Despite reporting the highest employment rate in nearly four decades, Class of 2024 law school graduates did not equally benefit from the strong legal job market.
The “Jobs & JDs: Employment and Salaries for New Law Graduates – Class of 2024” report from the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) found that Asian, Black, Latinx, Native Hawaiian, and other Pacific Islander graduates experienced lower overall employment rates than their white peers.
The report also identified disparities between continuing-generation JD students (those with at least one lawyer parent or guardian) and first-generation college students (those without a parent or guardian holding a bachelor’s degree or higher).
Continuing-generation JD students had higher employment rates, were more likely to secure judicial clerkships, and reported higher median salaries than first-generation college students.
The annual report, now in its 51st edition, analyzes employment and salary data submitted by law schools for JD graduates roughly 10 months after graduation. Nearly 97% of 2024 graduates from ABA-accredited law schools were represented in the study.
Persistent racial disparities
Overall, 93.4% of Class of 2024 law school graduates secured a job within 10 months of graduation. White law school graduates saw higher-than-average employment rates, with 94.7% securing jobs within 10 months of graduation.
In comparison, other groups saw slightly below average employment rates. For the Class of 2024, 92.3% of Latinx graduates, 92% of Asian graduates, 90% of Black or African American graduates, and 89.3% of Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander graduates secured jobs within 10 months of graduation.
The disparities widened for attorney positions requiring or anticipating bar admission. While 84.3% of all graduates obtained these roles, 86.5% of white graduates did so, compared to 74.3% of Black graduates and 78.6% of Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander graduates.
NALP’s press release noted that while the gap narrowed for most racial groups this year, it increased for Black graduates. In 2023, 82.1% of all graduates obtained positions requiring or anticipating bar admission compared to 72.9% of Black or African American graduates — a 9.2 percentage point difference versus the 10 percentage point difference in 2024.
Employment in judicial clerkships followed similar patterns, with graduates of color being underrepresented compared to their white peers.
The report found that graduates of color comprised more than one-third of the class (33.7%) but obtained 27.1% of all clerkships.
Latinx graduates, for example, represented nearly 12% of the graduating class but earned 7.7% of all clerkships and 7.3% of federal clerkships.
Employment for first vs. continuing generation JDs
Continuing-generation JD students saw an overall employment rate of 96.6%, slightly higher than the 93.3% rate for first-generation college students.
Continuing-generation JD students were also more likely to secure bar-required positions (90.8% versus 82.7%) and to work in private practice (62.7% versus 57.6%). They were also overrepresented among federal judicial clerks, making up 14.2% of the class but holding 20.7% of clerk positions.
The report found that first-generation students, by contrast, were more likely to begin their careers at small law firms of 1–10 lawyers, while continuing-generation JD students more often entered large firms of more than 500 lawyers.
This disparity in the type of employment contributed to a median salary gap: $103,500 for continuing-generation JD students compared to $90,000 for first-generation college students.
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