Dayton Docket

The University of Dayton School of Law finished second in Ohio in one of the key measures used to judge the success of graduates in finding employment.

Job numbers for the Class of 2023 show 89.5% of graduates got full-time, long-term, bar required or J.D. advantage jobs in the 10 months after graduation. That number puts Dayton Law second among the 10 law schools in the Ohio area, according to an analysis of the Employment Summary Reports released to the American Bar Association.

This is the fourth time in 5 years the School of Law has been in the top 2 in Ohio in that metric and it’s been in the top 3 all 5 years.

Director of the Career Services Office and Assistant Dean Tim Swensen says along with the abilities of the graduates, a lot of the credit goes to UDSL’s alumni and their willingness to help new grads.

“A huge factor in the success of our graduates had to do with alumni involvement,” Swensen says. “They found opportunities for students or got them connected to people who had opportunities they were interested in.”

Swensen says Dayton Law professors also played a big role.

“There were ton of students who mentioned how faculty members were instrumental in helping them find positions or begin to figure out what they wanted to do and where their strengths were,” Swensen says.

Along with success in getting jobs, graduates in the Class of 2023 saw an increase in the average and median salaries of those jobs.

Among the employment trends for graduates, Swensen says an increased number went into government jobs, specifically as prosecutors, and more graduates this year took jobs in rural areas.

“There were a really large number of people who went into private practice focused on small firms in rural communities,” Swensen says. “That’s really good because there is a huge need for that.”