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Law school tier shapes initial job placement, with lasting effects on career trajectory.
After the JD,
a new generation.
A national study following the lawyers admitted to the bar in 2024 through the first decade of their careers.
A generational benchmark of the contemporary U.S. legal profession.
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About the Study
A national longitudinal study of lawyers’ careers.
After the JD (AJD) is the largest and most ambitious study ever undertaken by researchers of legal careers.
Its findings — published in The Making of Lawyers’ Careers — have been used by law school administrators, legal professionals, and scholars to deepen our understanding of how legal careers unfold and how the profession itself is changing. More information about the original study is available here.
After the JD: A New Generation builds on this foundation. Led by a team of lawyers and social science researchers, the study follows lawyers admitted to the bar in 2024 through the first decade of their careers.
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Why This Study, Now
A profession transformed.
The legal profession has changed profoundly since 2000. The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped both legal education and the workplace; student debt has risen sharply; the social and political landscape has shifted significantly; and new technologies — including generative AI — are reshaping what it means to build a legal career. Its effects are expected to ripple across all professional ranks and settings, destabilizing long-worn patterns.
Following a new generation of American lawyers in a changing legal profession.
After the JD: A New Generation will provide the first generational account of these changes. We are at a critical moment requiring systematic study of how legal careers adapt to technological, social, and political transformations.
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The Research
Questions we will answer.
- How do law school experience, prestige, and debt shape the legal careers of the new generation?
- What are the effects of remote work, hybrid practice, and new technologies on career trajectories?
- How do gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and first-generation status shape access to opportunity in today’s profession?
- Why do lawyers leave — or stay in — the practice of law, and what paths do they pursue?
- How do satisfaction, well-being, and professional identity evolve across the first decade of a legal career?
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Method
Study methodology.
The study targets lawyers admitted to the bar in 2024 through a nationally representative design. Its first phase combines two complementary methods.
- A modular online longitudinal survey, with follow-up waves over the first decade of respondents’ careers.
- In-depth qualitative interviews with a purposive subsample, producing narrative career accounts.
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Research Findings
Key findings from the original study.
The first three waves of data from After the JD generated more than fifty publications and culminated in The Making of Lawyers’ Careers, which reviewers call “the gold standard for studying legal careers.”
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Legal careers are highly mobile yet patterned — mobility follows recognizable pathways across sectors.
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Gender pay gaps emerge early, persist, and widen across lawyers’ careers.
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Attorneys of color report persistent experiences of racial discrimination and workplace bias.
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Social origin and class background shape access to elite positions and professional networks.
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78% of lawyers report moderate-to-extreme satisfaction with their decision to become lawyers, despite these inequalities.
The Capstone Book
The Making of Lawyers’ Careers
Inequality and Opportunity in the American Legal Profession
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Research Team
Principal investigators.
Swethaa Ballakrishnen
UC Irvine School of Law
Elizabeth Bodamer
Law School Admission Council
Meghan Dawe
American Bar Foundation
Ronit Dinovitzer
University of Toronto; American Bar Foundation
Bryant G. Garth
American Bar Foundation; UC Irvine School of Law
Andreea Mogoșanu
American Bar Foundation
Robert L. Nelson
American Bar Foundation; Northwestern University
Aaron Taylor
AccessLex Institute
Fiona Trevelyan
NALP Foundation
David B. Wilkins
Harvard Law School
About the ABF
The American Bar Foundation is an independent research institute advancing the understanding of law, legal processes, and legal institutions through rigorous empirical social science.
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Endorsers
Funders and endorsers.
Funders
- American Bar Foundation
- AccessLex Institute
- NALP Foundation for Law Career Research & Education
Endorsements
- Association of American Law Schools (AALS)
- Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ)
- Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA)
- National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE)
- National Center for State Courts (NCSC)
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Inquiries
Get in touch.
Project Coordinator
Andreea Mogoșanu
American Bar Foundation
750 N. Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, IL 60611
750 N. Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, IL 60611