Best Law Schools for Government and Public Interest

Interested in pursuing government or public interest work with your law degree? A new analysis by Reuters, using ABA employment data 10 months post-graduation for the Class of 2023, identified the schools sending the largest percentages of JD graduates into these fields.

Overall, around 20 percent of 2023 law graduates entered into the public interest or government sectors at 9 and 11 percent, respectively. However, at the City University of New York (CUNY) Law School, over 55 percent of 2023 graduates entered the fields. Almost half pursued a job in public interest (43 percent), with another 13 percent entering into the government. At the University of the District of Columbia’s Clarke School of Law, nearly 44 percent entered into public interest and government jobs. 

The top 10 schools and the percentages of graduating students who went into government/public interest are below. 

CUNY Law: 55.34 percent

University of DC Clarke Law: 43.75 percent

Albany Law: 36.36 percent 

Northern Kentucky Law: 34.58 percent

SUNY Buffalo Law: 33.12 percent

Florida A&M Law: 33.04 percent

University of Cincinnati Law: 32.28 percent

University of California, Davis Law: 32.02 percent (tie)

University of Wisconsin Law: 32.02 percent (tie)

Penn State Dickinson Law: 32 percent 

Related:

Best Law Schools for Big Law

Best Law Schools for Practical Training

Survey Shows Almost Half of Junior Law Associates Feel Unprepared for Work at Firms

Nearly half of junior associates at law firms, 45 percent, reported that they do not feel law school prepared them for work, according to recent survey results. Despite this, most expressed satisfaction with their career choices. 

Legal recruiting firm Major, Lindsey, and Africa partnered with legal data provider Leopard Solutions to survey 546 junior associates at law firms earlier this year. The survey aimed to understand newly practicing associates’ law firm experiences, career aspirations, and perceptions of how law school prepared them for law firm life. 

Key findings include:

Just under a third of respondents, 31 percent, said that their “law firm experience didn’t meet their expectations coming out of law school.” 

• Almost all respondents felt that law school had focused too much on “theoretical concepts and doctrinal analysis” rather than practical skills. This included the feeling that law schools over-emphasize litigation at the expense of skills necessary for those entering corporate law. One open-ended response said, “[Law school] did not teach me how to write enough; my drafting is poor, and it suffers. I did very well in law school and feel floundering.”

• Similarly, respondents named business development and client relations as overlooked topics in the law school curriculum, but essential to those entering into firms. One respondent wrote, “I was not taught how to be in business. Being a lawyer is more managing than it is interpreting the law. Business students are more prepared to be lawyers than law students.”

83 percent of respondents reported feeling satisfied with their firm choice and said that they would select the same firm if given a “re-do.”

• Over two-thirds of respondents, 67 percent, plan to stay at their current job for three or more years, although 24 percent said they only plan to stay for two years. Just nine percent plan to leave within the year. 

• Over a third of respondents, 36 percent, named “making partner” as their ultimate career goal, while 24 percent expressed a desire to move to an in-house position and 12 percent to a government or NGO role. Just nine percent said that they wished to ultimately leave legal practice.

• Over a third of respondents, 36 percent, acknowledged that their ambitions had changed from law school to starting at a firm. One respondent shared, “I am unsure about whether I would want to become Partner—as associates, we receive almost no information as to what this entails daily or how to get clients.” Another mentioned a fear that working at a firm could interfere with personal goals. The respondent wrote, “I have begun to wonder whether this position and more senior positions at a large law firm may not necessarily be compatible with my family goals in the future.”

Related:

Best Law Schools for Big Law

Best Law Schools for Practical Training