Legal Employment Statistics

The challenging job market has generated many questions about whether and how new attorneys get jobs. SCU provides detailed information about the employment of our recent graduation classes, so you can see how SCU graduates are faring in the current job market.

SCU 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, Students Services, and any dean, faculty, or staff member.

EMPLOYMENT STATISTICS FOR SANTA CLARA GRADUATES

SCU reports de-identified employment data about its graduates to multiple legal industry organizations, including the ABA and NALP. Each organization collects different types of information and uses different categories and definitions. These differences cause the statistics in each report to vary slightly. For example, the ABA includes summer law graduates in the May graduation class each year, while NALP does not. You will see that this causes the total class size to vary across the two reports. The data reported to ABA and NALP is later used by US News & World Report.

You can find more information in the ABA Report for the Class of 2010 and the NALP Report for the Class of 2010.

The ABA Report for the Class of 2011 follows, and click here for the NALP Report for the Class of 2011. The employment outcomes for the Class of 2011 are published in accordance with the ABA Accreditation Standard 509.

CLASS OF 2011 EMPLOYMENT REPORT AT 9 MONTHS AFTER GRADUATION

Below we have included several charts that reflect the breakdown of the Class of 2011 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.

* Graduates in this category had accepted a written offer of employment by February 15, 2012, but the start date of the employment was subsequent to February 15, 2012.

** Out of the 296 graduates in the Class of 2011, there was 1 graduate with employment status unknown.

Employed graduates are those working in positions for which they were hired and selected by the employer. We encourage you to learn more about employment data by reviewing the NALP 2011 Graduate Survey and FAQs and the ABA Placement Questionnaire Definitions and Instructions.

Please note that the employment information presented is self-reported by graduates to SCU. 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 2011 perform their work in a variety of sectors. Among the 216 graduates who were employed nine months following graduation, 207 of them described the type of employment sector they work in and 9 were unknown. The following chart represents the percentage of reporting 2011 graduates that are employed in each sector.

Geographic Regions Where Our 2011 Graduates are Employed

SCU graduates work in a variety of geographic areas, focused largely on the Pacific region. Among the graduates who were employed nine months following graduation, 197 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 and reported their employment sector, 50 of them shared their salary. Keep in mind that the salary information regarding SCU graduates is self-reported and we cannot be certain that the resulting data is factually accurate. The NALP Best Practices Guide dictates that, “if there are fewer than 5 reported salaries for any employment category, schools are urged not to report any salary statistics in that category in order to protect graduates’ privacy.”

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. More than half of our employed 2011 graduates are working in law firms. Among the graduates who were employed nine months following graduation in law firms, 107 of them described the size of the law firm. Among those who shared the size of their law firm, 32 of them told us what salary they earn at their firm.

 * The NALP Best Practices Guide dictates that, “if there are fewer than 5 reported salaries for any employment category, schools are urged not to report any salary statistics in that category in order to protect graduates’ privacy.” For comparative information on salaries please refer to the “Salaries and Compensation” page on the NALP website.

Breakdown of 2011 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 how they found their jobs. The following chart illustrates how graduates from the Class of 2011 found employment.

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.

See www.nalp.org for more information.