Job Characteristics Matrix
The job type, employer type, and school-funded job traunches are divisible into a four-part matrix.
| Long Term (LT) | Short Term (ST) |
| Full Time (FT) | | |
| Part Time (PT) | | |
Long Term
These jobs either have a fixed duration of at least one year or have no definite duration. Sometimes abbreviated as LT. A typical long-term job involves an employer hiring the graduate with no expectation or indication of how long the employer will employ the graduate.
Short Term
These jobs have a fixed duration less than one year. Sometimes abbreviated as ST. A three-month contract attorney job is classified as short term.
Full Time
These jobs are at least 35 hours per week. Sometimes abbreviated as FT.
Part Time
These jobs are fewer than 35 hours per week. Sometimes abbreviated as PT.
Job Traunch: Job Type
Categorizes employed graduates by the type of jobs worked, relative to the career path, as opposed to the type of employer.
Bar Passage Required
Includes jobs as an attorneys or as judicial clerks. Except for clerks, these jobs anticipate or require that you pass the bar and be licensed to practice law. This category sweeps judicial clerks into the fray, whether or not they took or passed the bar.
J.D. Advantage
Includes jobs as paralegals, law school admissions officers, and a host of other jobs such as consultants, bank examiners, and contracts administrators. A graduate falls into this category when the employer sought an individual with a J.D. (and perhaps even required a J.D.), or for which the J.D. provided a demonstrable advantage in obtaining or performing the job, but the job itself does not require bar passage, an active law license, or involve practicing law.
Professional
Includes jobs which require professional skills or training, but for which a J.D. is neither an advantage nor particularly applicable, such as an accountant, teacher, business manager, or nurse.
Non-Professional
Includes jobs that do not require any professional skills or training and is not viewed as part of a career path.
School-Funded
Includes jobs that are financed, directly or indirectly, by the graduate's school or university.
Unknown
The job type for these graduates were not reported to the ABA.
Job Traunch: Employer Type
Categorizes employed graduates through classifications that reflect the type of employer that employs the graduate; the categories do not reflect the type of job the graduate has with the employer. When a school reports 45% in "law firms," this means 45% of employed graduates work as an attorney, law clerk, paralegal, or administrator. Without access to the underlying data or another signal, you cannot evaluate which jobs graduates take in law firms.
One signal comes from using the percentage of employed graduates in bar passage required jobs. If this number is 100%, you can interpret 45% in law firms to mean 45% of employed graduates work as an attorney in a law firm. Some of these might be short-term or non-partnership track jobs, but you would be assured they are lawyer jobs.
Law Firm
Includes all jobs in private practice, including jobs as an associate, law clerk, paralegal, or other professional or clerical staff. Private practice includes public interest law firms, which are private and for-profit firms distinguished from other private firms in that a majority of their practice involves clients that are typically underrepresented, or groups that advocate for community rather than corporate interests.
Law Firm Size. Firm size refers to the total number of attorneys firm-wide counting all senior and junior partners, of counsel, staff attorneys, senior and junior associates, and the like.
Business
Includes for-profit organizations not fitting the Law Firm category and some not-for-profits, like political campaigns. This category is broad and includes most employers that are not law firms, schools, or government organizations. The category encompasses everything from short-order cooks to in-house counsel, with document review jobs and managing the local U-Haul in between.
Judicial Clerkship
Includes clerkship positions at the federal, state, or local level, or at international or foreign courts. The defining characteristic of a clerk is one who provides assistance to a judge in making legal determinations.
Government
Includes federal, state, and local government as well as jobs in military (whether JAG or other uniformed positions) and jobs with tribal governments, foreign governments, or the United Nations. This category does not include public defender or appellate defender jobs (which fall in the public interest category), jobs with political campaigns (which fall in the business category), or judicial clerk positions (which fall in the judicial clerkship category).
Public Interest
Includes publicly-funded jobs. Examples include organizations offering civil legal services, jobs as public defender or appellate defender, and jobs with private nonprofit advocacy, religious, social service, fundraising, community resource, or cause-related organizations. It also includes nonprofit policy analysis and research organizations, as well as jobs with unions but not trade associations or public interest law firms.
Education (formerly Academic)
Positions may be at any level, from elementary to higher education, including a law school in admissions or career services, and within either the private or public sector, e.g., private colleges, state universities, and local public education.
Unknown
The employer type was not reported to the ABA.
Job Traunch: School-Funded Jobs
Categorizes employed graduates by whether the jobs are funded by the law school or university.
A position is law school or university funded if the law school or the university of which it is a part pays the salary of the graduate directly or indirectly and in any amount. Thus, a person employed by the law school in the law library or as a research assistant, research "fellow," or clinic staff attorney has a law school funded position. Similarly, if the position is in the university's library, the position is university funded.
The position is funded directly if the graduate is on the payroll of the law school or the university. The position is funded indirectly if the law school or the university funds another entity in any way and in any amount to pay the salary. The position is also funded indirectly if it is paid through funds solicited from or donated by an outside supporter.
The school funds are typically very modest stipends. At some schools, students may work in private positions, but the vast majority require that the student volunteer at a nonprofit or government office.
Note: Some jobs that otherwise qualify as school-funded jobs are not included in this traunch. These jobs pay at least $40,000 and both the employer (school) and graduate intend the graduate to be there for at least a year, as opposed to expecting the graduate to move on as soon as possible.
Job Traunch: Location (State)
Categorizes employed graduates by the state in which their jobs are located. The ABA only publishes the three most popular states each year, though schools often choose to publish additional location data on their websites and on the LST Reports.
Additional Job Traunches
Schools collect additional data—and sometimes publish the resultant information—that categorize employed graduates by additional job characteristics.