{"id":159659,"date":"2026-08-06T08:46:58","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T16:46:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/08\/06\/biglaw-is-now-the-largest-employer-of-new-law-grads\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T08:46:58","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T16:46:58","slug":"biglaw-is-now-the-largest-employer-of-new-law-grads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/08\/06\/biglaw-is-now-the-largest-employer-of-new-law-grads\/","title":{"rendered":"Biglaw Is Now The Largest Employer Of New Law Grads"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><u>Ed. note<\/u>: Welcome to our daily feature,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/tag\/quote-of-the-day\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Quote of the Day<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Today, firms of more than 500 lawyers have firmly established themselves as the single largest employer of new law graduates, accounting for more than one in five employed graduates of the Class of 2025. When firms of between 251 and 500 lawyers are included, approximately one in every four employed graduates now begins practice in [Biglaw]. That transformation has profound implications for legal education and recruiting.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em><span><i>\u2014<\/i><\/span> Nikia Gray, executive director of the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), in comments given concerning <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nalp.org\/uploads\/PressReleases\/Classof2025SelectedFindings_PressRelease.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">selected findings<\/a> on the Class of 2025\u2019s employment outcomes. The employment rate for the Class of 2025 was the second highest in NALP\u2019s history, with large law firms emerging as the dominant employer type, which is a major transition from years past.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"150\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/Staci-Zaretsky.jpg?resize=150%2C100&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-66762\" title=\"\"><figcaption><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/author\/staci-zaretsky\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Staci Zaretsky<\/a> is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to <a href=\"mailto:staci@abovethelaw.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/stacizaretsky.bsky.social\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Bluesky<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/stacizaretsky\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">X\/Twitter<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.threads.net\/@stacizaretsky\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Threads<\/a>, or connect with her on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/staci-zaretsky\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/2026\/08\/biglaw-is-now-the-largest-employer-of-new-law-grads\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Biglaw Is Now The Largest Employer Of New Law Grads<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><u>Ed. note<\/u>: Welcome to our daily feature,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/tag\/quote-of-the-day\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Quote of the Day<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Today, firms of more than 500 lawyers have firmly established themselves as the single largest employer of new law graduates, accounting for more than one in five employed graduates of the Class of 2025. When firms of between 251 and 500 lawyers are included, approximately one in every four employed graduates now begins practice in [Biglaw]. That transformation has profound implications for legal education and recruiting.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em><span><i>\u2014<\/i><\/span> Nikia Gray, executive director of the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), in comments given concerning <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nalp.org\/uploads\/PressReleases\/Classof2025SelectedFindings_PressRelease.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">selected findings<\/a> on the Class of 2025\u2019s employment outcomes. The employment rate for the Class of 2025 was the second highest in NALP\u2019s history, with large law firms emerging as the dominant employer type, which is a major transition from years past.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"150\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/Staci-Zaretsky.jpg?resize=150%2C100&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-66762\" title=\"\"><figcaption><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/author\/staci-zaretsky\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Staci Zaretsky<\/a> is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to <a href=\"mailto:staci@abovethelaw.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/stacizaretsky.bsky.social\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Bluesky<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/stacizaretsky\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">X\/Twitter<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.threads.net\/@stacizaretsky\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Threads<\/a>, or connect with her on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/staci-zaretsky\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/2026\/08\/biglaw-is-now-the-largest-employer-of-new-law-grads\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Biglaw Is Now The Largest Employer Of New Law Grads<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature,\u00a0Quote of the Day. Today, firms of more than 500 lawyers have firmly established themselves as the single largest employer of new law graduates, accounting for more than one in five employed graduates of the Class of 2025. When firms of between 251 and 500 lawyers are included, approximately [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":159573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-159659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Staci-Zaretsky-A00cAL.jpg?fit=150%2C100&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}