J.D. Admissions | Columbia Law School
Post-Graduate Employment FAQ
What are the career placement prospects for Columbia Law School graduates?
What opportunities are there for judicial clerkships?
I am interested in pursuing a career in the public sector. Can you describe how loan repayment assistance works at Columbia Law School?
In what setting do Columbia Law School graduates typically work?
What are the career placement prospects for Columbia Law School graduates?
Ninety-eight percent of the Class of 2011 was employed at nine months after graduation in a variety of legal fields and geographic locations.
What opportunities are there for judicial clerkships?
The Law School is among the small handful of law schools that consistently places its students in federal and state court clerkships, ranging from the U.S. Supreme Court and federal circuit and district courts to an array of state and specialty courts. Traditionally, approximately 15 percent of the graduating class secures judicial clerkships with the help of the Law School's Director of Judicial Clerkships and the Faculty Clerkship Committee.
View detailed information about clerkship opportunities at Columbia Law School.
I am interested in pursuing a career in the public sector. Can you describe how loan repayment assistance works at Columbia?
Currently recognized as one of the five best in the nation, Columbia Law School was the first American law school to establish a Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) for graduates who devote their careers to serving the public interest. Columbia Law School's LRAP has no salary cap and pays most of the law school debt for all graduates in qualifying employment.
In what setting do Columbia Law School graduates typically work?
Columbia Law School graduates truly inhabit the full spectrum of professional niches in the legal arena throughout their respective careers. Opportunities abound, and our alumni routinely find that a Columbia J.D. degree opens any professional door of interest to them.
Sixty-nine percent of Columbia's Class of 2011 chose to join law firms of varying sizes and areas of practice immediately after earning their J.D. degree. Ten percent of the Class of 2011 received judicial clerkships throughout the country; 16 percent immediately entered public interest, government, or academic positions; and five percent entered the business sector.
In addition, many Columbia Law School graduates who begin their legal careers with judicial clerkships will often pursue positions in the public sector after successfully completing their clerkship experience.