The Legal Beat

The Law Schools Where The Most Graduates Got Government & Public Interest Jobs (2018)
Posted on Tuesday May 21, 2019

(Image via Getty)

Let’s face it: tens of thousands of students enroll in law school every year, each with a dream in their hearts of saving the world. Maybe they want to seek out justice for children, animals, or the environment. Maybe they want to serve their communities and make them safer for the public at large. Maybe they want to advocate for those who have been unfairly discriminated against, be it in their housing choices or on the job. Whatever their public-interest cause may be, while many law students say they want to save the world, only a select few are willing to accept the sometimes lower salaries that go hand-in-hand with their altruistic career goals.

For the true believers, some law schools are better than others when it comes to getting their graduates a leg up on the competition for one of these coveted jobs. Law.com produced several helpful charts based on law school employment data for the class of 2018. Today, we will take a look at one of the more interesting charts for all of the do-gooders in this world, the law schools that sent the highest percentage of their most recent graduating class into government and public interest work.

Here are the top 15 law schools on the list:

City University of New York: 60.42 percent
District of Columbia: 38.81 percent
New Mexico: 33.04 percent
Northern Kentucky: 32.59 percent
Missouri: 32.26 percent
Catholic: 31.96 percent
Liberty: 31.11 percent
Florida State: 30.96 percent
Stetson: 29.96 percent
Oregon: 28.57 percent
American: 27.49 percent
Ave Maria: 27.14 percent
Washburn: 27.00 percent
Penn State-Dickinson: 26.98 percent
Albany: 26.89 percent

Click here to see the rest of the law schools with the highest percentage of graduates employed in government and public interest work, plus other informative charts detailing the law schools with the highest percentage of graduates working in Biglaw, federal clerkships, and state clerkships, as well as the law schools with the most unemployed graduates and most underemployed graduates.

Are you a recent law school graduate who’s working in government or public interest? What did your law school do to help you? We’re interested in learning about your experiences — good or bad — and may anonymously feature some of your stories on Above the Law. You can email us, text us at (646) 820-8477, or tweet us @atlblog. Best of luck saving the world — your help is really needed right now!

Law Grads Hiring Report: Job Stats for the Class of 2018 [Law.com]

Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.