X

Top 10 Northeast Law Schools Based on Employment

When the Great Recession hit, the legal industry was not immune, taking a major hit to the belly. One law firm cut seven percent of its associates. Over the past decade, 12 major firms have closed, leaving 1,000 partners out in the cold, according to BostInno.

Despite all of this, law schools continue to churn out new graduates each year, some of them with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. Just five years ago there were 43,000 graduates with 75 percent of them employed as attorneys within nine months of graduation. Last year, the numbers were 46,500 graduates and 64 percent.

Nancy Cremins is a startup lawyer with Gesmer Updegrove. Cremins said, “The legal profession is not really like what you see on The Good Wife or Law & Order.”

“The jobs of lawyers are being streamlined,” Cremins said, “and, in some cases, replaced by technology solutions and companies like LegalZoom, who provide canned solutions for people who can’t or don’t want to hire a lawyer.”

Cremins also told BostInno the following: “Whenever I meet someone who tells me they want to go to law school, admittedly, I try to talk them out of it. Or, at the very least, make sure they understand the consequences of that kind of student loan debt.”

The American Bar Association collects data nine months following a class graduating from law school. In this data, the ABA analyzes where graduates are employed, if they have full-time or part-time employment and if they are working a job that requires a law degree.

The list below features the top law schools in the Northeast region that have the best employment numbers for the Class of 2013 as determined by BostInno.

No. 41 University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

Total 2013 Graduates: 103

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 42.72 percent

No. 40 Western New England University

Total 2013 Graduates: 133

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 50.38 percent

No. 39 Roger Williams University

Total 2013 Graduates: 175

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 50.86 percent

No. 38 Suffolk University

Total 2013 Graduates: 479

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 53.03 percent

No. 37 Pace University

Total 2013 Graduates: 294

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 55.78 percent

No. 36 Pennsylvania State University

Total 2013 Graduates: 200

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 56 percent

No. 35 New England Law | Boston

Total 2013 Graduates: 342

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 56.43 percent

No. 34 City University of New York

Total 2013 Graduates: 138

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 56.52 percent

No. 33 Touro College

Total 2013 Graduates: 230

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 58.70 percent

No. 32 University of Connecticut

Total 2013 Graduates: 187

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 61.5 percent

No. 31 Drexel University

Total 2013 Graduates: 138

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 61.59 percent

No. 30 New York Law School

Total 2013 Graduates: 562

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 61.92 percent

No. 29 Northeastern University

Total 2013 Graduates: 218

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 61.93 percent

No. 28 Cardozo School of Law

Total 2013 Graduates: 398

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 64.07 percent

No. 27 Hofstra University

Total 2013 Graduates: 319

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 64.26 percent

No. 26 Villanova University

Total 2013 Graduates: 240

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 65.42 percent

No. 25 Rutgers University-Newark

Total 2013 Graduates: 270

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 66.30 percent

No. 24 Quinnipiac University

Total 2013 Graduates: 148

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 66.89 percent

No. 23 University of Maine

Total 2013 Graduates: 96

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 67.71 percent

No. 22 Widener University-Harrisburg

Total 2013 Graduates: 121

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 67.77 percent

No. 21 Rutgers University-Camden

Total 2013 Graduates: 276

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 68.48 percent

No. 20 St. John’s University

Total 2013 Graduates: 309

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 69.58 percent

No. 19 Vermont Law School

Total 2013 Graduates: 200

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 70 percent

No. 18 Syracuse University

Total 2013 Graduates: 204

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 70.1 percent

No. 17 Duquesne University

Total 2013 Graduates: 205

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 70.24 percent

No. 16 University of Buffalo-SUNY

Total 2013 Graduates: 233

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 71.24 percent

No. 15 Boston College

Total 2013 Graduates: 253

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 72.73 percent

No. 14 Albany Law School of Union University

Total 2013 Graduates: 196

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 73.47 percent

No. 13 Boston University

Total 2013 Graduates: 278

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 74.82 percent

No. 12 University of Pittsburgh

Total 2013 Graduates: 242

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 75.21 percent

No. 11 Fordham University

Total 2013 Graduates: 481

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 75.26 percent

No. 10 Brooklyn Law School

Total 2013 Graduates: 478

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 77.41 percent

No. 9 Seton Hall University

Total 2013 Graduates: 309

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 78.32 percent

No. 8 University of New Hampshire

Total 2013 Graduates: 107

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 78.50 percent

No. 7 Temple University

Total 2013 Graduates: 295

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 79.32 percent

No. 6 Yale University

Total 2013 Graduates: 203

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 89.66 percent

No. 5 Cornell University

Total 2013 Graduates: 193

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 91.19 percent

No. 4 New York University

Total 2013 Graduates: 537

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 95.53 percent

No. 3 Harvard University

Total 2013 Graduates: 578

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 95.67 percent

No. 2 University of Pennsylvania

Total 2013 Graduates: 259

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 96.91 percent

No. 1 Columbia University

Total 2013 Graduates: 437

Class of 2013 Employment Rate: 97.03 percent

Check out other law school profiles on LawCrossing.

Jim Vassallo: Jim is a freelance writer based out of the suburbs of Philadelphia in New Jersey. Jim earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and minor in Journalism from Rowan University in 2008. While in school he was the Assistant Sports Director at WGLS for two years and the Sports Director for one year. He also covered the football, baseball, softball and both basketball teams for the school newspaper 'The Whit.' Jim lives in New Jersey with his wife Nicole, son Tony and dog Phoebe.

Follow Jim Vassallo on Google+