LEGAL EMPLOYMENT STATISTICS

The challenging job market has generated many questions about whether and how new attorneys get jobs, as well as how students can prepare to get the legal career they want.

We think it would be helpful to provide detailed information about the employment of our recent graduating class, so students can see how Santa Clara Law graduates are faring in the current job market, as well as what the job market is like for all law graduates across the country.

Santa Clara Law is committed to helping each student and graduate achieve their objectives, so if you don’t find the information you need, please feel free to speak with Law Career Services, Student Services, and any dean, faculty or staff member.

EMPLOYMENT STATISTICS FOR SANTA CLARA GRADUATES

The following reflects the employment statistics for the most recent graduating class, the Class of 2010. We have included several charts that reflect the breakdown of the Class of 2010 in terms of employment sectors, geographical settings, salary and other job-related terms, such as whether the nature of a graduate’s job is full-time versus part-time.

Employment Status for the Class of 2010
We regularly collect employment information from our most recent graduating class, following guidelines established by the National Association of Legal Career Professionals (NALP).

Readers may wonder why the employment rate presented below does not match what they may expect based on US News & World Report findings. Law schools, including Santa Clara University, submit to NALP de-identified information about the members of a graduating class that reflects graduates’ employment status nine months following graduation. The data collected for NALP is later used by US News & World Report, which applies their own formula to the raw data. Below we include a description of the employment rate that US News & World Report uses, and more detail on how Santa Clara Law collects employment data.

Employed graduates are those working in positions for which they were hired and selected by the employer. US News & World Report defines the employment rate as the ratio of the number of graduates who are employed or enrolled in a full-time degree program to the number of graduates in the class, excluding the graduates who are not seeking employment at the time of the survey, who are studying for a bar exam full-time, or for whom status is unknown to Santa Clara Law. We encourage you to learn more about employment data by visiting www.nalp.org and grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools."

Please note that the employment information presented is self-reported by graduates to Santa Clara Law. We cannot be certain that the resulting data is factually accurate, or that it has not changed since we collected and published it. The changing economic climate with respect to legal services in combination with the self-reported nature of the employment information means that readers should not assume that their employment prospects are guaranteed to be consistent with the findings presented here.  

Employment Sectors

Graduates of the Class of 2010 perform their work in a variety of sectors. Among the graduates who were employed nine months following graduation, 206 of them described the type of employment sector they work in. The following chart represents the percentage of reporting 2010 graduates that are employed in each sector.

Geographic Regions Where Our 2010 Graduates are Employed

Santa Clara Law graduates work in a variety of geographic areas, focused largely on the Pacific region. Among the graduates who were employed nine months following graduation, 186 of them reported the geographic region where they work.

Salary Information by Type of Employer

Among the graduates who were employed nine months following graduation, 53 of them shared their salary. Keep in mind that the salary information regarding Santa Clara Law graduates is self-reported and we cannot be certain that the resulting data is factually accurate.

Law Firm Size and Law Firm Salary Information

Law firm size and geographic location play a significant role in determining compensation. Aggregate information is available on the NALP website.  Half of our 2010 graduates are working in law firms. Among the graduates who were employed nine months following graduation in law firms, 68 of them described the size of the law firm. Among those who shared the size of their law firm, 33 of them told us what salary they earn at their firm.

Breakdown of 2010 Graduates in Government, Business/Industry and Public Interest

It can be helpful to understand more detail about the type of work that graduates are performing in their respective employment settings. The following charts reflect a breakdown of graduates in government, business and public interest settings.

Other Employment Information

There are additional details about the employment of recent graduates that can be helpful to understand, including whether their positions are permanent and/or full-time, how they found their jobs and whether the job required a JD. The following charts illustrate what graduates from the Class of 2010 told us.

EMPLOYMENT STATISTICS FOR LAW GRADUATES – NATIONWIDE

NALP provides nationally-based, aggregate information about law graduate employment, and we have included direct links to NALP data so that you can get an idea about the national legal market.

Typically, NALP lists national employment information approximately one year following graduation. For example, the Class of 2010 employment data is expected to be posted in May 2011.

See www.nalp.org for more information.