The University of Virginia School of Law sent the highest percentage of graduates into full-time law jobs in 2023, marking the second consecutive year that the school snagged the top spot.
A full 97.18% of Virginia’s 2023 juris doctor graduates went on to full-time, permanent jobs that require bar passage—the highest of all 195 American Bar Association-accredited law schools for the second straight year.
The University of Michigan Law School was next with an employment rate of 95.44%, followed by Washington & Lee University School of Law at 95.33% and Columbia Law School at 95.08%, according to new ABA data released this week.
The ABA data show that the JD class of 2023 graduated into a strong job market. Among the 30,160 newly minted JDs last year, 85.6% landed full-time, permanent jobs that either require bar passage or for which a JD provides an advantage within 10 months of leaving campus.
That’s up from 84.6% the previous year and represents a high mark over the past decade, according to Bill Adams, the ABA’s managing director of accreditation and legal education.
JD Grads
The percentage of 2023 JD graduates who were unemployed and seeking work 10 months out was 5%, down slightly from 5.3% among 2022 graduates.
The class of 2023 benefited from being slightly smaller than its predecessor, with 863 fewer graduates competing for jobs. That trend will reverse for the Class of 2024, which is 12% larger following a pandemic-induced enrollment boom. NALP data on law firm summer associate hiring suggests this year’s graduates will face a tight employment market due both to the size of their class and to firms being more conservative about hiring.
Kevin Donovan, Virginia Law’s senior assistant dean for career development, said on Wednesday that legal employers recognize its graduates are “uniquely prepared, both intellectually and in the more human sides of the law.”
Washington & Lee; Baylor University School of Law; the University of Iowa College of Law; and Boston College Law School are among the schools ranked outside the top 20 by U.S. News & World Report that had legal job rates among the top 15 in the nation last year, the ABA data show.
Washington & Lee law dean Melanie Wilson attributed her school’s jobs success to the combined effort of its students and its career services staff.
This article first appeared on Reuters. Read original here
