Law School Transparency at William Mitchell

Thu, Mar 31, 2011

Archive

By Leah Weaver

Whenever I get an alumni magazine in the mail, whether from law school or undergrad, I read it back-to-front. Like most people, I’d bet, I’m most interested in what my classmates are up to. Who got married, who made partner, that sort of thing. Since the class notes are always in the back, that’s where I start.

So when I received my Spring 2011 issue of Mitchell On Law, William Mitchell’s alumni magazine, I naturally opened the back cover first, and found on the last page a message from Dean Eric Janus entitled “Transparency.” The message showcases William Mitchell’s response to charges that law school employment information is less than, well, transparent.

Most law schools, as I’m sure you know, publish only the barest post-graduation information: percent of graduates employed 9 months after graduation, and median salary information by type of employment. This lack of in-depth information, many critics charge, is misleading to prospective students. By lumping everyone in as “employed,” you can’t tell how many graduates are actually employed as an attorney at a law firm, and how many graduates are temping, working part-time, or even working non-legal jobs.

William Mitchell’s newly published employment information digs deep. Sure, you can find out that 93.4% of 2009 graduates who were seeking employment were employed 9 months after graduation. But unlike our other local law schools, they don’t stop there. For instance, of those 2009 grads who reported their information:

21 are in solo practice;
18 are either temping or work for a legal temp agency;
14.7% work part-time;
11 work at a “Publishing House” (Thomson West, I assume?); and
Only 67% work in positions where bar admission is required

In-depth information is also published for the classes of 2006-2008.

I applaud William Mitchell for giving its prospective students an honest look at its graduates’ employment information. Applicants can now make an informed decision on whether or not to attend, based on real information on post-graduation employment. I hope that other law schools soon follow suit. And if there are any readers who are considering attending a law school that doesn’t provide this detailed information, it could be worth asking the Admissions office why not. After all, they surely don’t have anything to hide… do they?

employment, jobs, law school

This post was written by:

Leah Weaver - who has written 24 posts on JDs Rising.

Leah K. Weaver joined the firm of Reiter & Schiller, P.A. as an associate attorney in 2007. Leah is a graduate of William Mitchell College of Law and Carleton College, and lives in Minneapolis with her husband and their two young daughters.

Contact the author

4 Comments For This Post

LSTB Says:
March 31st, 2011 at 10:34 am

Good post Leah.

While I’m sure Law School Transparency would want even more “disaggregation,” this is about as transparent as law school employment data are going to get. For those interested, WM’s numbers largely correspond to what it sent to the ABA for the Official Guide to ABA Law Schools.

The problem I’ve always had with employment numbers is that they’re always wa~y outdated and require fairly sophisticated interpretation, creating as many questions as they answer. For example, the employment categories are rarely clear, such as in your “Publishing House” example.

Ultimately, transparency advocates believe the following analogy as the only useful way to gauge a law degree’s value:
GRADUATE’S EMPLOYMENT : TODAY :: APPLICANT’S POSSIBLE EMPLOYMENT : FOUR (or more!) YEARS FROM NOW

There’s actually a far easier way to measure future legal employment in Minnesota–Look at what the state’s Department of Employment and Economic Development has to say about lawyers.

Between 2009 and 2019, Minnesota’s economy will create an average of 405 lawyer positions per year. In 2009, 962 people graduated from one of Minnesota’s law schools. That’s bad, and the link in my sig will show you that there’s no jurisdiction to compensate for the graduate surplus. Now, not everyone goes to law school strictly to become an attorney as labor experts define it, but that is their purpose, no?

LSTB Says:
March 31st, 2011 at 12:22 pm

[Correction] In 2009, 962 people graduated from Minnesota’s law schools.

Amanda Swanberg Says:
March 31st, 2011 at 2:41 pm

I’d like to think I helped spur Mitchell on in their efforts to be more transparent. I actually refused to complete the annual new-grad job survey and instead wrote a lengthy letter to Deans Janus and Thompson explaining why I felt none of the survey responses accurately described my situation:

“None of the options on the [employment] survey really apply to me or people like me. Although I keep my eye out for the right opportunity, I’m not actively looking for work, but I’m not really employed either. I hesitate marking any option that could be construed as “employed” as I don’t want to contribute to the false idea that people shouldn’t be overly concerned about finding a job.”

My letter also included some suggestions on ways to help people in my situation. I received a thoughtful response from both Deans and I’m hopeful that-in a few decades-the law schools will have adjusted to this rapidly changing economic landscape.

Jose Job forum Says:
May 17th, 2011 at 2:07 pm

It is difficult to find a school that will tell you the true employment rate afterward since they want to attract new student by stretching the truth. Having a job at home can help during those slow months.

JDs Rising