Reported Entry-Level Hiring by US News Rank - Top 25

Someone asked me what percentage of reported entry-level hires in each year were at schools ranked in the top 25 by US News.

This post draws from the data the Lawsky Entry-Level Hiring Report report. Therefore, it is incomplete. It does not reflect all entry-level hires, only those reported to me during the period in which I was collecting information for that year's report. You can see more information about the report and its limitations at the longer report posts. At the time of this writing the 2025 report is available at another site. The 2025 report is still in an early draft, and the information below reflects that early draft. My guess is that the number of T25 hires in 2025 will increase, so be cautious in making too much of the 2025 numbers below.

To create these graphs, for hiring Year X, I used the rank of the law school that was published in Year X - 1. For example, to determine whether hires reported in 2025 were for a school ranked in the top 25, I checked the US News rankings published in 2024 to see the rank of the school. (The name that US News gives to each year's rankings does not match the year in which the rankings were published.) A total of 42 unique schools were represented in the top 25 over this period. A total of 28 schools were represented in the T20, so the fluctuation largely came in the 21-25 spots.

Count of reported hires at schools ranked in the top 25: 2011: 26; 2012: 28; 2013: 19; 2014: 19; 2015: 18; 2016: 21; 2017: 16; 2018: 17; 2019: 26; 2020: 20; 2021: 18; 2022: 32; 2023: 27; 2024: 17; 2025: 21

The reported number of hires at T25 never took as much of a hit as the overall hiring, even as the market collapsed between 2011 and 2014. The below graph shows the number of hires in a given year divided by the number of hires in 2011 (the last "precollapse" year; hires for 2006 through 2009, as reported by Larry Solum, were between 151 and 167, right in line with 2011). For example, by 2019, the overall reported hires were still only 54% of the overall reported hires in 2011, but the overall reported hires at T25 schools was equal to the overall reported hires at T25 schools in 2011.

T25 reported hires as percent of 2011 T25 reported hires: 2011: 100%; 2012: 108%; 2013: 73%; 2014: 73%; 2015: 69%; 2016: 81%; 2017: 62%; 2018: 65%; 2019: 100%; 2020: 77%; 2021: 69%; 2022: 123%; 2023: 104%; 2024: 65%; 2025: 81%

Total reported hires as percent of 2011 total reported hires: 2011: 100%; 2012: 92%; 2013: 68%; 2014: 48%; 2015: 45%; 2016: 54%; 2017: 40%; 2018: 50%; 2019: 54%; 2020: 60%; 2021: 48%; 2022: 78%; 2023: 84%; 2024: 76%; 2025: 71%

This is even more stark when we consider the two groups--T25 schools and schools outside the T25--separately.

T25 reported hires as percent of 2011 T25 reported hires: 2011: 100%; 2012: 108%; 2013: 73%; 2014: 73%; 2015: 69%; 2016: 81%; 2017: 62%; 2018: 65%; 2019: 100%; 2020: 77%; 2021: 69%; 2022: 123%; 2023: 104%; 2024: 65%; 2025: 81%
Schools ranked lower than 25 reported hires as percent of 2011 lower than 25 reported hires: 2011: 100%; 2012: 88%; 2013: 67%; 2014: 43%; 2015: 40%; 2016: 49%; 2017: 35%; 2018: 47%; 2019: 44%; 2020: 57%; 2021: 43%; 2022: 69%; 2023: 80%; 2024: 79%; 2025: 69%

These disparate markets are reflected in the percentage of hires at T25 schools in each year. As the market recovered in the last four years, the percentage of hires that were at T25 schools dropped. The total hires over this time period is 1482. The total hires in the top 25 is 325. Therefore 21.9% of the total hires were at schools ranked in the top 25. On average, not weighted, 22.7% of hires each year were from top 25 schools. (That is the average of the list of percentages below.)

Percentage of reported hires at schools ranked in the top 25: 2011: 17%; 2012: 20%; 2013: 18%; 2014: 26%; 2015: 26%; 2016: 25%; 2017: 26%; 2018: 22%; 2019: 32%; 2020: 22%; 2021: 25%; 2022: 27%; 2023: 21%; 2024: 15%; 2025: 19%