Legal Job and Biglaw Job Patterns

The percentage of a graduating class employed in jobs that require a law license is sensitive to two distinct supply figures: total graduates and total available jobs. For example, if graduates increase and the number of jobs stays the same, the percentage will decline. The percentage of graduates obtaining full-time entry-level legal jobs was quite high in the 1980s, peaking at 84.5% in 1988. The average rate in the mid to late 1980s was 82.9%. The next two decades (90s and 00s) each had an average that was ten points lower, 73.7% in the 90s and 71.4% in the 00s. In the 10's, the average was 66.3%—nearly eight points lower.

These shifts appear to reflect enrollment management decisions by law schools instead of demand for new lawyers. Between 1976 and 2000, law schools steadily enrolled between ~40,000 and ~44,000 new students each year. From 1976 to 1987, the average was 40,973. From 1988 to 2000, the average was 43,497—a little over 6% higher. But between 2000 and 2002, law schools increased first-year enrollment 11.2%. In subsequent years, enrollment steadily creeped up, with minor ebbs and flows, until peaking in 2010 at 52,404. The number of jobs, on the other hand, has been far steadier. Between 1985 and 2010, the number of new full-time law jobs each year generally stayed between 27,000 and 30,000. Increased enrollment and a steady number of jobs spell a lower employment rate for law school graduates. Although the legal employment rate has improved, the entry-level market has structurally weakened. Since 2015, the number of full-time law jobs has fluctuated around 24,000 and 25,000 jobs.

While the market for all full-time entry-level legal jobs peaked in 2007, the peak at large law firms was one year later. Jobs at large law firms (>100 attorneys) pay the highest salaries, which is increasingly important for servicing even below average debt levels. Since 2015, the number of jobs at large firms has steadily increased from about 6,000.

Jobs at large law firms are not spread evenly across all law schools. Graduates from the top 20 law schools (by placement in large firms) consistently obtain more than half of these jobs.

In 2022, 46.3% of the available jobs in large firms (> 100 attorneys) were placed by graduates from the top 20 law schools. 77 schools (39.3%) had less than 10% of their graduating class employed at by large law firm (in any job), with a majority of these schools having less than 5%.