In New York, Nearly Equal Numbers of Law Grads Go to Work for Small and Large Firms
In New York state, the number of law grads who go to work for small firms is close to 20 percent—about the same percentage as those who go to work for large firms.
The National Law Journal has the data from statistics recently released by the American Bar Association. Graduates of the state’s 15 schools in 2010 were employed this way: 19.5 percent went to firms of 50 lawyers or less, 7.9 percent went to work for firms of 51 to 500 lawyers, and 18.7 percent went to firms of more than 500 lawyers.
Also about the same were the number who went to work for business and industry (13 percent) and “other” (12.8 percent). The “other” category includes the unemployed, those whose employment was unknown and those pursuing graduating degrees.
More than 10 percent were in government, while 7.2 percent had public interest jobs and 6.6 percent had judicial clerkships.
The state statistics vary from overall national statistics, which show fewer grads going to large firms, the story says. For all law grads in 2010, 9 percent went to work for firms with more than 500 lawyers and 26 percent went to work for firms with fewer than 50 lawyers.
