Law school employment data definitions
Contents
- 1 Law School Employment Data Definitions
- 1.1 Standard Denominator
- 1.2 Employment Status Categories
- 1.3 Full-Time and Part-Time
- 1.4 Long-Term and Short-Term
- 1.5 Employer Types
- 1.6 Law-Firm Size
- 1.7 Judicial Clerkships
- 1.8 Geography
- 1.9 Salaries and Response Rates
- 1.10 School-Funded Jobs
- 1.11 Common Misleading Comparisons
- 1.12 Publication Checklist
- 1.13 Related Guides
- 1.14 References
Law School Employment Data Definitions
Definitions reviewed August 30, 2026. TLS applies the protocol for the graduating class being reported; definitions can change between reporting cycles.
ABA Employment Summary Reports classify graduates by employment status, job requirements, duration, hours, employer type, location, and other fields. A useful comparison keeps those categories separate and uses a disclosed denominator.
The Council's Class of 2026 protocol covers people who earned a J.D. from September 1, 2025 through August 31, 2026 and generally measures status around March 15 after graduation.[1] For an earlier class, TLS uses the definitions applicable to that class rather than retroactively substituting the newest protocol.
Standard Denominator
Unless a metric explicitly calls for another denominator, TLS calculates:
A percentage “of employed graduates” or “of law-firm jobs” answers a different question and must be labeled. TLS preserves both the category count and denominator.
Employment Status Categories
| Category | Practical meaning | TLS treatment |
|---|---|---|
| Bar admission required/anticipated | The employer requires or expects bar admission or authorization to practice, subject to the governing protocol | Report separately from J.D.-advantage work |
| J.D. advantage | A J.D. is sought, common, or demonstrably useful for the job's legal-related duties, but practicing law and bar admission are not required | Do not call these attorney jobs |
| Professional position | A professional job that does not meet the bar-required/anticipated or J.D.-advantage definition | Keep separate |
| Other position | Employment outside the defined professional categories | Keep separate |
| Law-school-funded position | A qualifying position funded directly or indirectly by the law school under the applicable protocol | Disclose count and the underlying job category |
| Start date after status date | A graduate has qualifying future work but had not begun by the reporting status date, subject to protocol exceptions | Do not count as already working in a standard employed rate |
| Unemployed—seeking | Not employed and seeking work at the status date | Report separately from not seeking |
| Unemployed—not seeking | Not employed and not seeking work at the status date | Do not combine with seeking without showing components |
| Enrolled in graduate studies | Enrolled in qualifying further education at the status date | Separate from employed and unemployed groups |
| Employment status unknown | The school lacks reliable information to classify the graduate | Show the count; do not assume a favorable outcome |
The current protocol says a bar-admission-required/anticipated job is remunerated work for which the employer requires or expects admission or authorization to practice, or expects conversion to a qualifying role.[1] A J.D.-advantage job does not involve practicing law but treats the degree as sought, common, or demonstrably useful for the legal-related duties.[1]
Full-Time and Part-Time
For the Class of 2026 protocol, full-time means the graduate typically works at least 35 hours per week in the reported job; fewer than 35 hours is part-time.[1] TLS does not combine two part-time jobs to create one full-time outcome unless the governing report expressly does so.
Long-Term and Short-Term
Under the Class of 2026 protocol, a long-term position is one the employer expects to last at least one calendar year from graduation or the start date, whichever is later, subject to the protocol's details and presumptions.[1] “Long-term” describes expected duration; it is not a guarantee that the graduate remains employed for a year.
TLS normally emphasizes full-time, long-term results while also showing the remaining combinations when material.
Employer Types
The ABA report separates law firms, business and industry, government, public interest, judicial clerkships, education, and unknown employer type. TLS preserves these categories. A government attorney is not a law-firm job; a public-interest fellowship may be school-funded; a judicial clerkship is not a firm position.
Law-Firm Size
Profiles reproduce the ABA firm-size bands as published for the relevant class. When TLS summarizes “large-firm employment,” it gives the threshold—normally 251+ or 501+ attorneys—and also preserves the component bands.
TLS does not add federal clerkships to large-firm jobs and label the sum “BigLaw” without displaying and explaining the formula. Because “BigLaw” has no single regulatory definition, the underlying firm-size count is the preferred measure.
Judicial Clerkships
Federal, state/local, and other clerkships are separate. Federal clerkships may be especially competitive, but the profile reports the count and total-class percentage rather than implying that every student has comparable access.
Geography
Employment location is normally the job location, not the graduate's home or bar-admission jurisdiction. TLS reports the top states or other geographic fields available in the official report and avoids calling a degree “nationally portable” based only on a few out-of-state placements.
Salaries and Response Rates
Salary figures cover only graduates for whom salary information was reported. TLS shows the number of salaries reported and the relevant employment population. A median based on a limited or selected response group is not the median salary of the entire class.
Employer type, firm size, geography, and job requirements often explain salary differences better than one school-wide figure. TLS never imputes missing salaries or combines incompatible employer categories.
School-Funded Jobs
School-funded work may provide valuable experience, but it can affect comparisons. TLS discloses the number of school-funded positions and does not treat the funding designation as a separate favorable job type. The underlying position still belongs to the applicable employment-status category.
Common Misleading Comparisons
Avoid:
- employed graduates ÷ graduates whose status is known, unless explicitly labeled;
- bar-required plus J.D.-advantage as though both are attorney jobs;
- all law-firm jobs as “large-firm” work;
- school-funded jobs hidden inside an aggregate employed rate;
- federal clerkships silently combined with firm outcomes;
- salary medians without response counts; and
- outcomes from different graduating classes presented under one year.
Publication Checklist
Every profile should identify the graduating class, total graduates, status date or report framework, counts by status, full-time/long-term distinctions, law-firm size bands, clerkships, school-funded jobs, top locations, salary-response limitations, source URL, and any TLS calculation.
Related Guides
- TLS law school profile data methodology
- How to compare law school offers
- Law school bar passage data definitions
