MOVING TO FRONT FROM APRIL 26: TIME IS RUNNING OUT TO REPORT TO SOLUM! (DATA BELOW IS NOT UPDATED FROM WHERE THINGS STOOD ON 4/26--WILL UPDATE WHEN SOLUM COMPLETES COLLECTING REPORTS.)
Perhaps as a way of inspiring more schools to report their rookie hires to Larry Solum, let me present some data based on the rookie hiring information he's collected so far. Here are the results by total number of graduates hired (note that many of these candidates may have earned other degrees beyond the initial law degree):
1. Harvard University (22)
2. Yale University (19)
3. Columbia University (10)
3. New York University (10)
3. University of Virginia (10)
6. University of California, Berkeley (8)
7. Stanford University (7)
7. University of Chicago (7)
9. Georgetown University (6)
10. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (5)
10. University of Texas, Austin (5)
12. Northwestern University (3)
12. Tulane University (3)
12. University of Pennsylvania (3)
15. Duke University (2)
15. University of Minnesota (2)
15. Washington & Lee University (2)
As some folks pointed out to me last year, however, the AALS now makes it possible to search candidates for law teaching by the law school from which they graduated, which permits one a kind of measure of the relative success rate of a school's graduates in a given year. (I assume that many schools are in the situation of Texas, though, in the sense that the graduates the school is actively supporting on the market is smaller than the total number of graduates who actually submit resumes to the AALS.) So here are the results, based on percentage of graduates who submitted resumes in one of the first three "batches" of the faculty registry process (essentially, the batches from which the vast, vast majority of new faculty will be hired); following each school name is the percentage, and then the total number hired out of the total number in the pool--obviously, the smaller the numbers, the less meaningful the result).
1. University of Minnesota (67%: 2 of 3)
2. University of Virginia (50%: 10 of 20)
3. University of Chicago (44%: 7 of 16)
3. Yale University (44%: 19 of 43)
5. Stanford University (39%: 7 of 18)
6. University of California, Berkeley (35%: 8 of 23)
7. Columbia University (33%: 10 of 30)
7. Duke University (33%: 2 of 6)
7. Harvard University (33%: 22 of 66)
7. Northwestern University (33%: 3 of 9)
11. New York University (31%: 10 of 32)
12. University of Texas, Austin (29%: 5 of 17)
13. Tulane University (25%: 3 of 12)
14. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (23%: 5 of 22)
15. Washington & Lee University (22%: 2 of 9)
Penn had a success rate of 18% (3 of 17), while Georgetown grads had a success rate of 15% (6 of 41). Cornell had 12 graduates on the market, none of whom secured jobs according to the Solum data, while UCLA had 5 graduates on the market, one of whom has secured a job. No doubt some of these figures will change as Solum's information becomes more complete; I'll update accordingly in a few weeks.
UPDATE: Just to avoid confusing prospective students, please note that the percentages (e.g., only 44% of Yale grads on the market securing jobs etc.) are misleading in one important respect (noted in my parenthetical about Texas, above): since submitting the resume to the AALS is very easy, there are in any given year a large number of not very serious candidates in the mix--partners or senior associates tired of law practice, but with no academic references or publications; candidates with weak academic records who just threw their hat in the ring, thinking it might be easier to get a law teaching job, and so on. The actual percentage of graduates who are serious contenders for law teaching jobs who actually secure them is higher in almost all the cases noted above.
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