Which region had the best employment rate for 2014 law grads?
Law schools in the country’s West North Central region have bragging rights for the best employment statistics in the nation.
The Institute for the Advancement of the Legal System used its interactive online tool to crunch the numbers and revealed the results at IAALS Online. States in the region are Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.
Nearly 60 percent of all 2014 law school graduates were employed in full-time, long-term legal jobs, requiring bar passage about 10 months after graduation. The percentage rises to about 71 percent when JD-preferred jobs are included.
Law schools in the West North Central region beat the national figure of 71 percent. About 79 percent of the region’s 2014 graduates had full-time, long-term legal jobs requiring bar passage or for which a JD was advantage, according to IAALS.
The region also had the most significant gain for placements in these jobs—an increase of 13.4 percent—since 2011.
IAALS Online says the region’s gains may be due in large part to the University of South Dakota School of Law, which saw its employment rates increase from 45.5 percent in 2011 to 79 percent in 2014, the largest increase of any school (except for those that didn’t exist in 2011).
The Pacific region had the worst employment rate for its 2014 law grads in the JD-preferred and bar passage jobs at 63.7 percent. The region includes Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington.
