NALP Employment Report and Salary Survey Instructions
The National Association for Law Placement (NALP), has produced a nationwide study of employment of new J.D. graduates of ABA-approved law schools annually since 1974. This study is known and respected nationwide as the only comprehensive report on the employment experiences of new law graduates. Your participation in this survey is thus critical to developing an accurate and timely picture of the law employment marketplace.
The Washburn Law Professional Development Office provides information to NALP for each graduate. Please complete the survey even if you are not currently employed or not employed in the job of your choice. Washburn Law and NALP respect your expectations concerning confidentiality of these data. The responses provided on the enclosed survey will not be submitted directly to NALP. Data submitted to NALP will be recoded by the Professional Development Office and will not include any information identifying you as an individual. Moreover, you can be certain that NALP treats all information in a highly confidential manner. No information that could be associated with a specific individual or school is released--only aggregates and averages are published. The following guidelines will help you complete the survey.
A. Report your employment status to reflect the job you currently hold, even if you are seeking a different job. Note that you have an opportunity later in the survey to indicate that you are seeking a different job. The categories of seeking work, studying for the bar full-time, and not seeking work, apply only if you do not have a job of any type. If you are actively seeking work in addition to studying for the bar and do not have a job of any type, please report your status as "seeking work." The only case in which you should not report on the job you currently hold is if you have accepted an interim/temporary job before the start of a judicial clerkship, a position with the military JAG Corps, or other confirmed employment involving a delayed start date. In this case report the details of the pending job.
Jobs requiring bar admission include, in addition to attorney and corporate counsel positions, law clerks and judicial clerks. Examples of jobs for which a J.D. is preferred (and may even be required) include corporate contracts administrator, alternative dispute resolution specialist, government regulatory analyst., FBI special agent, jobs with legal publishers, and jobs in a law school career services office. The "other" professional category includes jobs which require professional skills or training, but for which a J.D. is neither preferred nor particularly applicable, such as accountant, teacher, business manager, nurse, etc.
A non-professional "other" job does not require any professional skills or training or is a job taken on a temporary basis and not viewed as part of a career path.
Indicate whether, for the job you currently hold, you were hired on a permanent or short-term/project basis. Note that a permanent job from the employer's perspective may be one that you consider short-term, while, for example, you continue to seek a different job. Indicate the type of job from the employer's perspective. An example of a short-term job is contract attorney; a job as an associate or a job held prior to or during law school which you continue to hold are examples of permanent jobs.
If you are pursuing an advanced degree full-time, indicate this under employment status. If, at the same time, you have paid employment or a fellowship, provide this information in the section on JOB-2 or second job.
B. If you hold more than one job, please consider what you define as your primary or main employment (JOB-1) and your secondary work (JOB-2). In addition to obvious situations of multiple paid jobs, other circumstances that should be recorded as JOB-1 and JOB-2 include: having paid employment in addition to running (or starting) your own solo law practice; owning/running a business while being employed by someone else; being employed in the civilian workforce and also a member of the military reserves.
C. To assist you in properly reporting your employer type, please use the following definitions, choosing just one type from these five choices. If you have two jobs, repeat the process for the second job.
LAW FIRM: This includes law firms specializing in public interest law and covers all law firm jobs, including associate, law clerk, paralegal, contract attorney, and clerical. A public interest law firm is a private and for-profit firm, but is distinguished from other private firms in that a majority of its practice involves clients that are typically under-represented, or groups that advocate for community, rather than corporate interests. Sliding fee cases, attorney fee cases and contingent fee cases are common. Typical areas of practice for public interest law firms include plaintiff's employment discrimination, civil rights and environmental law.
Firm size refers to total number of attorneys firm-wide counting all senior and junior partners, of counsel, staff attorneys, senior and junior associates, and the like. Law office size is defined in the same manner and refers to the size of the office where you work. Use the solo practice category only if you have established your own solo practice.
BUSINESS/INDUSTRY: These employers are subdivided into nine categories and do not refer to practice areas within law firms. Choose the one category that best describes your employer. The "other" category encompasses a wide range of profit and not-for-profit organizations such as retail establishments, private hospitals, temp agencies (including those providing temporary attorneys) and corporations of all sizes not falling into one of the specific categories listed. If you are employed in business, you do not need to report the size of your office. If you have a job with a business which performs a function traditionally performed by government, such as child support enforcement, report the job in the "other" business category. If your job is with a law firm but is on a temporary basis through an agency, report your job in the "other" business category.
For jobs in business, please also indicate the type of job you hold, e.g. management, human resources, in-house legal.
GOVERNMENT: Report both the type of job and the level of government. Specific job types to be reported include judicial clerkship, a position with the military, prosecutor, and public defender. The military includes the Judge Advocate General's Corps (all branches), the Army Corps of Engineers, and any other civilian and uniformed positions. Prosecution encompasses representation or litigation on behalf of government in criminal or civil matters. These positions may be in the US Department of Justice, state attorney's general offices, or local district attorney's offices. The "other" category is to be used only for government positions not falling into one of the above four categories. Note that positions in public education, at any level, are to reported as academic positions; jobs with political campaigns should be reported under business. Jobs with private employers but which involve provision of services sometimes performed by government, e.g. child support enforcement or public defenders (functions sometimes "contracted out"), should be reported using the appropriate private employer category rather than as government positions.
Local governments include county, municipal and city governments, as well as special-purpose entities such as local transit authorities and sanitation districts. Report noncourt jobs with government in US Territories and the District of Columbia as state level jobs. Report judicial clerkships (or other court positions) with federal courts in these jurisdictions as federal level jobs. Report similar positions with lower courts (the equivalent of a state or local court in other jurisdictions) as state level jobs. Use the "other" government level category for jobs with tribal government, foreign governments, or the United Nations.
PUBLIC INTEREST: This category includes jobs funded by the Legal Services Corporation and other organizations offering civil legal services; jobs as public defender or appellate defender; and jobs with private non-profit advocacy, religious, social service, fund-raising, community resource or cause-related organizations such as the Children's Defense Fund, United Way, and Red Cross Chapters. It also includes non-profit policy analysis and research organizations such as Brookings and the Heritage Foundation. Jobs with unions should be reported in the "other" category. The public interest category does not include jobs with trade associations, or public interest law firms.
ACADEMIC: Positions may be at any level, from elementary to higher education, and within either the private or public sector, e.g. private colleges, state universities, and local public education. If you are pursuing an advanced degree full-time, report this in Part II-Employment Status. item. If you are simultaneously working in an academic--or any other--setting, this job may be reported as JOB-2 in Part IV.
D. You should also provide the name and address of your employer and your annual starting salary. In reporting your salary, do not include items such as a bar stipend, a signing bonus, a potential bonus or contingent income. If you have accepted a judicial clerkship, report the clerkship salary, not the salary you expect to earn after the clerkship. If your salary increased between the time you started your job and the time you completed this survey, in general you should report your starting salary. If, however, your salary increased as a result of passing the bar, you may report the higher salary.
E. Complete the item on search status if you are currently employed to indicate whether or not you continue to seek a job other than the one you currently hold. Do not complete this item if you are unemployed.
F. Please describe your job, if requested for the job/employer type you indicated. You may also use the space on the back of the survey to describe any other aspects of your job or job search.
