Best Law Schools for Government and Public Interest

Interested in pursuing government or public interest work with your law degree? A new analysis by Reuters, using ABA employment data 10 months post-graduation for the Class of 2023, identified the schools sending the largest percentages of JD graduates into these fields.

Overall, around 20 percent of 2023 law graduates entered into the public interest or government sectors at 9 and 11 percent, respectively. However, at the City University of New York (CUNY) Law School, over 55 percent of 2023 graduates entered the fields. Almost half pursued a job in public interest (43 percent), with another 13 percent entering into the government. At the University of the District of Columbia’s Clarke School of Law, nearly 44 percent entered into public interest and government jobs. 

The top 10 schools and the percentages of graduating students who went into government/public interest are below. 

CUNY Law: 55.34 percent

University of DC Clarke Law: 43.75 percent

Albany Law: 36.36 percent 

Northern Kentucky Law: 34.58 percent

SUNY Buffalo Law: 33.12 percent

Florida A&M Law: 33.04 percent

University of Cincinnati Law: 32.28 percent

University of California, Davis Law: 32.02 percent (tie)

University of Wisconsin Law: 32.02 percent (tie)

Penn State Dickinson Law: 32 percent 

Related:

Best Law Schools for Big Law

Best Law Schools for Practical Training

Survey Shows Almost Half of Junior Law Associates Feel Unprepared for Work at Firms

Nearly half of junior associates at law firms, 45 percent, reported that they do not feel law school prepared them for work, according to recent survey results. Despite this, most expressed satisfaction with their career choices. 

Legal recruiting firm Major, Lindsey, and Africa partnered with legal data provider Leopard Solutions to survey 546 junior associates at law firms earlier this year. The survey aimed to understand newly practicing associates’ law firm experiences, career aspirations, and perceptions of how law school prepared them for law firm life. 

Key findings include:

Just under a third of respondents, 31 percent, said that their “law firm experience didn’t meet their expectations coming out of law school.” 

• Almost all respondents felt that law school had focused too much on “theoretical concepts and doctrinal analysis” rather than practical skills. This included the feeling that law schools over-emphasize litigation at the expense of skills necessary for those entering corporate law. One open-ended response said, “[Law school] did not teach me how to write enough; my drafting is poor, and it suffers. I did very well in law school and feel floundering.”

• Similarly, respondents named business development and client relations as overlooked topics in the law school curriculum, but essential to those entering into firms. One respondent wrote, “I was not taught how to be in business. Being a lawyer is more managing than it is interpreting the law. Business students are more prepared to be lawyers than law students.”

83 percent of respondents reported feeling satisfied with their firm choice and said that they would select the same firm if given a “re-do.”

• Over two-thirds of respondents, 67 percent, plan to stay at their current job for three or more years, although 24 percent said they only plan to stay for two years. Just nine percent plan to leave within the year. 

• Over a third of respondents, 36 percent, named “making partner” as their ultimate career goal, while 24 percent expressed a desire to move to an in-house position and 12 percent to a government or NGO role. Just nine percent said that they wished to ultimately leave legal practice.

• Over a third of respondents, 36 percent, acknowledged that their ambitions had changed from law school to starting at a firm. One respondent shared, “I am unsure about whether I would want to become Partner—as associates, we receive almost no information as to what this entails daily or how to get clients.” Another mentioned a fear that working at a firm could interfere with personal goals. The respondent wrote, “I have begun to wonder whether this position and more senior positions at a large law firm may not necessarily be compatible with my family goals in the future.”

Related:

Best Law Schools for Big Law

Best Law Schools for Practical Training

Law School Admissions Rates Increase for the First Time in Seven Years

AccessLex recently published its updated Legal Education Data Deck, which provides insight into law school trends and outcomes. Some of the key findings are summarized below. 

Overall, admissions rates increased in 2022. In 2022, 70 percent of law school applicants received at least one offer for admission, an increase of two percentage points from 2021 and the first increase in the admissions rate in seven years. Men maintained a higher admissions rate (71 percent) than women (68 percent), although women continue to make up the majority of law school applicants (56 percent).  Both men and women saw a one percentage point increase in admissions rate in 2022 compared to 2021.

When divided by race/ethnicity, the 2022 admissions rate for White/Caucasian applicants was the highest, with 78 percent of White/Caucasian applicants receiving at least one offer. Most other race/ethnicity groups fell below the average rate (70 percent). Applicants who identified as two or more races (67 percent) or as Asian fared the best (67 percent), while Hispanic/Latino (58 percent), American Indian/Alaska Native (52 percent), and Black/African American (48 percent) gained admission at rates significantly lower than average. 

Average tuition and fees have decreased over time. After adjusting for inflation, average law school full-time tuition and fees have decreased from 2015 to 2022 across all school types. In 2022, the average private school tuition/fees totaled $53,740, while public school resident and nonresident tuition/fees averaged $42,320 and $29,670 respectively. Between 2013 and 2022, the median grant amount awarded to students by law schools has almost doubled, ticking upwards from $15,000 to $22,500 (using adjusted 2022 dollars). 

Future employment opportunities look bright. Among 2021 graduates, 78 percent reported obtaining “bar passage required” employment. This is a small uptick from 75 percent in 2020 and a substantial increase from 68 percent in 2010. The “unemployed and looking” percentage has also reached its lowest point in the years since 2010, at just five percent for 2021 graduates. Additionally, there is strong continued demand for legal employees. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects significant growth in legal positions. Among occupations requiring a graduate degree, law employment falls second only to nurse practitioners with an expected increase of over 80,000 positions between 2021 and 2031. 

Princeton Review Releases Category-Based Law School Rankings

The Princeton Review just released its rankings of law schools. Amidst the broader discourse on law school rankings as a result of the U.S. News ranking boycott, The Princeton Review’s methodology offers something different. Their rankings do not show all schools for a “best of” view, as they believe each of the 168 schools included provide an excellent academic experience. Rather, the categories and lists are designed to provide prospective students with insights and data (gathered from 17,000 student experience surveys from the enrollees of the 168 law schools over the past three years, as well as a 2021-2022 law school administrator survey) on various aspects of the program’s experience.  

You can access the top 10 lists for each of the 14 topic areas here. Below, we highlight three of the Princeton Review’s law school rankings. 

Best Classroom Experience: (student response data only)

1. Stanford University School of Law

2. Duke University School of La

3. University of Chicago Law School

4. University of Virginia School of Law

5. University of Michigan Law School

6. Georgetown University Law Center

7. UCLA School of Law

8. Boston University School of Law

9. Vanderbilt University Law School

10. University of Notre Dame Law School

Best Quality of Life: (student response data only)

1. University of Virginia School of Law

2. Florida State University College of Law

3. Vanderbilt University Law School

4. UCLA School of Law

5. University of Pennsylvania Law School

6. Samford University, Cumberland School of Law

7. Duke University School of Law

8. Stanford University School of Law

9. Boston College Law School

10. UC Davis School of Law

Best Career Prospects: (combination of administrator surveys/school reported data and student response data)New York University School of Law

1. University of Virginia School of Law

2. University of Michigan Law School

3. Stanford University School of Law

4. Duke University School of Law

5. University of Southern California Law School

6. UC Berkeley, Berkeley Law

7. Northwestern University, Pritzker School of Law

8. Harvard Law School

9. Columbia University School of Law