Top Law Firms Hired More Law School Graduates in 2012 than 2011

If you already graduated or are about to graduate from law school, then you may find more job opportunities at top law firms.  The good news, more graduates were hired by these firms in 2012 than in 2011.  Learn more in the following post.

With the publication of its annual “Go-To Law Schools” report, ALM’s The National Law Journal identifies the institutions where the nation’s largest and most prestigious law firms go to hire young attorneys.

The special report ranks the top 50 law schools by the percentage of 2012 juris doctor graduates (law degrees) who took jobs at the nation’s 250 largest law firms as measured by headcount. It appears in the February 25th issue of the newspaper and is also available online at www.nlj.com.

David Brown, Vice President and Editor in Chief at ALM

“Our research found that most of the law schools sent slightly larger percentages of their 2012 classes into first-year associate jobs at NLJ 250 firms than they did during 2011,” noted David L. Brown, editor in chief of The National Law Journal. “We found that, among the 50 schools most popular with hiring firms, 25 percent of graduates landed associate jobs, up from 22 percent in 2011. Still, hiring was not as robust as in 2010, when 27 percent of the graduates from the top 50 schools landed at the largest firms.”

Other highlights in the special report include the following:

—  The University of Pennsylvania Law School tops the list for the second
year in a row, sending nearly 59 percent of its 2012 graduates into
associate jobs at NLJ 250 firms. The University of Chicago Law School
and Columbia Law School round out the top three.
—  Latham & Watkins hired the largest new associate class with 148, edging
out Kirkland & Ellis by two hires.
—  Declining applications to law schools didn’t slow tuition growth in
2012, but prices didn’t always translate into better job prospects.
Cornell Law School, for example, charged the highest tuition at $53,226,
but earned a Go-To Law School rank of No. 9.