The 20 Best Law Schools For Getting Government And Public Interest Jobs

If you want to save the world as a lawyer, you better hope your law school is on this list.

gavel with American flagLet’s face it: tens of thousands of students enroll in law school each year, each with a dream in their hearts of saving the world. Maybe they want to seek out justice for children, animals, or the environment. Maybe they want to serve their communities and make them safer for the public at large. Maybe they want to advocate for those who have been unfairly discriminated against, be it in their housing choices or on the job. Whatever their public-interest cause may be, while many law students say they want to save the world, only a select few are willing to accept the sometimes lower salaries that go hand-in-hand with their altruistic career goals.

For the true believers, some law schools are better than others when it comes to getting their graduates a leg up on the competition for one of these coveted jobs. The National Law Journal produced several helpful charts based on employment data for the class of 2015, and one of them lists the 20 law schools that sent the highest percentage of their most recent graduating class into government and public interest jobs.

Today, we will highlight that chart for everyone who goes to law school in the hope of being a do-gooder after graduation. Here are the the top 10 law schools on the list:

  1. CUNY Law: 50.45 percent employed in government and public interest jobs
  2. UC Irvine Law: 33.64 percent employed in government and public interest jobs
  3. New Mexico Law: 31.25 percent employed in government and public interest jobs
  4. Catholic U. Law: 28.87 percent employed in government and public interest jobs
  5. Wisconsin Law: 27.85 percent employed in government and public interest jobs
  6. Florida State Law: 27.38 percent employed in government and public interest jobs
  7. UDC Law: 26.47 percent employed in government and public interest jobs
  8. Northern Illinois: 25.74 percent employed in government and public interest jobs
  9. Florida International: 25.17 percent employed in government and public interest jobs
  10. Northeastern Law: 25.15 percent employed in government and public interest jobs

Click here to see the rest of the law schools with the highest percentage of graduates employed in government and public interest jobs, as well as other informative charts detailing the law schools with the highest percentage of graduates working in Biglaw firms and federal clerkships, as well as the schools with the most unemployed graduates.

Are you a recent law school graduate who’s working in a government or public interest job? What did your law school do to help you? We’re interested in learning about your experiences — good or bad — and may anonymously feature some of your stories on Above the Law. You can email us, text us at (646) 820-8477, or tweet us @atlblog.

Best of luck saving the world!

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Law Grad Employment Rates Up, But Class Size Is Smaller [National Law Journal]

Earlier: The 20 Best Law Schools For Getting Biglaw Jobs
The 20 Best Law Schools For Getting Federal Clerkships
The 20 Law Schools With The Most Unemployed Graduates


Staci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. Follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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