The Jobs Are Plentiful For Recent Law School Graduates

// Great news for the law school class of 2021 — there are jobs out there! According to recent data from the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, jobs for that class in full-time, long-term, bar passage required or JD-preferred positions is up over 11 percent compared with the class of 2020.

The ABA Journal reports on how the bump in positive employment outcomes breaks out:

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Out of the 2021 graduates, 74.2% had full-time, long-term jobs that require bar passage, and 8.8% work in full-time, long-term positions referred to by the ABA as “JD advantage,” where a law degree is preferred but not required.

Comparatively, 69.9% of 2020 graduates had full-time, long-term jobs that required bar passage, and 7.5% had JD advantage positions.

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Bill Adams, managing director of ABA accreditation and legal education, said, “The higher percentage of graduates in the bar passage required or JD advantage jobs likely reflects a modest increase in the number of jobs nationwide, perhaps due to the legal market’s recovery from the impact of the pandemic. This is encouraging given there was also a 3.8% increase in the number of total graduates.”

Wondering what jobs the class of 2021 wound up with? 50.6 percent are at law firm jobs, 10.4 percent have government positions, 10% work at business jobs, 7.7 percent are in public interest, 9.6 percent have clerkships, and 1.2 percent are in law school funded positions. And on the bad news front, 5.3 percent said they’re unemployed and seeking jobs.

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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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ABA employment data, Jobs, Law Schools