The overwhelming majority of the Class of 2024 law school graduates secured jobs within 10 months of graduation, according to the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), an association of over 3,000 legal career professionals who advise law students, lawyers, law offices, and law schools.
NALP reported that 93.4% of U.S. law graduates obtained a job after graduation, the highest percentage in nearly four decades of tracking the statistic. This percentage exceeds the 2023 percentage by 0.8 percentage points.
Eighty-four percent of graduates were employed in jobs that require bar passage, which exceeds the 2023 percentage by 2.2 points. Nearly all (98%) of jobs were full-time.
NALP Executive Director Nikia Gray noted in the report that the surge in law school enrollment in 2021 presented a significant challenge for Class of 2024 graduates and raised concerns that the job market would meet the demand.
“In the end, it turned out to be over 3,700 additional jobs they needed to source compared to the Class of 2023 but they — and the NALP community — met that challenge, resulting in the highest overall employment rate as well as the highest employment rate in bar admission-required jobs NALP has ever recorded,” Gray wrote.
Higher salaries, fewer unemployed
Only 5.1% of Class of 2024 graduates were unemployed (as of March 17, 2025), an all-time low. And employed graduates are earning higher salaries. The median salary for 2024 graduates is about $5,000 higher than Class of 2023 graduates, rising to $95,000.
Jobs in private practice exceeded the record set in 2007. While the majority of these private practice jobs were in firms of 500 or more lawyers, smaller firms of 100 or fewer lawyers added more jobs this year, disrupting historical trends. Firms of 100 or fewer lawyers added nearly 1,150 jobs in 2024. Firms with more than 500 lawyers added about 750 new jobs in 2024.
Only 6.8% of employed graduates reported that they were seeking a different job, the lowest rate on record and down from a peak of 24.6% in 2011.
This low rate indicates higher graduate job satisfaction, the report said. Interest in changing jobs was lowest among those in whose position required being admitted to the bar or anticipating being admitted to the bar (4.2%).
Uncertainty in government, small firms
Government and public interest jobs increased for Class of 2024 graduates. Nearly 740 more government jobs and 325 more public interest jobs were reported in 2024 compared to 2023.
The report said that these trends would likely change, though, due to the federal government hiring freeze and grant cuts to public interest organizations.
There is also some uncertainty at solo and small firms. Solo practitioner jobs fell to a near-record low of 174 jobs, while jobs in firms of 1–10 lawyers also hit their lowest numbers since 1989.
Staying up to date on issues impacting the legal profession is vital to your success. Subscribe here to get the Commission’s weekly news delivered to your inbox.
The Disappearing Rural Lawyer, Part IV: The Persistent Legal Desert Crisis
Two Ways to Prioritize Disability Inclusion in Your Law Firm