Pittsburgh was one of the top 25 markets for newly minted lawyers hired at law firms, according to a report, “Jobs and JDs: Employment and Salaries of New Law Graduates,” newly released by NALP. It tracks the employment types and salary outcomes of the class of 2024.
Of 215 jobs here, 142 were at law firms and 43 joined ones with 251 or more attorneys where pay ranged from $117,000 to $225,000. Pittsburgh ranked No. 20 among the cities where the most law firm jobs were taken. New York City led the list with 3,183, more than triple the number of jobs at second place Washington, D.C. NALP noted that eight of the 25 cities providing the most jobs are not among the nation’s largest — Pittsburgh was one of this group — “reflecting shifts in demographics, populations and emerging job centers.”
While two-thirds of the attorneys who earned their JDs in 2024 went into private practice here, 10.7% took judicial clerkships, and more than three-fourths of them were employed at the federal level. Among the remainder of the class of 2024 employed in the Pittsburgh area, 8.8% took jobs in government, 7.9% are working in public interest positions, and 5.6% are in the business sector…