Career Services: More Than 90 percent of Class of 2006 Employed at National Median Salary of $62,000
The National Association for Legal Career Professionals (NALP) publication, Jobs & JD’s, Class of 2006 analyzed employment data submitted for almost 44,000 law school graduates six to nine months following their graduation from 195 ABA-Accredited Law Schools between Aug. 31, 2005 and Sept. 1, 2006. This invaluable resource shows that 90.7% of the Class of 2006 was employed as of Feb. 15, 2007, while UF Law’s NALP employment rate was 91.7 percent. The employment status by region and state of the law school shows that of the 2,195 law students who graduated in Florida, 87.6 percent were employed.
The report also shows that Florida ranked first in terms of the number of entry-level legal positions gained within state government. Not surprisingly, Washington, D.C. ranked highest of the geographic areas with the largest number of graduates being employed at the federal level.
A look at the employed graduates by salary reveals that the national median salary for all types of jobs was $62,000. While UF Law was higher than the national median for all types of jobs, at $66,291, it was lower in its largest employer type. UF graduates employed in private practice constituted 56% of those employed and they reported a median salary of $80,000. This difference is attributable to the size of the law firm as can be seen below. Florida has fewer of the large law firms and UF Law has fewer graduates at the largest of law firms.
| (%) | Type of employer | National median salary |
| 55.8% | private practice | $95,000 |
| 14.2% | business and industry | $65,000 |
| 11.7% | government or military | $48,000 |
| 9.8% | judicial clerkships | $46,450 |
| 5.4% | public interest | $40,000 |
| 1.7% | academic jobs | $45,000 |
| Number of lawyers | % of law firm employers by size | National median salary |
| 2-10 | 17.8 | $50,000 |
| 11-25 | 5.4 | $62,000 |
| 26-50 | 3.6 | $73,000 |
| 51-100 | 3.1 | $85,000 |
| 101-250 | 4.7 | $105,000 |
| 251-500 | 4.7 | $125,000 |
| 500+ | 11.0 | $135,000 |
| Starting Salary | City |
| $90,167 | Naples |
| $85,599 | Miami |
| $83,240 | West Palm Beach |
| $77,757 | Tampa |
| $75,000 | Coral Gables |
| $70,320 | Jacksonville |
| $69,493 | Orlando |
| $68,333 | Boca Raton |
| $67,482 | Fort Lauderdale |
| $67,250 | Sarasota |
| $66,500 | St. Petersburg |
| $63,545 | Tallahassee |
| $63,173 | Hollywood |
| $62,000 | Clearwater |
| $60,833 | Pensacola |
| $57,800 | Daytona Beach |
| $56,600 | Ocala |
| $55,000 | Plantation |
| $54,400 | Coral Springs |
| $54,000 | Lakeland |
The mean entry-level salary for Atlanta firms was $100,075 and for Washington, D.C. $125, 442. Stop by the CCS to review Jobs & JD’s, Class of 2006 or for assistance with formulating your job search strategy.
