Law School Employment Numbers Database

Law School Transparency, a legal education policy organization, has just released an online database containing detailed employment and salary information for the class of 2010 at all ABA-accredited law schools.

It combines information from 4 different sources:

-the ABA
-U.S. News
-the National Association for Law Placement
-law schools' websites

The executive director, Kyle McEntee, says, "The goal is to have the most comprehensive picture of employment outcomes ever produced, and I think we have achieved that."

The database provides useful "scores" for each school:

-an "employment" score indicating graduates with jobs requiring a J.D., but removing solo practitioners and those with short-term jobs.

-an "under-employment" score, which reflects the % of unemployed graduates, as well as those in:
 --jobs where having a J.D. isn't preferred or necessary
 --part-time jobs
 --degree programs


The site offers a great deal of other useful information as well, and it's presented in manner far more useful than that of traditional sources.

Law school employment data available from traditional sources tends to offer a misleading picture of what's really going on. (For example, the number of graduates employed in school-funded positions 9 months after graduation has traditionally inflated the number that would likely be of interest to prospective applicants.)

Law School Transparency has made an enormous contribution to making relevant information about employment prospects more accessible to law school applicants.

Be sure to bookmark Law School Transparency and return to it frequently as you consider which law schools you might attend.