Brooklyn Law Ranks 43rd on National Law Journal’s Go-To Law Schools Ranking

The impressively high percentage of 2024 Brooklyn Law School graduates who were hired as first-year associates at the largest U.S. law firms has, once again, earned Brooklyn Law School a spot on the National Law Journal’s list of Go-To Law Schools, where the school came in at No. 43.  

As was the case in past years, Brooklyn Law is the only independent law school to make the Top 50 Go-To Law Schools rankings, which were released as a sneak peek Wednesday on the journal’s website, Law.com.  

“We’re pleased that Brooklyn Law continues to place strongly into the most competitive segments of the legal employment market, said President and Joseph Crea Dean David D. Meyer. “Nearly a quarter of our graduates fanned out to 64 different law firms on the NLJ Top 500 list, and US News & World Report just ranked Brooklyn #38 in Big Law placement.  Brooklyn is well known to top firms as a place with a deep pool of talent and graduates who are smart, savvy, and ready to roll up their sleeves.”  

This year the National Law Journal's annual survey based the rankings on the nation’s 500 largest law firms instead of the top 100 firms, which were used in past years.    

Heather Spielmaker, associate dean of the Career and Professional Development Center, said a total of 97 students from the Class of 2024 were hired at the Top 500 firms used in the new ranking. Last year, there were 71 students hired at the Top 100 firms, used in that year’s ranking. While apples-to-apples comparisons are not possible because of the new methodology, the data the school shares with the American Bar Association (ABA) shows that Brooklyn Law’s already-stalwart Big Law performance remains strong, Spielmaker said.   

Just as Law.com released its list, the ABA released new national employment data Thursday for the Class of 2024 that also bodes well for Brooklyn Law School graduates. The national average showed that 87.1 percent of 2024 graduates who earned a J.D. degree from an ABA-approved law school were employed in full-time, long-term Bar Admission Required/Anticipated or J.D. Advantage jobs roughly 10 months after graduation. Brooklyn Law School beat this average, with a score of 89 percent. Additionally, the national average for these types of jobs hit a new record this year, increasing by 1.5 percent over last year. Brooklyn Law School rose above that figure as well, with employment of our graduates increasing by 2.3 percent over last year.