Job market proves to be welcoming for new lawyers

The job market is changing and expanding for law school graduates, providing more opportunities as they cross the stage to accept their diplomas.

Indiana University Maurer School of Law Dean of Students Anne McFadden said that the school had its largest number of graduates in recent years and a larger percentage of students with jobs already lined up by graduation.

The school had 200 graduates this spring and more than 70% had a job lined up.

“That’s probably the highest that we’ve had in many, many years,” said McFadden, who noted that the placement rate at graduation often hovers around 60%. said.

Usually, the school has around 170 graduates. But the class of 2024 likely was larger because some students waited to go to law school until after the uncertainty of the global pandemic had passed, opting to join their younger classmates later.

A growing shortage of lawyers in Indiana may have helped with job placement, though it’s hard to pinpoint a reason.

According to the 2023 American Bar Association Profile of the Legal Profession, Indiana has the 44th lowest number of attorneys per capita at only 2.3 per 1,000 residents. The shortage is most acute in rural areas.

McFadden said she isn’t sure how to determine if the shortage contributed to the higher rate of jobs at graduation.

“We definitely have students going to small towns throughout Indiana, but I don’t know if it is any more than usual,” McFadden said.

For Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law graduate Teren Smith digging deeper for jobs was key.

“I think just look for opportunities that aren’t smack dab or kind of in your face, you’re gonna have to kind of do a little bit of digging and do a lot of work to try to find a job in today’s society, because like the market is just all over the place,” he said.

Smith works for American Express as a compliance manager in New York.

“I think looking to look at different aspects of where a lawyer could end up and so when I did the internship with Microsoft it kind of opened the doors and like, okay, so I don’t have to go just to a firm or work for the government. Like, there are corporations out there that are looking for attorneys,” Smith said.

IU McKinney had a total of 261 graduates in the class of 2024. Job placement information for the school wasn’t immediately available at graduation. The University of Notre Dame, which had 201 graduates, didn’t immediately respond to requests for similar information.

At IU Maurer in Bloomington, a large number of new graduates landed jobs as judicial law clerks.

“Judges always need new clerks every single year,” McFadden said.

Other graduates are going into government positions, with a majority going into private practice. In Indianapolis, some large law firms offer starting salaries around $165,000 a year.

Bar admissions

A few of this spring’s graduates opted to take the state bar exam in February. Most will take it in July.

Students from all three law schools in Indiana participated in a field test of the NextGen Bar Exam back in January but any changes resulting from that trial run wouldn’t take effect until 2026.

Director of Academic and Bar Success Program at IU McKinney Erin Engels said they had 40 students show up for the three-hour field test.

“Its aim is to test more practical application of material so like it’ll give you a passage of information and then you have to apply that to questions rather than just pure memorization and application of rules like the current bar exam,” Engels said.

She added that the feedback they received from students was that they liked the exam format and that the practical application of material was unique.

The NextGen Bar Exam will be nine hours over several days and be fully online. Engels said some have brought up concerns about there not also being a paper version of the questions to flip through.

Another concern is if the exam is submitted properly online once a student completes it.. Engels said everything appeared to work well with the field test but those concerns are going to be there.

Indiana currently uses the Uniform Bar Exam, but that exam will phase out by 2028. The state will either have to adopt the NextGen Bar Exam or create its own Indiana-specific bar exam.

Kathryn Dolan, a spokesperson for the Indiana Supreme Court, said that a decision on what Indiana will do is expected in the near future.

“We are one of only a few jurisdictions with multiple law schools in which all the schools participated in the field testing,” Dolan said. “The Court is continuing to gather information and engage in a dialogue with stakeholders as it evaluates all the options regarding the adoption of the NextGen Bar Exam.”•