When Boston College Law School redesigned its first-year curriculum, it wasn’t just to check a box. It was to prepare students for the jobs they want and to get them hired.
“Recruitment has moved earlier and earlier in the law school lifecycle,” said Daniel Lyons, professor and associate dean for academic affairs. “We want our students to have real stories to tell — not just about what they’ve learned, but what they’ve done.”
That includes writing legal memos as if they were first-year associates, practicing oral arguments, drafting agency comments, and working on real-world legal simulations — all within the first year. BC Law requires all students to complete six credits of experiential coursework in the 1L year, the maximum required by the American Bar Association. That’s unusually front-loaded.
Students earn three of those credits in the fall through a course called Law Practice, which Lyons describes as “like legal writing, but in a law firm setting.” In the spring, they choose from electives such as Intro to Civil Litigation or Intro to Transaction Practice, where they begin honing specialized skills.
“We’re helping students go beyond memorizing black-letter law,” Lyons said. “They’re learning how to think critically — to analyze what a court did and why, and whether that was right. That’s what employers are looking for.”
We honor 42 law schools based on three criteria: 1) the three-year average for law firm employment, modified for quality; 2) the salary average, using data from the National Association for Law Placement; and 3) the percentage of alumni who are recognized as Super Lawyers.
BC Law is one of the best law schools in the nation when it comes to helping graduates land jobs at law firms. It earned an A+ in our latest ranking of Best Schools for Law Firm Employment.
To view the full ranking of the 2025 Best Schools for Law Firm Employment, click here.
Super Lawyers percentage is where University of Florida Levin College of Law excels: 18.5% of alumni are recognized by the Super Lawyer rating service.
Most attorneys do not earn Super Lawyer status until they have been in practice for at least seven years. The honor is based on their professional performance, not on the prestige of their law school or their GPA.
Still, our analysis is intended to show prospective students which law schools are geared toward helping them land a law firm job. And the most prestigious law schools fare best when it comes to employment and salaries right out of law school.
That is why such heavy weights as Cornell Law School, Duke University School of Law, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law and Columbia University are at the top of the list. Each of them received an A+ for law firm employment and an A+ for salaries right out of law school.
If your dream is to land a high-paying BigLaw job, these schools are your best options, with more than 70% of graduates landing law firm jobs.
Of course, that doesn’t mean Harvard Law School or New York University School of Law are slouches. Graduates from all the schools in our top 20 do exceptionally well when it comes to landing law firm jobs. The median is 65% for the top 20, compared to 46% for all other law schools. But even more telling, the median law firm salary for graduates of the top 20 is $172,000, compared to $93,000 for all other grads.
But while the top of the list closely resembles a ranking of the most prestigious law schools, there are surprises — law schools that unexpectedly excel. Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, Wake Forest University School of Law, Emory University School of Law and University of Houston Law Center all did well.
Each of these schools takes an approach to preparing graduates that goes above and beyond the more prestigious schools. In short, they work harder to prepare graduates for a career.
Perhaps that’s why they perform better when it comes to the number of Super Lawyers they produce. We included this metric to balance out entry-level performance with long-term success. In addition to University of Florida, No. 2 on this list, SMU Dedman School of Law is No. 6 and BC Law is No. 11.
Associate hiring is seeing some changes. Reversing the last two years’ trend, associate hiring increased among participating firms in 2024, with entry-level hires accounting for 55% of all new hires, outpacing lateral hires at 45%, driven primarily by the largest firms, according to The NALP Foundation’s annual Update on Associate Attrition. The report details law firms’ associate hiring and departures for 2024 from 119 participating firms in the U.S. and Canada.
“This new data shows shifts in the talent market are emerging, with the rise in entry level recruiting as well as earlier departures by associates, with distinct differences by firm size,” said Fiona Trevelyan Hornblower, president and CEO of The NALP Foundation.
Practice ready: Law schools that deliver
Most law firms want to hire law grads who are ready to go on day one. The law schools on our honor roll stand out in terms of preparing law graduates to be practice ready.
BC Law begins career advising early, as in the first week of law school.
“Because of the early timeline for BigLaw recruiting, we begin career education with the entire 1L class in the first week of school, and one-on-one advising starts in early September,” said Sarah Bookbinder, assistant dean of career services.
The fall semester is focused on learning: helping students build professional skills, expand their understanding of practice areas, and make meaningful connections with attorneys.
“It’s the foundation they need to compete in the spring for a 2L position with a law firm — or to confidently decide they have other goals,” Bookbinder said.
For those interested in BigLaw, spring brings tailored support, including law firm networking events, a half-day prep conference and application guidance. But students aren’t pushed in one direction.
“We don’t track students into certain types of work,” she said. “We encourage them to attend everything that interests them — public interest, government, small firms, in-house roles — and explore what resonates.”
One outstanding offering at Wake Forest Law, which received an A on our honor roll, is a class in professional development. It focuses on career planning and covers topics such as job skills, cover letters, mock interviews and on-campus interviews versus contacting potential employers directly.
UF Law, which received an A on our honor roll, focuses on creating opportunities for students.
This starts in the first semester with a course called Introduction to Lawyering.
“We have specific programs to help students learn what’s available to them and how to become competitive,” said Janice Shaw, assistance dean of career and professional development. “Couple that with some strong networking opportunities, including our alumni efforts.”
The law school’s Semester in Practice program is an opportunity for third-years to work full time for a legal employer.
Shaw said she’s seen students who take advantage of that opportunity get placed in cities such as Atlanta, Tampa and New York City.
“One myth I have to dispel every year is the numbers game — the ‘If I apply to enough jobs, I’ll get one,’” she said. “We encourage students to be more focused and [apply] that to their job application process.”
Externships with range and intention
Law schools are providing robust educational programs, several with an emphasis on experiential learning, which provides a framework and preparation for them to hit the ground running after graduation and employers are made aware of this.
By their second and third years, most BC Law students participate in externships, and the school has created a structure to help students choose ones that fit their long-term career goals — including those aiming for firm jobs.
“We’ve built four separate classes that align with different types of externships,” Lyons said. “Appellate court, trial court, in-house and law firm or public interest.”
For future litigators, court externships are particularly valuable.
“Firms like seeing associates who’ve been on the other side of the bench,” Lyons said. “They understand how judges approach cases.”
In-house placements help students eyeing transactional work, especially those aiming to represent corporate clients.
“Firms love hiring students who’ve already been embedded with a client,” he said.
And while pairing firm externs with public interest externs might seem like an odd mix, Lyons said it helps build emotional intelligence and exposes students to a broader range of lawyering — from impact litigation to client trauma and advocacy ethics.
At SMU Dedman School of Law in Dallas, each student is assigned an adviser on the first day. This allows the advisers to really get to know the students and their interests.
Dean Jason Nance said it’s about taking the students to the next level.
“We have an incredibly hardworking career services team that helps them place in jobs they want and also broaden their horizons,” he said.
SMU, which also received an A on our honor roll, places more than 100 students in externships across the country. The positions range from working with federal judges to working at small and mid-size law firms, as well as corporate council experience.
Marcie Davis, assistant dean of career services, said every law student has to run their own race. Her job is to help students understand that there is a place for them and that they can be successful in whatever they want to do.
“Our job is to help expose them to every area and the prospects, including the opportunities to network with the different firms,” she said. “Students get a strong lay of the land during their first year.”
Dean Nance said that woven through all experiential opportunities are certain core skills that students can take with them, such as interviewing, counseling, negotiating and problem-solving.
“Those are the types of skills that are going to be transferable to make you marketable,” he said.
Tailored support that evolves with students
BC Law’s career services office offers more than general programming. It builds support around the individual.
“We tailor all our work through individual advising,” Bookbinder said. “Each 1L is assigned an adviser, and the support is based on the student’s own priorities, interests and strengths.”
As students learn more about firm life, including size, structure and culture, they often refine their goals. That’s when advisers step in with additional tools and contacts, especially for those targeting a particular region or practice area.
For many law schools, cultivating robust relationships with law firms and businesses in their area has been key.
And as legal tech and AI reshape the profession, BC Law is making changes in real time. The Law Practice course has begun integrating instruction on how lawyers should and should not use AI.
“We’re talking about the lawyers getting sanctioned for using AI to create ghost cases,” Lyons said. “Our students need to know that from the outset.”
The school also offers an upper-level course on AI and the law, focused on regulation and policy, and continues to expand offerings in business-oriented legal fields. Courses on compliance, ESG obligations, cryptocurrency and other emerging areas are often taught by alumni adjuncts who bring real-time insight from practice.
“It’s part of our broader push into what we call ‘corporate law plus,’” Lyons said. “Students want it, firms want it, and it makes our grads more competitive.”
BC Law’s commitment to student success isn’t limited to academics or advising. The alumni network is another major asset. Whether in New England or major markets across the country, BC Law graduates are known for stepping up to help.
“Our alumni are a real partner with us,” Lyons said. “They’re incredibly responsive and generous with their time. That’s a big part of the secret sauce.”
And that’s what BC Law and other schools on this list are aiming for: graduates who not only land firm jobs but thrive in them, from day one.
