Which Law Schools Employed the Most Grads in 'Elite' Jobs?

If you'd like to be paid in prestige, then this list is for you!

Yesterday, we brought you some news you can use when it comes to law schools and the employment data that went into the 2014 U.S. News law school rankings. The Top 10 lists we provided you with contained some pretty vital information, including which law schools best know how to put the “bar” in “barista.” (N.B. As we noted, the sample size here was small, but still, perhaps you should’ve considered enrolling at ITT Tech.)

We thought that our readers had gotten enough of their rankings crack, but it seems like you’re addicted to it. Don’t worry, you’ll be okay, because we’re here to give you another much-needed hit.

Would you like to know which law schools are the most likely to lead to “elite” employment outcomes?

Let’s get ready to dig into the details….

As with yesterday’s Top 10 lists, these come to us courtesy of Derek Muller, a professor at Pepperdine Law. This time, he’s broken down the job data so that we can see where graduates are actually employed. Here are the categories for this round of information, originally posted on TaxProf Blog:

We Take Care of Our Own (Graduates employed in law school/university funded positions)

We Take Care of Our Own, Full-Time, Long-Term (Graduates employed in law school/university funded positions, full-time, long-term)

Big Law, More or Less (Number of graduates employed in law firm / total graduates * graduates employed in law firms consisting of more than 100 lawyers, full-time, long-term)

Federal Clerks (Number of graduates employed in judicial clerkships / total graduates * graduates employed in federal judicial clerkships, full-time, long-term)

Elite Outcomes (Combined “Big Law, More or Less” and “Federal Clerks” categories)

We Hang Shingles (Number of graduates employed in law firm / total graduates * graduates employed as a solo practitioner, full-time, long-term)

Good Enough for Government (Number of graduates employed / total graduates * graduates employed in government, full-time, long-term)

Save the World (Number of graduates employed / total graduates * graduates employed in public interest including public defender, full-time, long-term)

But I Want to Do International Law (Number of graduates employed / total graduates * graduates employed in foreign countries)

Far and Wide (Number of states where graduates are employed)

The White List (Schools that reported zero law school/university funded positions 9 months after graduation)

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Without further ado, here’s the information that everyone’s dying to know: the law schools where you’ll be most likely to attain a favorable adjective when it comes to your career. That’s right, these are the schools where you’ll have an “elite” outcome, the schools where you’ll be Biglaw and Article III secure.

1. Stanford University 72.9%
2. Columbia University 69.5%
3. University of Pennsylvania 67.1%
4. Yale University 66.4%
5. Harvard University 65.0%
6. Northwestern University 61.4%
7. Duke University 56.1%
8. University of Chicago 54.2%
9. New York University 54.1%
10. University of California—Berkeley 51.3%

“I’m so surprised that this Top 10 list is comprised of T14 law schools,” said no one ever. (Actually, the Cooley Law grad who thought his school was the second-best in the country probably said that, so our apologies to that dude — he was likely blissfully unaware of the Supreme Court’s existence, too.)

The moral of the story here seems to be that if you’re desperate for dollars, not to mention prestige, you might want to consider enrolling at a top law school. Sure, you might be able to land similar jobs upon graduation from other schools, but these schools are the cream of the crop in terms of the enviable employment outcomes that will lead to the quickest student loan debt payoff dates.

Because if you’re going to be miserable, why not make some straight cash while you’re at it, homie?

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If you’re interested, you can check out the full list of Top 10 rankings here, where you’ll find out interesting tidbits about all types of law school employment data. For example, we bet you didn’t know that NYU Law was the place to be in terms of graduates who go on to “save the world.”

If you’ve got the necessary prestige points, feel free to praise or condemn your school in the comments.

The 2014 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Employment Data (Part II) [TaxProf Blog]

Earlier: Which Law Schools Employed the Most Graduates as Real Lawyers Versus Real Baristas?