10 years of ABA employment data
Law school employment trends
How the legal hiring market has shifted from 2016 to 2025, nationally and school by school.
- 10
- Years of data
- 2016 to 2025
- +6.8%
- BigLaw shift
- change over the decade
- +4.1%
- Public interest shift
- change over the decade
- -4.1%
- Unemployment shift
- change over the decade
Percentages are full-time, long-term outcomes. National figures pool graduates across all reporting schools.
National trends
Every outcome category across the whole reporting population, year by year.
National Employment Trends (2016–2025)
Aggregated across all reporting ABA-accredited schools — percentages use the national graduate pool.
Key shifts over the decade
- BigLaw (501+ firm) hiring grew from 11.4% to 18.2% (+6.8%)
- Other private-law firms grew from 30.4% to 36.7% (+6.3%)
- Federal clerkships held steady (3.2% → 3.2%)
- Public interest positions grew from 3.8% to 7.9% (+4.1%)
- Government work held steady (11.0% → 11.0%)
- Unemployment fell from 9.9% to 5.8% (-4.1%)
Headline outcomes
Full employment mix
Category deep dives
National trajectory for each outcome category, one chart at a time.
BigLaw (501+ attorneys)
Largest national law firms, the "Cravath scale" market.
Other Private Law
All non-BigLaw private firms (1 to 500 attorneys) plus solo practice.
Federal Clerkships
Clerkships with U.S. federal district, circuit, or Supreme Court judges.
Public Interest
Legal aid, civil rights organizations, nonprofits.
Government
DOJ, state attorneys general, public defenders, prosecutors.
Unemployed
Graduates seeking or not seeking employment at 10-month mark.
Top 10 BigLaw gainers
Schools with the largest increase in BigLaw (501+) placement, comparing the 3-year rolling average at the start (2016 to 2018) against the end (2023 to 2025). BigLaw hiring expanded +6.8% nationally over this window. Limited to schools with at least 75 graduates in each year.
| School | BigLaw % | Change |
|---|---|---|
| University of Southern California 2016 to 2025 | 31.9% → 56.7% | +24.8% |
| University of California - Los Angeles 2016 to 2025 | 31.9% → 51.6% | +19.7% |
| Howard University 2016 to 2025 | 19.9% → 38.0% | +18.1% |
| University of Florida 2016 to 2025 | 6.4% → 23.7% | +17.3% |
| Washington and Lee University 2016 to 2025 | 10.4% → 26.8% | +16.4% |
| Boston College 2016 to 2025 | 27.9% → 44.2% | +16.2% |
| Southern Methodist University 2016 to 2025 | 13.9% → 30.1% | +16.2% |
| Brigham Young University 2016 to 2025 | 6.4% → 21.1% | +14.6% |
| Wake Forest University 2016 to 2025 | 11.1% → 25.4% | +14.3% |
| Texas A&M University 2016 to 2025 | 0.6% → 14.4% | +13.9% |
Methodology
Where the figures come from, and what the ABA changed along the way.
Source: ABA Employment Summary reports, 2016 to 2025, published by the American Bar Association's Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.
Category definitions: All percentages are computed on full-time, long-term (FT/LT) positions unless noted. BigLaw means firms of 501+ attorneys. Federal clerkships include U.S. federal district, circuit, bankruptcy, and Supreme Court clerkships. Public interest covers legal aid, civil rights, and nonprofit roles. Unemployment combines both seeking and not-seeking graduates.
Known inconsistencies: ABA changed firm-size bucket labels in 2020 (merging “2–10” into “1–10”) and renamed the largest bucket from “501+” to “501Plus” in 2024. “Bar Passage Required” was renamed “Bar Admission Required” in 2024. Some schools closed (Whittier, Arizona Summit, Valparaiso, Thomas Jefferson, La Verne); others are newly accredited (Lincoln Memorial, Jacksonville). These schools show partial timelines.
Employment-status unknown: A small share of graduates each year have unknown employment status, which can distort apparent employment rates. We report “Unknown” as its own category rather than allocating it.
National aggregation: National percentages pool all graduates across reporting schools (one big denominator), not averages of per-school percentages. Large schools influence the national figure more than small ones, consistent with how the hiring market actually operates.
Want to see a single school's 10-year trajectory?
Every school profile now includes its own Employment Trends section.