SMU Dedman School of Law - Employment Statistics

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Employment Statistics

Recent Graduate Employment Data

SMU Dedman School of Law graduates work in every sector of the legal profession – private practice, business, government, judiciary, public service and academia -- as well as in non-legal careers where a law degree is substantially valued. The Office of Career Services strives to collect, analyze and report complete and accurate employment and salary information of our graduates. All SMU Dedman Law graduates complete a standard Employment Report and Salary Survey and aggregate data is reported to meet the current reporting requirements of the American Bar Association (ABA) and the National Association for Law Placement (NALP).

The charts below show the numbers of SMU Dedman Law graduates in various employment sectors nine months after graduation. This information is reported annually to the ABA and to NALP.

SMU Dedman School of Law
Recent Graduate Employment Summaries, Nine Months after Graduation

	Class of 2011	Class of 2010	Class of 2009	Class of 2008
Total Graduates	272	259	307	294
Employed	240	225	274	269
Bar passage required	206	193	234	227
JD preferred	20	11	17	24
Other professional	11	19	16	17
Non-professional	2	2	6	1
Unknown	0	0	1	0
Pursuing graduate degree FT	9	7	14	5
Unemployed - not seeking	12	16	11	16
Unemployed - seeking	11	11	8	4
Employed - start date deferred	1	NA	NA	NA
Employment status unknown	0	0	0	0

Of employed - Number law school funded	4	NA	NA	NA

EMPLOYMENT TYPE

	Class of 2011	Class of 2010	Class of 2009	Class of 2008
Law firms	68.75%	64.9%	67.5%	65.8%
Solo	4.24%	2.1%	3.8%	4.0%
2-10	38.18%	40.4%	30.8%	29.9%
11-25	13.94%	8.9%	14.1%	11.3%
26-50	15.76%	11.%	7.6%	10.7
51-100	4.85%	8.9%	3.2%	7.3%
101-250	6.06%	1.4%	3.8%	2.8%
251-500	7.27%	7.5%	10.8%	10.7%
500+	9.70%	19.2%	25.9%	22.6%
Unknown	0	0.7%	0	0.6%
Business & Industry	22.5%	20.9%	19.3%	22.7%
Government	3.75%	5.8%	6.9%	5.2%
Public Interest	.42%	2.7%	1.5%	1.5%
Judicial Clerkships	2.50%	4.9%	4.0%	2.2%
Academic	1.67%	0.9%	0.7%	2.6%
Employer type unknown	0	0	0	0

Full-time Salaries of Employed Graduates

	Class of 2011	Class of 2010	Class of 2009	Class of 2008
Total Employed Graduates	240	225	274	269
Number of Full-time Salaries Reported by Employed Graduates	175 (84.13%)	178 (86.9%)	222 (89.3%)	217 (91.5%)
25th Percentile	$60,000	58,000	$60,000	$62,400
Median	$80,000	75,000	$100,000	$85,000
75th Percentile	$130,000	135,000	$160,000	$160,000
Mean	$93,055	93,008	$106,777	$101,373

Judicial Clerk	6	11	11	6
25th Percentile	$44,750	$45,000	$45,000	$42,250
Median	$55,000	$56,000	$56,000	$50,500
75th Percentile	$61,000	$60,000	$60,000	$55,000
Mean	$53,500	$53,952	$54,818	$49,208

Law Firm	165	146	185	177
25th Percentile	$65,000	$62,500	$75,000	$75,000
Median	$90,000	$100,000	$120,000	$120,000
75th Percentile	$145,140	$160,000	$160,000	$160,000
Mean	$102,280	$103,943	$115,194	$115,909

Business & Industry	54	47	53	61
25^th Percentile	$56,250	$60,000	$72,000	$62,400
Median	$70,000	$78,000	$120,000	$70,000
75^th Percentile	$93,750	$100,000	$137,000	$90,000
Mean	$81,806	$89,077	$116,790	$82,767

Government	9	13	19	14
25th Percentile	$50,500	$55,000	$56,000	$43,200
Median	$55,000	$57,500	$60,000	$51,334
75th Percentile	$59,000	$59,050	$65,000	$55,000
Mean	$58,601	$58,812	$64,664	$52,800

Public Interest	1	6	4	4
25th Percentile	<5	$45,000	< 5	< 5
Median	<5	$50,000	< 5	< 5
75th Percentile	<5	$52,500	< 5	< 5
Mean	<5	$49,280	< 5	< 5

Academic	4	2	2	7
25^th Percentile	<5	<5	<5	$45,000
Median	<5	<5	<5	$60,000
75^th Percentile	<5	<5	<5	$60,000
Mean	<5	<5	<5	$53,952

Military	1	0	0	0

Geographic Locations of SMU Dedman Law Graduates (9 months after graduation)