These law schools have the highest percentage of grads going straight to BigLaw
Columbia Law School tops a list of law schools with the highest percentage of graduates going straight to jobs in BigLaw.
Columbia leads the list for the third year in a row, the National Law Journal (sub. req.) reports in a story noted by Above the Law. The NLJ created the list based on surveys of the nation’s top 100 law firms by head count.
Overall 23 percent of grads from the 50 top schools on the list took first jobs at the nation’s largest 100 law firms, the same percentage as last year. Several career advisers at law schools said the future appears rosier, however, because of an uptick in firms participating in on-campus interviews and their offers of summer associate jobs.
Some top schools that send lots of their graduates into judicial clerkships didn’t make the list because it considers only first jobs after graduation. These are the top 10 schools with the highest percentage of grads landing first jobs at the nation’s 100 largest law firms:
1) Columbia Law School, 52.26%
2) University of Pennsylvania Law School, 52.23%
3) University of Chicago Law School, 52.04%
4) Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, 47.02%
5) Duke Law School, 46.19%
6) New York University School of Law, 44.54%
7) Cornell Law School, 41.34%
8) University of Virginia School of Law, 40.87%
9) Stanford Law School, 40.72%
10) University of California, Berkeley School of Law, 38.13%
Annual tuition at the top 10 schools ranges from $62,700 at Columbia to $54,000 at the University of Virginia, according to the National Law Journal.
