Law Schools

Law School Grads See Best Job Outcomes In 12 Years -- But Not Black Grads

Disheartening news on the diversity and inclusion front.

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It took more than a decade for it to happen, but employment outcomes for law school graduates are now even better than they were before the recession. The class of 2019 had a truly excellent showing — for almost everyone but Black graduates. In a year that’s been marked by a reckoning on racial inequality in America, this really stings.

As we noted previously, according to the latest figures from the National Association of Law Placement (NALP), the class of 2019’s employment outcomes were very strong. The overall graduate employment increased to 90.3 percent (0.9 percentage points over the class of 2018), which is the highest employment rate recorded since the the class of 2007 saw an overall rate of 91.9 percent. On top of that, the number of graduates employed in full-time, long-term jobs where bar passage was required was 74.3 percent (an increase of more than 3 percentage points), a percentage higher than rates measured before the recession. It’s actually the highest level ever recorded.

But for minority law school graduates, this data paints a much more dismal picture. Despite the fact that law firms have focused on diversity and inclusion in recent years, for the class of 2019, Black and Native American law school graduates had the lowest overall employment rates. In fact, Black graduates were employed in bar passage-required jobs at a rate 17 percentage points lower than their white classmates.

NALP Executive Director James Leipold acknowledged this news in a press release:

I find it particularly discouraging this year to have to report employment findings that highlight stark disparities by race and ethnicity, among other demographic markers, but this should serve as a wake-up call to everyone involved in legal education and the legal profession. In a year when the overall class secured jobs and salaries at higher rates than we have seen since before the Great Recession, many subsets of graduates, but especially Black law school graduates, still meet with lower levels of success in the job market than the rest of the graduate pool.

How do we solve the diversity and inclusion issues that remain in private practice? When white law school graduates are finding jobs that require bar passage at a rate of 79.8 percent and their Black colleagues trail behind at 62.4 percent, it’s clear that whatever law firms think they’re doing to improve diversity and inclusion is still not enough. It’s disheartening to see these kinds of numbers, and even though it’s difficult to remain hopeful for the future, with Generation Z optimism taking over law schools across the country, change is on the horizon.

Law students have started to boycott law firms for their policies and practices, and it seems to be working. The power is truly in law students’ hands to change things. Take up this issue and help bring much-needed progress and change to the legal profession.

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NALP’s New Employment and Salary Report Highlights Disparities in Outcomes by Race and Ethnicity [NALP]

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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