James Leipold, Executive Director for the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), provided employment statistics, insight into the hiring market and advice to upper-level law students at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law during a discussion earlier this month. His comments, offered as part of a joint program by the Office of the Dean and the Office of Career Planning, were designed to equip students with information necessary to leverage themselves in the still-challenging legal market.

In presenting NALP’s statistical information on the class of 2013, Leipold emphasized that for the second year in a row law graduates nationally obtained more jobs than the previous year, even though the overall unemployment rate still rose. This was due to the historically large graduating class of 2013, something that is expected to change going forward with smaller graduating classes.