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Document-setting employment charge for sophistication of 2024 legislation grads comes with asterisk, new NALP report finds
By Debra Cassens Weiss
August 5, 2025, 9:04 am CDT
Class of 2024 legislation graduates had the best ever general employment charge and the best ever employment charge in bar-admission-required jobs, however percentages solely inform a part of the story. (Picture from Shutterstock)
Class of 2024 legislation graduates had the best ever general employment charge and the best ever employment charge in bar-admission-required jobs, however percentages solely inform a part of the story, based on Nikia L. Grey, the manager director of the Nationwide Affiliation for Regulation Placement.
The category of 2024 had 3,700 extra college students than the earlier yr. However the class nonetheless discovered practically 1,800 fewer jobs than the category of 2007, Grey mentioned in commentary to the NALP report, Jobs & JDs: Employment for the Class of 2024—Chosen Findings.
“This is a crucial level to recollect,” Grey wrote, “as legislation college functions are at their highest degree in practically 15 years. The market has proven resiliency in absorbing periodic surges; that doesn’t imply that it may possibly take in a sustained flood of graduates.”
General, 93.4% of the category of 2024 legislation grads had jobs 10 months after commencement, which is a 0.8 proportion level enhance from the earlier yr, based on a July 31 press launch. The share of grads in jobs for which bar admission is required or anticipated was 84.3%, which is a 2.2 proportion level enhance from the earlier yr.
The numbers are for sophistication of 2024 grads of ABA-accredited legislation faculties for whom employment standing is understood.
The median wage was a report $95,000, up from $90,000 the earlier yr.
Authorities and public-interest jobs surged to 32.7% of jobs obtained by employed grads, together with army and different authorities jobs, judicial clerkship and public-interest positions. The share was increased just for the category of 1975, when 34% of legislation grads secured such positions.
However the public-interest job numbers are more likely to change.
“Sadly, with the federal authorities hiring freeze and mass layoffs earlier this yr and the grant cuts to public-interest organizations, it’s probably each tendencies will reverse with the category of 2025,” Grey wrote.
A future contraction in BigLaw hiring may additionally be potential. Many legislation companies diminished 2024 and 2025 summer season affiliate hiring, suggesting that fewer grads of the courses of 2025 and 2026 can be employed by bigger companies.
The report notes, nevertheless, that the courses of 2025 and 2026 have been smaller, with practically 5,000 fewer college students getting into legislation faculties as 1Ls. So even when there are fewer jobs for sure sectors, employment outcomes for the upcoming grads could stay “comparatively resilient,” the report says.
See additionally:
Extra 2024 legislation grads discover jobs than in 2023, new ABA knowledge exhibits
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