Legal employment outcomes in Florida in 2015

This is the sixth in the series of visualizations of legal employment outcomes in 2015. The previous visualizations were for Texas, Ohio, California, New York, and DC-Maryland-Virginia.

As with some other jurisdictions, Texas employment outcomes worsened somewhat. There were 1383 full-time, long-term, bar passage-required jobs (excluded law school-funded positions) for the Class of 2015, down from 1419 for the Class of 2014. (As a separate note, Western Michigan University-Cooley separately reported its Tampa campus outcomes for the Class of 2015, and those totals are included for that class but not the Class of 2014.) There was a significant decline in graduates, from 2445 for the Class of 2014 to just 1973 graduates for the Class of 2015 (2079 if you include Cooley-Tampa's 2015 totals). That was the source of improvement in outcomes for most schools--the overall employment rate stood at 70.9%, up a couple of points from last year.

As usual, the chart is sorted by the "full-weight" positions, designating both full-time, long-term, bar passage-required and J.D.-advantage positions. There are additional designations for school-funded positions in these areas, and for all other outcomes. The table below the chart is sorted by the combined bar passage-required, J.D.-advantage, and law school-funded positions (as printed in U.S. News & World Reports), with raw figures and a year-over-year comparison beside. (As an additional note, these are the ABA-reported figures; subsequent amended figures from schools are not included. One school whose website self-reported it was not required to disclose its figures was excluded.)

As usual, please notify me of any errors.

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Peer Score	School	2015	YoY%	BPR	JDA	LSF	2014	BPR	JDA	LSF
2.9	Florida State University	81.7%	4.5	183	23	0	77.2%	180	27	0
3.1	University of Florida	81.5%	5.4	232	15	0	76.1%	214	21	0
1.6	Florida International University	81.0%	2.4	97	22	0	78.6%	101	20	0
2.1	Stetson University	79.7%	4.8	171	49	0	74.9%	175	55	0
2.7	University of Miami	71.2%	-8.2	257	40	0	79.4%	285	44	3
1.6	Nova Southeastern University	64.0%	-3.1	173	10	0	67.1%	174	14	0
1.3	St. Thomas University	50.9%	0.0	71	13	0	50.9%	102	8	0
1.4	Florida A&M University	50.3%	7.2	56	18	0	43.1%	59	16	0
1.1	Ave Maria School of Law	50.0%	4.5	31	11	1	45.5%	40	9	1
1.1	Barry University	48.7%	-8.2	80	33	0	56.9%	89	30	0
1.1	Western Michigan University-Cooley (Tampa)	45.3%	n/a	32	16	0

Fictional Attorney of the Month: J.J. Ford

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Josie-Jo Ford was the first African-American and the first woman elected to a judicial position in Wisconsin. A judge on the state court of appeals, she's one of the many possible heirs to the estate of Samuel Westing, whose death spurs the mystery at the heart of the novel The Westing Game.

Judge Ford is calculating and rational, everything a good judge ought to be. She does concede a weakness--her perpetual inability to defeat Samuel Westing at a game of chess while he was alive. He always managed stay one step ahead, out-maneuvering her and striking her in a blind spot for each game.

Judge Ford had long ago decided to stop smiling, finding it "demeaning" to smile with no good reason--"A serious face put the smiler on the defensive, a rare smile put a nervous witness at ease." And the Westing game culminates with a kind of trial near the end of the novel, but of a bizarre sort at the prompting of the young heroine Turtle:

Judge Ford rapped for silence with the walnut gavel presented to her by her associates on her appointment to a higher court. Higher court? This was the lowest court she had ever presided at: a thirteen-year-old lawyer, a court stenographer who records in Polish, and the judge in African robes. Oh well, she had played Sam Westing's game, now she would play Turtle's game.

The epilogue reveals that Judge Ford would elevated to the federal court of appeals and ultimately the United States Supreme Court. And while two other lawyers do make appearances (perhaps for later discussion), J.J. Ford is this month's Fictional Attorney of the Month.

Visualizing legal employment outcomes in Texas in 2015

This is the fifth in the series of visualizations of legal employment outcomes in 2015. The previous visualizations were for Ohio, California, New York, and DC-Maryland-Virginia.

As with some other jurisdictions, Texas employment outcomes worsened somewhat. There were 1272 full-time, long-term, bar passage-required jobs (excluded law school-funded positions) for the Class of 2015, down from 1378 for the Class of 2014. J.D.-advantage positions declined from 236 to 173. Despite a decline of about 150 graduates, to 2072 graduates, among the nine Texas schools, the overall employment rate stood at 69.7% (excluding school-funded positions), down a couple of points from last year.

As usual, the chart is sorted by the "full-weight" positions, designating both full-time, long-term, bar passage-required and J.D.-advantage positions. There are additional designations for school-funded positions in these areas, and for all other outcomes. The table below the chart is sorted by the combined bar passage-required, J.D.-advantage, and law school-funded positions (as printed in U.S. News & World Reports), with raw figures and a year-over-year comparison beside. (As an additional note, these are the ABA-reported figures; subsequent amended figures from schools are not included.)

As usual, please notify me of any errors.

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Peer Score	School	2015	YoY%	BPR	JDA	LSF	2014	BPR	JDA	LSF
2.4	Baylor University	88.0%	15.2	88	5	2	72.8%	92	6	1
4.0	University of Texas-Austin	84.5%	-2.1	268	20	11	86.6%	251	30	23
2.6	Southern Methodist University	83.7%	1.0	183	17	0	82.7%	177	33	0
2.6	University of Houston	78.2%	-5.4	129	42	1	83.6%	167	43	4
1.9	Texas Tech University	73.5%	1.6	138	17	0	71.8%	129	24	0
2.1	Texas A&M University	67.8%	4.0	137	17	0	63.8%	121	26	1
1.6	St. Mary's University	61.6%	-7.2	113	19	1	68.8%	129	21	0
1.6	South Texas College of Law	54.2%	-18.6	164	25	1	72.8%	241	43	0
1.4	Texas Southern University	42.9%	-3.1	52	11	0	46.0%	71	10	0

Visualizing legal employment outcomes in Ohio in 2015

This is the fourth in the series of visualizations of legal employment outcomes in 2015. The previous visualizations were for California, New York, and DC-Maryland-Virginia.

Ohio is notable for having nine ABA-accredited law schools. Class of 2015 graduates declined significantly, from 1297 for the Class of 2014 to 1089 last year. But job outcomes actually worsened significantly--there were just 594 bar passage-required jobs among these graduates, down from 699 the previous year. The percentage of graduates employed in bar passage-required and J.D-advantage job was 68.2% among these schools, worse than last year's 69.2% rate. (Law school-funded positions add a marginal number of positions.)

As usual, the chart is sorted by the "full-weight" positions, designating both full-time, long-term, bar passage-required and J.D.-advantage positions. There are additional designations for school-funded positions in these areas, and for all other outcomes. The table below the chart is sorted by the combined bar passage-required, J.D.-advantage, and law school-funded positions (as printed in U.S. News & World Reports), with raw figures and a year-over-year comparison beside.

As usual, please notify me of any errors.

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Peer Score	School	2015	YoY%	BPR	JDA	LSF	2014	BPR	JDA	LSF
3.3	Ohio State University	86.9%	-4.5	132	19	2	91.4%	155	32	5
2.4	University of Cincinnati	80.7%	-1.7	67	21	0	82.4%	79	24	0
2.6	Case Western Reserve University	70.8%	4.8	86	16	0	66.1%	91	19	1
1.8	University of Toledo	66.7%	7.3	48	21	1	59.3%	54	18	1
1.8	Cleveland State University	66.1%	-2.2	57	15	0	68.2%	74	29	0
1.7	University of Dayton	63.4%	-9.4	48	11	0	72.9%	74	28	0
1.8	University of Akron	63.4%	-8.8	73	17	0	72.2%	66	25	0
1.5	Capital University	54.1%	7.8	57	23	0	46.3%	62	12	0
1.5	Ohio Northern University	50.8%	-7.7	26	6	0	58.5%	44	11	0

Visualizing legal employment outcomes in California in 2015

Following up on my posts about employment outcomes in New York and in DC-Maryland-Virginia, and as I did last year with California, here are the legal employment outcomes in California for the Class of 2015.

Graduating classes continue to shrink, from 5185 in the Class of 2013, to 4731 in the Class of 2014, to 4403 in the Class of 2015.

But total job placement remains flat. There were 2807 unfunded, "full-weight" positions (full-time, long-term, bar passage-required and J.D.-advantage) for the Class of 2015, essentially unchanged from the 2849 from last year. We've seen a few years in a row where total positions among California law schools hover between 2800 and 2900. The shrinking graduating class, however, helped to improve outcomes yet again--the placement rate in these full-weight rose from 60.2% to 63.8%.

There was a significant drop-off in school funded positions, from 145 to 107. The University of Southern California dropped from 33 to 7 such positions; UC-Davis from 19 to 9; and Loyola-Los Angeles from 10 to 3. Bucking the trend, UC-Irvine increased from 13 to 20 such positions, and Whittier from 0 to 9.

As usual, the chart is sorted by the "full-weight" positions, designating both full-time, long-term, bar passage-required and J.D.-advantage positions. There are additional designations for school-funded positions in these areas, and other outcomes. The table below is sorted by the combined bar passage-required, J.D.-advantage, and law school-funded positions (as printed in U.S. News & World Reports), with raw figures and a year-over-year comparison beside.

As usual, please notify me of any errors.

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Peer Score	School	2015	YoY%	BPR	JDA	LSF	2014	BPR	JDA	LSF
4.8	Stanford University	92.3%	-1.3	166	8	6	93.6%	159	5	10
3.9	University of California-Los Angeles	91.3%	3.8	247	25	34	87.5%	240	22	32
4.5	University of California-Berkeley	91.0%	-4.5	237	5	11	95.5%	245	9	20
3.2	University of California-Irvine	84.5%	-0.4	71	2	20	84.9%	59	10	13
3.4	University of Southern California	80.3%	-5.4	155	9	7	85.7%	141	12	33
3.3	University of California-Davis	77.3%	-4.4	125	9	9	81.7%	113	7	19
2.6	Loyola Law School-Los Angeles	74.3%	3.3	227	42	3	71.0%	231	41	10
3.1	University of California-Hastings	66.9%	9.2	174	28	4	57.7%	205	26	2
1.8	Chapman University	64.4%	9.3	62	23	0	55.1%	66	10	0
2.6	Pepperdine University	64.0%	4.4	104	21	1	59.6%	97	20	1
2.6	University of San Diego	62.3%	4.2	138	16	0	58.1%	128	27	1
1.8	McGeorge School of Law	59.6%	0.2	105	31	0	59.4%	84	26	1
1.5	California Western School of Law	58.5%	1.4	90	41	0	57.1%	106	18	0
2.4	Santa Clara University	53.9%	6.0	86	32	0	47.9%	93	32	0
nr	University of La Verne	51.3%	1.3	16	4	0	50.0%	20	2	0
2.0	University of San Francisco	51.2%	4.5	60	22	3	46.7%	65	27	0
1.1	Western State College of Law	50.9%	5.6	46	10	0	45.3%	49	18	0
1.3	Whittier Law School	48.9%	5.1	30	30	9	43.8%	53	32	0
1.8	Southwestern Law School	48.2%	-7.7	115	35	0	55.9%	121	53	1
1.6	Golden Gate University	41.1%	9.4	58	7	0	31.7%	45	11	2
1.2	Thomas Jefferson School of Law	39.4%	-1.6	59	36	0	41.0%	87	33	0

Visualizing legal employment outcomes in New York in 2015

Following up on yesterday's post on outcomes in DC-Maryland-Virginia, and last year's post on outcomes in New York, here is a visualization for legal employment outcomes of graduates of New York law schools for the Class of 2015. (More about the methodology is available at the DC-Maryland-Virginia post.)

The number of graduates dropped significantly, from about 4500 for the Class of 2014 to just under 4100 for the Class of 2015. Law school-funded positions have never been very popular, but they declined slightly, from 93 to 73. And as has been the case, the improvements are largely because classes are smaller. There were 3407 full-time, long-term, bar passage required and J.D. advantage jobs, including school-funded positions, for the Class of 2014. That raw figure actually declined somewhat, to 3237 positions for the Class of 2015. But the percentage of the Class of 2015 securing such jobs improved, from to 75.2% to 79.3%.

As always, please notify me of any corrections or errata.

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Peer score	School	2015	YoY%	BPR	JDA	LSF	2014	BPR	JDA	LSF
4.6	Columbia University	98.8%	3.0	360	10	28	95.7%	408	9	31
4.5	New York University	96.7%	0.0	424	14	31	96.7%	412	12	39
4.2	Cornell University	95.5%	-0.8	164	3	3	96.3%	172	1	11
2.1	St. John's University	81.9%	8.7	173	29	1	73.2%	158	32	0
1.9	Albany Law School	80.3%	7.8	119	25	3	72.5%	127	21	0
2.7	Cardozo School of Law	76.8%	9.7	246	32	0	67.1%	221	41	1
3.1	Fordham University	76.1%	2.0	274	37	1	74.1%	311	29	0
1.9	Pace University	75.5%	6.8	93	17	1	68.7%	122	22	5
2.2	Hofstra University	73.8%	2.8	201	17	4	71.0%	180	41	4
2.4	Brooklyn Law School	73.2%	9.3	215	31	0	63.9%	200	44	0
2.2	University of Buffalo-SUNY	70.7%	1.0	115	20	0	69.6%	114	19	0
1.9	New York Law School	67.6%	3.5	171	66	1	64.1%	179	85	2
2.3	Syracuse University	65.6%	-6.4	104	20	0	72.0%	121	31	0
2.1	City University of New York	64.0%	13.3	66	5	0	50.7%	73	3	0
1.5	Touro College	60.4%	-3.9	105	8	0	64.3%	111	15	0

Visualizing legal employment outcomes in DC-Maryland-Virginia in 2015

Following up on my post from last year, here are the employment outcomes for law schools in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia for the Class of 2015. The U.S. News & World Report rankings recently released, which include data for the Class of 2014, are already obsolete. The ABA will release the information soon, but individualized employment reports are available on schools' websites.

The USNWR prints the "employed" rate as "the percentage of all graduates who had a full-time job lasting at least a year for which bar passage was required or a J.D. degree was an advantage." But it does not give "full weight" in its internal ranking metric to jobs that were funded by the law school. USNWR gives other positions lower weight, but these positions are not included in the ranking tables. And while it includes J.D. advantage positions, there remain disputes about whether those positions are really as valuable. (Some have further critiqued solo practitioners being included in the bar passage required statistics.)

The chart is sorted by non-school-funded jobs (or "full weight" positions). The visualization breaks out full-time, long-term, bar passage required positions (not funded by the school); full-time, long term, J.D.-advantage positions (not funded by the school); school funded positions (full-time, long-term, bar passage required or J.D.-advantage positions); and all other outcomes. This year, I included a breakdown in the visualization slightly distinguishing bar passage required positions from J.D.-advantage positions, even though both are included in "full weight" for USNWR purposes (and I still sort the chart by "full weight" positions).

The table below the chart breaks down the raw data values for the Classes of 2014 and 2015, with relative overall changes year-over-year, and is sorted by total placement (as USNWR prints). The columns beside each year break out the three categories in the total placement: FTLT unfunded bar passage required ("BPR"), FTLT unfunded J.D. advantage ("JDA"), and FTLT law school funded BPR & JDA positions ("LSF"). Total jobs in these bar passage-required and J.D.-advantage positions declined somewhat, from 3119 to 2825. Part of this was undoubtedly fueled by a significant decline in school-funded positions, from 271 to just 90--many schools have rather dramatically slashed such positions. There were about 250 fewer graduates, from 3992 to 3740. Nevertheless, overall prospects for graduates became worse: the overall employment rate was 75.5% (including all funded positions), down from 78.1% last year. More granular data is available at each school's website.

As always, if I made a mistake, please feel free to email me or comment; I confess there are always risks in data translation, and I am happy to make corrections.

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Peer score	School	2015	YoY%	BPR	JDA	LSF	2014	BPR	JDA	LSF
4.3	University of Virginia	95.4%	-1.2	311	9	30	96.6%	296	7	34
2.7	George Mason University	86.8%	6.9	94	34	4	79.9%	95	45	7
3.0	Washington and Lee University	82.2%	7.4	131	11	1	74.8%	81	13	1
4.1	Georgetown University	80.2%	-7.0	456	50	38	87.2%	436	38	72
3.3	George Washington University	78.3%	-10.9	301	55	8	89.2%	383	60	78
3.2	William and Mary Law School	75.8%	-6.5	118	17	0	82.3%	137	16	24
3.0	University of Maryland	75.3%	0.0	156	47	1	75.3%	169	52	2
2.0	University of Baltimore	74.2%	3.8	142	56	0	70.4%	161	60	0
2.4	University of Richmond	74.2%	-7.7	97	21	0	81.9%	88	34	0
2.1	Catholic University of America	70.4%	-0.5	63	37	0	70.9%	82	45	0
1.3	Regent University	65.3%	2.2	67	10	0	63.1%	58	19	0
1.2	Appalachian School of Law	63.3%	21.2	32	4	2	42.1%	34	5	1
2.7	American University	61.4%	-8.8	205	76	4	70.2%	207	68	48
2.3	Howard University	59.5%	-6.0	57	12	0	65.5%	61	12	1
1.2	Liberty University	54.1%	-2.5	31	1	1	56.6%	35	7	1
1.4	District of Columbia	51.5%	6.8	15	19	1	44.7%	27	17	2

New opinion piece at Reuters: schooling candidates on GOP primary rules

I have a new opinion piece at Reuters, "GOP Nomination Process 101: Candidate's Remedial Edition." It begins:

Donald Trump has complained that the Republican primary process is a “rigged, disgusting, dirty system” that deprives people of the chance to vote for their preferred presidential candidate. He accuses the Republican Party of stealing delegates from him.

If he thinks this system is complex, Trump should look to the GOP’s past primary elections. Now, those were complicated!

Ted Cruz citizenship quiz

Donald Trump and others have suggest that Ted Cruz's status as a "natural born citizen" is in some doubt. Cruz was born in Canada to a Cuban father and an American mother. To clear up any uncertainty, however, a test to determine whether Mr. Cruz is Canadian or American is in order. I decided to draft the following quiz--perhaps a court could administer it to him and judge the results. Some questions are decidedly more subtle than others.

1. It is third down and four. What play do you call?

A. Pass
B. Run
C. Punt

2. Which of the Articles of Confederation has the most enduring legacy?

A. Article 2
B. Article 5
C. Article 11

3. What is the greatest walk-off home run in a World Series?

A. Bill Mazeroski, 1960
B. Kirk Gibson, 1988
C. Joe Carter, 1990

4. Who is the most underappreciated president of the Gilded Age?

A. James Garfield
B. Chester A. Arthur
C. Benjamin Harrison

5. Who is the most impressive sprinter?

A. Carl Lewis
B. Donovan Bailey
C. Usain Bolt

6. On what day are you most inclined to consume turkey?

A. The second Monday in October
B. The fourth Thursday in November
C. The final Thursday in November

7. What tastes best atop french fries?

A. Ketchup
B. Chili
C. Vinegar

8. Which is the most impressive professional sports dynasty?

A. The 1960s Boston Celtics
B. The 1970s Montreal Canadiens
C. The 1990s New York Yankees

9. Who is the greatest female vocalist of recent years?

A. Madonna
B. Céline Dion
C. Whitney Houston

10. When you are exasperated with someone, which is the best retort?

A. Take off!
B. Get lost!
C. Make like a tree, and get outta here!

---

Canadian answers: 1. C, 2. C, 3. C, 4. B, 5. B, 6. A, 7. C, 8. B, 9. B, 10. A

Incidentally, certain answers are designed to reveal whether one is truly a conservative. Identifying Article 2 of the Articles of Confederation (states' rights) or the last Thursday in November ("Republican Thanksgiving") are important clues for any conservative Republican candidate's platform.