These Law Schools Are Crushing It When It Comes To Graduate Employment

For prospective law students, employment outcomes are often the most important consideration when selecting a law school. After all, if you’re going to spend three years of your life and potentially take on six figures of debt to earn a law degree, you’d probably like to have a job waiting for you after graduation.

Thankfully, the legal employment market has improved significantly over the past decade, with some law schools making truly remarkable gains.

The National Jurist recently examined American Bar Association employment data, comparing three-year averages for the Classes of 2012 through 2014 with those for the Classes of 2023 through 2025. The publication used a modified employment rate designed to account for the quality of the jobs graduates obtained. Here’s the methodology that was used:

Bar Passage Required: Full-time, long-term is counted at 100%. Bar Passage Required: Full-time, short-term 70%. J.D. Advantage: Full-time, long-term 70%. Professional Position: Full-time, long-term 60%. Bar Passage Required: Part-time, long-term 50%.  J.D. Advantage: Part-time, long-term 40%. J.D. Advantage: Full-time, short-term 40%. Bar Passage Required: Part-time, short-term 30%. Professional Position: Part-time, long-term 30%. Professional Position: Full-time, short-term 30%. J.D. Advantage: Part-time, short-term 10%. Non-professional Position: Full-time, long-term 10%. All other categories received no value.

The results suggest that the legal employment market has moved beyond its post-recession recovery and entered a more stable period. Many schools that once posted employment scores in the 50% and 60% range now regularly land between 80% and 90%, or even higher.

So, which schools among the 50 most improved now have the strongest employment outcomes? Here are the top 10 based on their average employment scores for the Classes of 2023 through 2025:

1. Texas A&M University School of Law: 97.7%
2. Pepperdine University Caruso School of Law: 96.6%
3. Washington and Lee University School of Law: 95.9%
4. University of Wisconsin Law School: 94.7%
5. University of California, Irvine School of Law: 94.3%
6. University of San Diego School of Law: 93.9%
7. Regent University School of Law: 93.4%
8. Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law: 93.0%
9. St. John’s University School of Law: 92.5%
10. Cardozo School of Law: 92.0%

Texas A&M leads the pack with an impressive 97.7% employment score, up from just 64.3% during the earlier period. Pepperdine and Washington and Lee also came close to the 97% mark, while every school in the top 10 posted a recent employment score of at least 92%.

But which law schools made the biggest leaps overall? Here are the top 10 schools based on percentage growth between the two periods:

1. University of California, Irvine School of Law: 73.8% growth
2. Western State College of Law: 71.0% growth
3. University of Pittsburgh School of Law: 69.2% growth
4. University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law: 63.7% growth
5. Ave Maria School of Law: 63.4% growth
6. University of San Francisco School of Law: 61.7% growth
7. Liberty University School of Law: 60.9% growth
8. Chapman University Fowler School of Law: 59.8% growth
9. University of Massachusetts School of Law: 53.3% growth
10. North Carolina Central University School of Law: 53.0% growth

UC Irvine takes the top spot, with its employment score soaring from 54.3% to 94.3% — a 40.1 percentage-point increase and 73.8% growth overall. That’s quite an accomplishment for one of the nation’s youngest law schools.

Western State came in second, climbing from 48.4% to 82.8%, while Pitt moved from 52.2% to 88.3%. In fact, every school in the growth top 10 improved its employment score by more than 25 percentage points.

According to the National Jurist, the schools making the greatest progress placed an increased emphasis on data analytics, early career intervention, professional identity development, alumni engagement, and experiential learning. Their individual approaches may have differed, but their results speak for themselves.

Congratulations to all of the law schools that made the list. In a profession where employment outcomes matter much more than bragging rights, this is precisely the kind of ranking where schools should want to see their names.

Most improved law schools for employment [National Jurist]

---

Staci Zaretsky is the managing editor of 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 Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or connect with her on LinkedIn.