Survey shows outstanding employment outcomes for MLS JD graduates
A comprehensive survey of 2014 Melbourne Law School JD graduates has revealed an employment rate of 98 per cent, 18 months after completing law school.
Nearly 75 per cent of graduates are employed in graduate law positions, with a further 10 per cent working in other graduate positions. In a difficult market, this is an outstanding outcome and sets up our graduates well for their careers.
Our survey shows graduates from the class of 2014 are employed by more than 120 different organisations, ranging from national and international law firms, courts, community law, government departments, statutory bodies, business and management consulting firms. Many of the employers, particularly the law firms, employed a number of our graduates.
Employment Outcomes: 2014 JD graduates, 18-months after completion
To help you understand the language used in the graphs:
- Legal graduate positions include those employed as a graduate trainee, a solicitor or barrister or a judge’s associate.
- Other legal roles include roles such as a paralegal, legal researcher or other roles working with law firms or barristers.
- Other graduate positions are those that require a graduate degree but not necessarily a law degree, for example a graduate position in government, business, management consultancies, tax firms and other similar employers.
- Other general roles are roles that might not require a degree and are not related directly to law. Some, however, are very interesting roles with good potential for a future career.
In recent years there has been considerable media attention given to employment outcomes for law students. While the government collects data about job outcomes from various courses around the country, this is done only a few months after graduation and does not include information about the types of jobs that graduates obtain.
Many law students can still be completing their practical legal training (PLT) at this time and we know that while some students find employment directly after law school, others find work after completing PLT and some take a little longer to find employment.
In order to provide a clearer picture of career outcomes, MLS decided to undertake a survey of graduates 18 months after graduating. This is an exercise we will repeat each year in the interests of providing transparent data and information on job opportunities to both our current and potential students.
A similar survey was conducted with 2013 graduates, 16 months after graduation. More information on both the 2013 and 2014 survey results can be found in the full report.