2020 2020: UMass Law is nationally recognized by preLaw magazine for graduate employment

Named to publication’s Employment Honor Roll for Class of 2019 employment rate that exceeds projections by 6%

UMass Law was nationally recognized by preLaw magazine for achieving an employment rate substantially higher than predicted for the Class of 2019. The rankings are listed in the publication’s Back to School 2020 issue.

The ranking is based on an algebraic equation that best predicts a law school’s employment rate by using its students’ average LSAT scores and undergraduate GPAs, and comparing the prediction with the school’s actual employment rate. More weight was given to full-time bar-passage required jobs and less weight was given to part-time and nonlegal jobs.

UMass Law’s Class of 2019 achieved an 85% overall employment rate with 80.4% of graduates in bar-required or JD-advantage jobs and 60.9% in “gold standard” long-term, full-time bar-required jobs. This is the sixth straight year of increases in these gold standard positions and ranks UMass Law fifth highest among the nine Massachusetts law schools.

“UMass Law continues to find outsized success and exceed expectations, especially in key areas like bar pass rates and employment outcomes,” said Eric Mitnick, dean of the School of Law. “As the Commonwealth’s only public law school, UMass is substantially more affordable, but the key to our value is that our students and graduates also outperform in key metrics.”

UMass Law joins Seton Hall University, Baylor University, Washington and Lee University, Villanova Law, and Columbia Law School in the honor roll.

The publication’s findings are consistent with a recent “value-added” ranking of law schools sponsored by the American Bar Foundation and authored by Christopher Ryan, a faculty member at Roger Williams University School of Law. Among the 192 American law schools Ryan analyzed, three from New England, and a total of seven from the Northeast, were ranked in the top 25 based on graduate outcomes: 1. Yale; 3. Harvard; 10. Columbia; 11. University of Pennsylvania; 13. New York University; 24. Cornell; and 25. UMass Law.

“I am so proud of what our Career Services Office team has been able to accomplish and that our hard work has paid off by being recognized nationally by preLaw Magazine,” said Leslie Becker Wilson, Esq., director of Career Legal Services at UMass Law. “This is truly a group effort and could not have been achieved without everyone's commitment to our goals and tirelessly working alongside one another to achieve them.”

This is not the first time UMass Law has been recognized by preLaw Magazine. The publication ranked UMass Law among the top 50 law schools in the country for practical training for the past two years.

Over the past five years (2014-2019), UMass Law ranked first among all law schools in New England for the percentage of graduates (27%) in public service positions.

Read the article in preLaw magazine.

"UMass Law continues to find outsized success and exceed expectations, especially in key areas like bar pass rates and employment outcomes."