According to data collected by law schools pursuant to the ABA-required annual placement survey, only 53.2% of law graduates of the Class of 2012 obtained full-time, long-term, bar-required jobs that were nonsolo and non-school-funded within nine months of graduation. [1]
However, the ABA survey includes a category called "JD Advantage." The ABA defines a JD Advantage job as "one for which the employer sought an individual with a JD, and perhaps even required a JD, or for which the JD provided a demonstrable advantage in obtaining or performing the job, but itself does not require bar passage, an active law license, or involve practicing law." [2] A "JD Advantage" job is distinguishable from a job in the category of "Other Professional," which is defined as "one that requires professional skills or training, but for which a JD is neither required nor a demonstrable advantage." [3] The famous US News and World Report ranking takes "JD Advantage" jobs into consideration in calculating a law school’s rank, giving "[f]ull weight. . .for graduates who had a full-time job lasting at least a year where bar passage was required or a J.D. degree was an advantage." [4]
My question is: Do law schools try to scam-up their employment data by including any old sort of job in the JD Advantage category? And this question is addressed in particular to career services at Hamline University School of Law. You see, out of the 201 ABA accredited law schools, Hamline reported the highest percentage of its grads in JD Advantage jobs that are full-time, long term, and non-school-funded (hereinafter: JD-Adv., FT, LT). An incredible 30.0% of Hamline’s 2012 graduating class allegedly obtained JD-Adv., FT, LT jobs. [5] By way of comparison, the median law school score is 9.0%. So a Hamline grad had more than triple the chance of snagging such a job than a law grad elsewhere.
Hamline, with its 30.0% score, is one of a tiny number of outliers. Only 23 of the 201 accredited law schools claimed to have placed over 15.0% of their 2012 grads in such jobs, and only eight claimed over 20.0%. Only two other law schools are even in Hamline’s ballpark--Quinnipiac (27.2%) and Catholic (26.6%).
Is Hamline's success some sort of regional thing? Well, the nearby University of Minnesota only placed 7.8% of its 2012 grads in JD-Adv., FT, LT jobs. Is it a fluke? Well, the year before, 2011, Hamline was in the top four out of the 201 law schools in terms of percentage of graduates placed in JD-Adv., FT, LT jobs. [6],[7] Is the answer that Hamline’s bar-required job placement rate is so awful that its grads have no choice but to take JD Advantage jobs? Well, Santa Clara Univ. School of Law and Loyola-Marymount Univ. School of Law, each with slightly worse bar-required job placement rates, only claimed 13.4% and 7.3% JD-Adv., FT, LT jobs, respectively.
Hamline must be doing something right to place all those graduates--30% of its most recent graduating class!--in full-time nonlaw jobs where the graduates' JDs will be useful in performing their duties. Hamline needs to share the secret of its success, because the ever-widening crisis of jobless and underemployed lawyers will quickly resolve if non-law white collar employers, en masse, fall in love with JDs, as they have evidently fallen in love with Hamline JDs.
Another possibility, of course, is that Hamline is scamming.
Another possibility, of course, is that Hamline is scamming.
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notes and additional links.
[1] Go to this (excellent) calculator:
http://educatingtomorrowslawyers.du.edu/law-jobs/
and click: "Bar Passage Required," "Full Time," and "Long Term." Also click "Exclude from Numerator: "School Funded" and "Solo Practitioners." This generates the requested percentage of such jobs obtained by each school's graduating class nine months out, in rank order.
[2]http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/legal_education_and_admissions_to_the_bar/council_reports_and_resolutions/2011_questionnaire_memo_re_placement.authcheckdam.pdf
(scroll down to p. 7)
[3] Id.
[4] http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/articles/2013/03/11/methodology-best-law-schools-rankings?page=2
[5] http://educatingtomorrowslawyers.du.edu/law-jobs/
and click "JD Advantage," "Full Time," and "Long Term" Also click "Exclude from Numerator: "School Funded."
[6] Same as above, but change the year from 2012 to 2011.
[7] On March 12, 2013, Hamline issued a press release celebrating its 25-place rise in the US News ranking. In the press release, the school recognized that its "emphasis" on JD Advantage jobs was "[a] key factor in Hamline's climb in the overall rankings." This press release was issued before Hamline completed its final report on its 2012 graduating class. However, Hamline noted that it was "equally optimistic" about the 2012 data.
http://www.hamline.edu/HUPopUp.aspx?id=4294987375
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