Jobs

Few degrees are more versatile than the Juris Doctor – and RWU Law’s Office of Career Services has the resources you’ll need to navigate a successful professional trajectory. Our Assistant Dean of Career Services, Anthony L. Bastone II, is a nationally known expert in the field, with more than three decades of experience at some of the nation’s top law schools. He works closely with another seasoned professional, Director of Career Services Veronica Paricio, former Dean of Career Services at the University of Colorado School of Law.

A VERSATILE DEGREE

RWU Law graduates have put their degrees to work in a broad array of professional contexts – from the largest international law firms to community service organizations; from public to corporate settings; and onward to politics, sports, and high finance. In an increasingly competitive job market, the Juris Doctor opens doors that are closed to holders of a B.A., while offering tremendous flexibility both within and beyond traditional legal career paths.

“A law degree really gives you unparalleled career mobility,” notes Bastone. “Lawyers serve as congressmen, college and law school professors, attorneys general, public defenders – not to mention the President and Vice President of the United States. Lawyers work in big-city megafirms; in intimate small and solo practices, and in community organizations serving the public interest. They are found throughout federal, state and local governments and in the diplomatic corps; they run Fortune 500 companies, and they direct hundreds of legal service organizations.”

The training and skills you’ll gain at Roger Williams will help you to forge and maintain a lasting professional relevance in these rapidly changing times.*

*Read the Report of the ABA Commission on the Impact of the Economic Crisis on the Profession and Legal Needs, titled "The Value Proposition of Attending Law School."

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Students
RWU law students can access their Symplicity accounts for current job postings. 

Alumni
RWU Law alumni can access job postings through Symplicity.  Alumni prior to the class of 2008 will need to register for their Symplicity accounts.  To register, please click here and choose the “Register” button on the right-hand side of the page.  You will receive an email with your username and password once your registration has been approved.

Please contact the Office of Career Services if you have any difficulty accessing your account.

Employment Report & Salary Survey – Class of 2010

The National Association for Legal Career Professionals, formerly known as the National Association for Law Placement, requires its members to report on the employment status of their recent graduates annually in February, nine months following May graduation. Law schools are also required to report this data to the American Bar Association. The following gives a brief synopsis of the employment of Roger Williams University School of Law’s Class of 2010.

Employment Statistics

N=171

From the below data, we can see that 83.44% of the Class of 2010 was either employed or seeking a graduate degree in a full-time program. The employment status of less than 5% of the class was unknown at the time of this report.

Employment Type

N=123

As expected, nearly 50% of our employed graduates began their legal career in private practice. We were pleased to note that a little over 16% of our employed graduates began their legal careers as judicial clerks, a slight increase over the class of 2009 which reported at 14.6%. (See Dean David Logan’s blog regarding judicial clerkships as a quality indicator.) Other employment types were fairly consistent with the national averages.

Employer Region

N= 123

It was no surprise to find that the vast majority of our employed graduates began their legal careers in the New England states, totaling 66.67%. The next region of choice for our employed graduates was the Mid-Atlantic states at 16.26%, followed by the South Atlantic states at 10.57%.

Salary Data

N=39*

Average Salary: $51,038                   Median Salary: $47,000

* James Leipold, Executive Director of the NALP, reports that of all reported placement statistics, salary data is the most problematic because far fewer graduates report their salaries than their job status -- and this makes the nature of reporting unreliable at best.  Our salary figures for the Class of 2010 reflect this: of 123 employed graduates, only 39 reported salary. Thus the salary figures reported above are based solely on these responses (the number of respondents is listed in parentheses to the right of each median salary figure), and not on a statistically significant sampling.