Law Schools

Recent Graduates Grade Their Law Schools

How do law schools stack up when it comes to finding students jobs?

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Well, now the shoe is on the other foot. Instead of being on the receiving end of the grading process, 417 recent law school were graduates were surveyed by Kaplan Bar Review and gave grades to their alma maters, based on career services. The resulting curve is as generous as any you might see at a T14 law school: 23 percent gave their law school’s career services an “A”; 30 percent a respectable “B”; 23 percent gave career services a middling “C”; 14 percent awarded a disappointing “D”; and 11 percent failed their law schools with an “F”.

Kaplan’s survey also dug into how time consuming the job search process proved to be for law school students. Of those surveyed, a whopping 52 percent say the job search process required more time than anticipated; 37 percent reported their job search required about the amount of time they anticipated; and a measly 11 percent say finding a job took less time than anticipated.

Law schools did better when grads were asked to rate how their schools prepared them with the skills necessary to transition from student to lawyer. For that ranking 33 percent gave their law schools an “A”;  45 percent gave a respectable “B”; 16 percent gave a “C”; only 3 percent gave a “D”; and 3 percent gave a failing “F”.

Law grads were also given the opportunity to sound off on what surprised them about the job search process. Some of their answers may, indeed,  surprise you as well:

  • “I think I overestimated the value of my GPA, class rank, journal experience, and other qualifications. Not that those are unimportant, but I should have spent just as much time networking as I did studying.”

  • “I was surprised by the amount of people who don’t ask about your law school grades since professors and schools make it sound like if you got any Cs in law school it is the end of your law career.”

  • “It was a bit of a surprise to learn that many firms do not hire pending bar results anymore, so navigating the limbo period between obtaining a degree and receiving bar passage results is a bit difficult.”

While the job market is relatively strong for this crop of law school graduates, as Tammi Rice, vice president of Kaplan Bar Review, notes it doesn’t mean getting a job is a gimme:

“The job market for newly graduated lawyers has not been this strong since the start of the Great Recession, which is promising, but that doesn’t mean that jobs are just going to fall into their laps. It requires networking, staring the process early, and often passing the bar exam, as many employers won’t hire you until you’ve secured your license. We encourage all recent law school graduates to take advantage of the resources and guidance your alma mater’s career services office can provide you. They have a vested interest in seeing their graduates succeed, so they want to be helpful as you look to land a job that requires that you passed the bar.”

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There are some valuable lessons for anyone in law school or even thinking about a legal career.

headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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