Reported Entry-Level Hiring by US News Rank

Building on my earlier post about hiring at schools ranked in the top 25 by US News, this post provides information about reported hiring based on US News rank of hiring school. As this post shows, the overall hiring over time graph hides significant variation between schools in different US News tiers. Schools ranked in the top 50 had a drop-off in reported hiring after 2011, but recovered fairly quickly. Schools ranked between 51 and 100 had an even more significant drop-off and recovered more slowly. Schools ranked 101 and higher had a very significant drop-off and never fully recovered.

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. 

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.) 

If a school was not ranked, I assigned the rank 999. All ranges are inclusive. The ranges do not include the same number of schools. 

Looking first at the schools in three groups, 1-50, 51-100, and 100 and higher.

The schools ranked in the top 50 experienced some drop-off in hiring from 2011, but this rebounded fairly quickly. The lowest number of reported hires was in 2015 (29), about 55% of the hires in 2011, the year with the highest number of reported hires (53). But as early as 2016, these schools were back to hiring close to their highest-hiring year.

2011: 53; 2012: 47; 2013: 36; 2014: 35; 2015: 29; 2016: 45; 2017: 32; 2018: 38; 2019: 50; 2020: 38; 2021: 38; 2022: 49; 2023: 40; 2024: 40; 2025: 39. The total reported hires over this time period is 1482. The total reported hires at schools ranked 1 to 50, inclusive, is 609. Therefore 41.1% of the total reported hires were at schools ranked between 1 and 50, inclusive.

The schools ranked 51-100 had their highest hiring year not in 2011, but in 2012. The dropoff in hiring in schools in this range was more severe--the lowest number of reported hires, 16 reported hires in 2014, was only 31% of their highest number of reported hires. And rebounding took much longer--it was not until 2023 that these schools reported hires of more than about tw0-thirds of their highest-hiring year.

2011: 41; 2012: 51; 2013: 33; 2014: 16; 2015: 17; 2016: 18; 2017: 18; 2018: 18; 2019: 24; 2020: 28; 2021: 18; 2022: 32; 2023: 51; 2024: 44; 2025: 30. The total reported hires over this time period is 1482. The total reported hires at schools ranked 51 to 100, inclusive, is 439. Therefore 29.6% of the total reported hires were at schools ranked between 51 and 100, inclusive.

Schools ranked 101 and above, including unranked schools (recall that 999 means unranked), faced a much starker scenario than either of the other groups. The drop-off here from 2011 was steady, with a low in 2019 (when other schools had already rebounded) of only 13% of their highest hiring year. These schools did not reach even as high as two-thirds of their 2011 reported hiring until 2025.

2011: 59; 2012: 42; 2013: 35; 2014: 23; 2015: 23; 2016: 20; 2017: 11; 2018: 21; 2019: 8; 2020: 26; 2021: 17; 2022: 38; 2023: 38; 2024: 33; 2025: 40. The total reported hires over this time period is 1482. The total reported hires at schools ranked 101 to 999, inclusive, is 434. Therefore 29.3% of the total reported hires were at schools ranked between 101 and 999, inclusive.

Because the last post looked at the top 25 schools, break out the top group, 1-50, into 1-25 and 26-50. These two groups look roughly the same.

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 total reported hires over this time period is 1482. The total reported hires at schools ranked 1 to 25, inclusive, is 325. Therefore 21.9% of the total reported hires were at schools ranked between 1 and 25, inclusive.

2011: 27; 2012: 19; 2013: 17; 2014: 16; 2015: 11; 2016: 24; 2017: 16; 2018: 21; 2019: 24; 2020: 18; 2021: 20; 2022: 17; 2023: 13; 2024: 23; 2025: 18. The total reported hires over this time period is 1482. The total reported hires at schools ranked 26 to 50, inclusive, is 284. Therefore 19.2% of the total reported hires were at schools ranked between 26 and 50, inclusive.

Finally, bring all of the hiring together into one graph. This graph does not provide new information; it simply combines the previous information in this post.