Law school classes in 2024 were 12 percent larger than any class since 2012, so there was worry in the legal industry that jobs might be hard to find for the 2024 graduates, writes Jeff Blumenthal for Philadelphia Business Journal.
Not so. Ten months after graduation, a record 93.4 percent of the graduates got jobs. It was the highest employment rate ever recorded by the National Association for Law Placement (NALP).
Those graduates also liked their jobs. Only 6.8 percent, a record low, were searching for other work.
At Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law, 92.5 percent of 214 graduates secured jobs that required law degrees, with only nine of the graduates looking for work.
That matches up with 2023, when 92 percent of 169 graduates found law-related work, with eight looking for jobs.
Looking ahead could be less rosy. The NALP warned that future law graduates should be ready for a contraction in Big Law and federal government hiring.
That’s based on many law firms cutting back their 2024 and 2025 summer associate hiring, which indicates there will be fewer first-year associate positions for 2025 and 2026 graduates at large firms.
Read more about the legal industry employment predictions in the Philadelphia Business Journal.
