firm, yet only about one fifth do so. Instead, many start off at smaller firms or corporations or nonprofits or even the government; according to an American Bar Association survey only small percentage of new lawyers find employment at major firms.
3. About 80% of students pass the bar exam.
The bar exam is an essential milestone in lawyers’ professional lives and an immense challenge. Designed to test lawyers on their knowledge and understanding of law, its results determine eligibility to practice in certain states or jurisdictions. Pass rates differ by state; overall bar pass rates hover at about 80%; pass rates from top schools tend to be higher than for students from lower-ranking schools.
Pass rates of first-time test-takers can also depend on their law school of attendance, according to American Bar Association data. According to this research, students attending law schools ranked among the top 14 are more likely to pass than their counterparts from lower ranked institutions due to being better-equipped and having stronger study habits than students from lower-ranked law schools.
Law graduates generally find employment within nine months of graduating, which predated the current legal recession which has further limited employment opportunities. For the class of 2009 alone, 50 percent or fewer of graduates from 30 law schools found jobs as attorneys nine months post graduation – before further legal recession had significantly diminished employment prospects.
Graduates from law school often take on business-oriented jobs following graduation, while many opt for judicial clerkships or government jobs as their initial professional roles upon leaving school. Judicial clerkships are popular among new law grads as they provide them with an introduction to legal theory before entering practice; approximately 9% of recent law graduates took up judicial clerkships as their initial job post graduation (2022).
The job market for new lawyers has improved over time, yet remains challenging. While unemployment among law grads had decreased drastically since 2022, unemployment among newly graduated law professionals remained high; even as employment rates for law grads improved. Even so, graduates may feel their degree wasn’t worth its price as only 24 percent feel that their professors cared about them personally.
4. About 85% of students are employed after graduation.
As reported by the ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, an estimated 85 percent of new law school graduates have secured employment within 10 months after graduating – this number surpasses previous levels seen during this decade.
Most graduates found employment that required bar passage or otherwise utilized their law degree in some way, often through full time positions that required bar passage. Law firms were the most frequent employers for law school graduates – often called “Big Law” firms due to their size variations. Most graduates from top 14 law schools such as Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, Yale University of Pennsylvania Duke and Northwestern began their careers at large or midsize law firms.
Over half of graduates whose employment status was known were employed at law firms with over 100 employees, which typically offered the highest salaries; those starting off in smaller firms generally earned less; graduates with first jobs at firms employing fewer than 100 were most likely to make six figures or lower in their first jobs as lawyers.
Overall employment rates among recent law school graduates have remained consistent since 2019. This may be attributable to more students choosing law degrees as a service to the public rather than for financial gain – thus not approaching entering legal practice with lofty expectations of making lots of money.
Aspiring attorneys considering private practice should keep in mind that larger law firms have not recovered from the declines seen following the recession in terms of hiring practices; at these firms, hiring has slowed significantly compared to last year, especially entry-level associate hirings.
The class of 2022 graduated fewer members than in prior years, and this may account for any stabilizing effect on employment rates. Thus, it’s too soon to say whether employment rates will increase in 2023.