NALP Bulletin, April 2002 

A look at the graduate employment data over the years shows that, historically, women and minorities are less likely to take jobs in law firms and more likely to take jobs with public sector employers. The table below presents data from Employment Report and Salary Survey and Jobs and J.D.'s reports for the Classes of 1982, 1988, 1994, and 2000. Note that minorities are defined as African-Americans, Asian/Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, and Hispanics of any race.

• Compared to men, women from the Class of 2000 were less likely to enter private practice and more likely to accept public service positions within government or public interest organization or as judicial clerks. This pattern is similar to those of prior years, although the differences in the percentage of men and women entering private practice have fluctuated from 7.5 percentage points in 1994 to 4.5 percentage points in 2000.

• It is also the case that, compared with men going into private practice, women are more likely to take jobs in firms of more than 100 attorneys and less likely to take jobs in very small firms of 2-10 attorneys. The percentage of women going into private practice and taking jobs in large firms has been 3 to 4 percentage points higher than the rate for men, with the largest differentials in 1988 and 2000.

• The rate of public service employment has shown small fluctuations over the years. In general, about one-third of women take such positions, compared with one-quarter of men.

• Minorities likewise enter private practice less frequently than do non-minorities. However, the 7.3 percentage point differential in 2000 is less than half the 15.9% percentage point difference in 1982.

• As is the case for men compared to women, minorities entering private practice are more likely to obtain jobs in firms of more than 100 attorneys than are non-minorities, even as the share of jobs in large law firms has generally increased over the period for both groups. For the Class of 2000, the figures were 45.6% and 36.8%, respectively. This differential of almost 9 percentage points is higher than in 1982 and 1988, lower than in 1994, when the difference was 11.3 percentage points.

• Compared to non-minorities, minorities have been and remain more likely to take public service jobs, particularly jobs in government and public interest organizations. However, because of an overall decline in the prevalence of such jobs among minorities and an increase in public service employment among non-minorities, the difference between minorities and non-minorities is one-quarter what it was in 1982 — 3.3 percentage points versus 12.6 percentage points.

Initial Employer Types —
Comparisons for the Classes of 1982, 1988, 1994, and 2000

Men and Women