Many law-school students carry six-figure debt loads - but most don't earn six-figure salaries after they graduate

By Maya Levine

Women and members of marginalized racial and ethnic groups are hit hardest by the disparity in outcomes

Aspiring law students often take on a six-figure debt load in hopes that it will propel them to a six-figure salary. But that outcome is only typical for graduates of U.S. law schools that educate 20% of students.

That's one takeaway from a report released Tuesday by Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce.

Large debt loads are a given for most aspiring lawyers. Law students graduate owing a median of $118,500 in student debt, which can pose a challenge to their financial stability. About 21% of young law-school graduates say they wouldn't be able to come up with $1,000 on short notice in an emergency, according to the report.

But some young lawyers have an easier time managing that debt than others, the report found. Four years after graduation, graduates of the law schools producing top earners - institutions like Harvard University, Columbia University and University of Chicago - netted $200,000 a year after subtracting their monthly debt payments from median earnings, according to the Georgetown report. Graduates of 33 law schools at the other end of the spectrum, which educate about 12% of law students, were earning less than $55,000 net of debt in the same time frame. Law-school students' median net-of-debt earnings four years after graduation was $72,000.

A combination of factors explains the gulf in earnings among law-school graduates. Broadly, the schools that graduate students with the highest earnings have the resources and connections to propel students into top law careers. Women and students of color, meanwhile, are more likely to attend law schools with poorer outcomes.

This mirrors the situation at undergraduate colleges, where schools that graduate students into higher-paying jobs on average tend to have a whiter and wealthier student body than the colleges educating the bulk of students, including a disproportionate share of low-income students and students of color.

What may be fueling the challenge faced by students at schools with low-earning graduates is those schools' relatively low rates of bar passage. The 26 law schools where graduates earn the most boast a 97% bar-passage rate, compared with 82% for schools with low-earning graduates and a 92% average. Passing the bar quickly can be key to a graduate's smooth transition into a well-paying job.

Part of the disparity in outcomes has to do with the relationship between a handful of elite law schools and high-paying employers. Over the past 40 years, two-thirds of Supreme Court clerkships have gone to law students at Harvard, Columbia, Yale University, Stanford University and the University of Chicago.

The report also notes that alumni of law schools with high-earning graduates are more likely to be employed as federal clerks or at the biggest law firms within 10 months of graduation.

"The unfortunate reality is that the perceived rank and prestige of a given law school has direct consequences for how easily graduates can find work, and what kind of work it is," the authors write in the report. "Since racial and ethnic minority groups - and in particular women in these groups - are disproportionately enrolling in schools with lower bar passage rates and generally worse postgraduation outcomes, it is unclear how quickly the status quo will change."

People from marginalized groups also make up a smaller share of employees at law firms. At the same time, Black and Latino law students are more likely to leave school in more debt than their white or Asian-American peers. Together, those factors can make it particularly challenging for these students to reap a return on their investment.

Despite the disparities in outcomes, the report was bullish on students' ability to land jobs after law school. Law-school enrollments have stabilized at a lower level than during and after the 2007-09 recession, meaning there are no longer far too many graduates for the number of jobs available. At that time, some recent law-school graduates sued their schools, accusing them of misleading students about their prospects for getting a job.

Still, prospective law students may want to consider factors besides their postgraduate job when choosing a school, said Catherine Morris, co-author of the report and a senior editor and writer at the Center on Education and the Workforce.

She noted the relevance of specializations and the location of a given law school, which can help set students up for their ideal legal careers.

"Rankings and earnings are not the only measure of success," she said.

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06-28-24 0611ET

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