NALP Survey Targets Class of 2010
Georgia State University College of Law has been selected to participate in the National Association of Law Placement's new research project to measure and report on law school alumni employment status and career satisfaction three years after graduation.
"A law school graduate's initial nine-month employment status has never been an adequate measure of either career satisfaction or the return on investment in a legal education," says Tammy Patterson, CEO and president of the NALP Foundation, which is co-sponsoring the project.
The beta test will focus on the Class of 2010 at 20 accredited law schools, with the goal of rolling out a similar survey of 2011 graduates at all NALP schools next year.
"The Class of 2010 was a pivotal time in legal employment history because of drastic market conditions," says Vickie Brown, director of the Career Services Office. "The outcomes of this class are of particular interest to the project leaders."
NALP and its foundation are working with the selected schools to test the survey instrument and to evaluate the policies and procedures that support the research project long term. NALP will survey the class again at seven years after graduation.
At the conclusion of the beta period, participating schools will receive a school-specific report with the data describing its own alumni results and an aggregate national report for benchmarking, which Brown says will be instrumental in "helping our office better adapt to the changing legal market, as well as enhance available services and resources for students and alumni."
Individual school reports will be confidential and reported only to the participating school and those survey takers who request it. National aggregate data will be published and made available to the public.