The University of Pittsburgh School of Law was established in 1895 as the Western University of Pennsylvania Law Department. The school was located in a building on Forbes Avenue in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh and was the first law school in Western Pennsylvania. In 1896, the law department became an independent division within the university and began offering a three-year course of study leading to a degree in law. The program had four faculty members, including its dean, and approximately 20 students.
In 1901, the school moved to its current location at Barco Law Building on Forbes Avenue. During this period, many prominent lawyers graduated from the school including Supreme Court Justice Robert G. Hughes and U.S Representative Thomas M. Kunesh. In 1915, the school became affiliated with Pittsburg’s Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) and adopted its current name “University of Pittsburgh School of Law” to reflect its new affiliation with Pittsburg’s prestigious university system. Check topschoolsintheusa for Oregon law schools.
In 1931, the school moved into a newly constructed building at 4200 Fifth Avenue on Pittsburg’s historic North Side which would later be named Barco Law Building after former Dean Henry H. Barco Jr., who served as dean from 1938-1976. During this period many prominent alumni attended or taught at Pitt such as Chief Justice John Marshall Harlan II, former Attorney General Nicholas deB Katzenbach, and former Secretary of State Edmund Muskie.
Today, Pitt Law is one of only two law schools in Pennsylvania that are accredited by both the American Bar Association (ABA) and Association of American Law Schools (AALS). It is ranked among America’s top 100 law schools by US News & World Report and offers a wide range of legal specializations such as Business/Corporate Law, Intellectual Property/Cyberlaw, International/Comparative Law and Environmental/Land Use & Zoning law. The curriculum includes relevant topics such as legal analytics, artificial intelligence, business regulation, health care regulation, media regulation, international trade, dispute resolution, public interest lawyering, legal ethics & professionalism, etc.
University of Pittsburgh School of Law is located in the state of Pennsylvania. As one of the leading law programs, University of Pittsburgh School of Law has a high average LSAT score of 157-161 when recruiting new students. As a return, the median starting salary for law graduates reaches $102,500 per year. See the following table for detailed admissions information and career profiles of University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
The University of Pittsburgh School of Law’s admissions statistics for the Class of 2022 reveal an impressive group of students. The incoming class is composed of approximately 200 students, with an average LSAT score of 162 and a median GPA of 3.63. About 43% are female, and 57% are male. The entering class reflects the diversity of our country with 23% identifying as members of a minority group, including African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and multi-racial students. Additionally, about 25% self-identify as LGBTQ+. The student body comes from 40 different states and territories across the United States as well as many foreign countries such as Canada, China, France, India, Mexico and Nigeria. Moreover, the University is proud to welcome veterans who have served in the U.S. military and have chosen to pursue their legal education at Pitt Law.
Fall 2019 Admissions and Enrollment Statistics
Total number of full- and part-time applicants
2,177
Total number of full- and part-time acceptances
811
Overall acceptance rate
37.3%
Total number of full- and part-time first-year students enrolled
235
Number of full-time program applicants
2,177
Number of full-time program acceptances
811
Full-time acceptance rate
37.3%
Number of first-year full-time students enrolled
235
Number of part-time program applicants
N/A
Number of part-time program acceptances
N/A
Part-time acceptance rate
N/A
Number of first-year part-time students enrolled
N/A
Fall 2019 GPA and LSAT Scores
25th-75th percentile GPA scores for all students
3.18-3.63
25th-75th percentile LSAT scores for all students
157-161
25th-75th percentile undergraduate GPA for full-time students
3.18-3.63
25th-75th percentile LSAT scores for full-time students
157-161
25th-75th percentile undergraduate GPA for part-time students
N/A
25th-75th percentile LSAT scores for part-time students
N/A
Careers: University of Pittsburgh
Bar Statistics (Winter and Summer 2018 administrations)
State where the greatest number of first-time test takers took the bar
PA
School’s bar passage rate for first-time test takers
90.6%
Statewide bar passage rate for first-time test takers
86.7%
Class of 2018 Graduates
Total graduates
240
Graduates employed at graduation
71.8%
Graduates known to be employed nine months after graduation
94.2%
Starting Salaries of 2018 Graduates Employed Full-time
25th percentile private sector starting salary
$56,500
Median private sector starting salary
$102,500
75th percentile private sector starting salary
$145,000
Percent in the private sector who reported salary information
64%
Median public service starting salary
$47,000
Areas of Legal Practice (Class of 2018)
Percent employed in academia
0.5%
Percent employed in business and industry
16.6%
Percent employed in government
9.7%
Percent employed in all judicial clerkships
7.4%
Percent employed in law firms
61.6%
Percent employed in public interest
4.2%
Percent employed in an unknown field
0.0%
Percent employed in a judicial clerkship by an Article III federal judge
1.4%
2018 Graduates Employment Location
Graduates employed in-state
63%
Graduates employed in foreign countries
1%
Number of states where graduates are employed
24
New England (CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT)
1.9%
Middle Atlantic (NY, NJ, PA)
67.4%
East North Central (IL, IN, MI, OH, WI)
4.7%
West North Central (IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD)
0.5%
South Atlantic (DE, DC, FL, GA, MD, NC, SC, VA, WV)
18.1%
East South Central (AL, KY, MS, TN)
0.5%
West South Central (AR, LA, OK, TX)
0.9%
Pacific (AK, CA, HI, OR, WA)
4.1%
Mountain (AZ, CO, ID, MT, NV, NM, UT, WY)
0.9%
Employment location unknown
0.0%
Career Services
(Data appear as originally submitted by this school)
Career services operations
After meeting individually with each 1L student to assess his/her needs and initiate career development goals, the CSO coaches students through the job searching process. In addition to identifying employment opportunities locally, regionally and nationally, the CSO also runs a Pitt Law Attorney Networking Directory and sponsors numerous programs connecting students with practicing attorneys.
Job Type
Bar admission required or anticipated (e.g., attorney and corporate counsel positions, law clerks, judicial clerks)
89.8%
J.D. preferred, law degree enhances position (e.g., corporate contracts administrator, alternative dispute resolution specialist, government regulatory analyst, FBI special agent)
7.8%
Professional/other (jobs that require professional skills or training but for which a J.D. is neither preferred nor particularly applicable; e.g., accountant, teacher, business manager, nurse)
1.4%
Nonprofessional/other (job that does not require any professional skills or training or is taken on a temporary basis and not viewed as part of a career path)
