In a year when many expected the job market for new lawyers to tighten, the Class of 2024 flipped the narrative and set a historic benchmark. According to new data released by the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), U.S. law graduates in 2024 posted the highest employment rate ever recorded since tracking began in 1974, challenging assumptions that a post-pandemic surge in law school enrollment would flood the market.
Defying the odds
How does a record-sized graduating class, swelled by a pandemic-fueled surge in law school enrollment, end up not only matching but surpassing previous employment outcomes? That’s the question legal educators and employers are now asking, after 93.4% of J.D. graduates secured employment within 10 months of graduation. This marks a 0.8 percentage point increase over 2023 and rewrites historical expectations for law school job placement.NALP Executive Director Nikia Gray said the fears of market saturation didn’t materialize. “In the end, it turned out to be over 3,700 additional jobs they needed to source compared to the Class of 2023, but the 2024 graduates—and the NALP community—met that challenge,” she said in a statement.
Bar-passage jobs surge
Perhaps even more remarkable was the nature of the jobs secured. More than 84% of the Class of 2024 landed positions requiring bar passage, a 2.2 percentage point jump from last year. These are not stopgap roles or loosely law-adjacent positions; these are bona fide attorney jobs that validate the investment students made in a legal education.
Historic low in unemployment
Unemployment among 2024 law graduates fell to a mere 5.1%, the lowest rate in NALP’s 50-year history. This figure reflects a hiring climate that not only absorbed the largest influx of new lawyers in over a decade but also actively responded to the growing demand for legal services across sectors.
Pandemic boom, hiring boom?
The seeds of this outcome were planted in 2021, when law schools saw an 11% jump in new enrollments amid the COVID-19 crisis. Students spurred by rising social justice movements, political uncertainty, and shifting work dynamics flocked to legal education. Analysts at the time warned that the Class of 2024, burdened by its sheer size, might suffer in job placement once it hit the market.But that prediction missed the resilience of both the profession and the students.Were employers better prepared than anticipated? Did law schools revamp career support? Or is the legal industry itself undergoing a transformation that’s creating space for new talent?
Salaries on the rise
Adding to the positive news is a noticeable bump in pay. The national median salary for the 2024 law school class climbed to $95,000, up from $90,000 in 2023. While BigLaw salaries remain clustered near the $200,000 mark, this broader median reflects gains across firm sizes and public interest roles, pointing to a robust market across the spectrum.
Broader implications
The data from NALP aligns with separate figures released by the American Bar Association, which also noted record-breaking employment for this graduating class. Together, these reports paint a picture of a profession not only weathering but evolving beyond the pandemic-era challenges.Is this a one-time surge, or a sign of a long-term shift in legal employment dynamics? What does it mean for future law students now eyeing the Class of 2025 and beyond?What comes next?As the legal field increasingly embraces technology, remote work, and expanded access to justice, opportunities may continue to open for agile, digitally literate graduates. But for now, the Class of 2024 has achieved what many thought improbable: a job market triumph forged in the crucible of uncertainty.Their success offers a blueprin, and a challenge, for the classes that follow.
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