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The best law schools for washington dc, ranked by the share of the class of 2025 employed in the District. Georgetown leads at 37.1 percent, GW at 41.5 percent and UVA at 28.2 percent. For government and policy work the ranking looks different from every general list.
Share is graduates employed in the District of Columbia divided by total graduates, from each school's ABA employment summary. Virginia and Maryland placement is counted separately by the ABA and is not included.
#SchoolShare to Washington DCGraduates thereClass sizeFirms 101+1GW41.5%23656932.5%2Georgetown37.1%26170361.6%3UVA28.2%8730869.2%4Yale21.8%4621137.4%5Harvard20.1%12160258.8%6Stanford17.9%3419048.9%7Duke11.7%2723074.8%8Penn11.5%2925271.4%9Cornell8.6%1719765.5%10Columbia7.9%3645878.4%11UNC7.1%1318338.3%12NYU5.0%2141767.4%13Berkeley4.9%1428362.2%14USC1.8%422767.8%15UCLA1.2%433260.8%
Sources: each school's 2025 ABA 509 report and class of 2025 ABA Employment Summary, verified July 26, 2026. Share column is our arithmetic. Schools with no reported DC placement in their top three markets are omitted.
GW at 41.5 percent and Georgetown at 37.1 percent are the two DC-native schools, and the raw counts show the difference in scale: Georgetown sent 261 graduates to the District, GW sent 236.
UVA is the strongest non-DC feeder at 28.2 percent, sending 87 graduates, which is more than its New York placement. Harvard sent 121 and Yale 46, both large absolute numbers from national schools.
The choice between Georgetown and GW is the central DC question, and it is not close on outcomes: Georgetown places 61.6 percent into firms of 101 or more attorneys against GW's 32.5 percent. Our GW comparison work covers the tier below.
DC is the government market, and the schools that place there heavily are the schools with the deepest government pipelines. That is a different question from large-firm placement and deserves a different answer.
Georgetown's location advantage is structural rather than reputational: the campus sits near Union Station and Judiciary Square, agencies and Congress are a short ride away, and part-time and evening study makes working for the government while studying practical.
GW is on the WMATA Foggy Bottom station with the same geographic advantage at a lower cost of attendance, $114,097 against Georgetown's $124,600.
For federal honors programs and agency work, note the hiring timing rather than the school: DOJ's Summer Law Intern Program excludes first-semester 1Ls, and DOJ volunteer internships open to 1Ls only after December 1 (https://www.justice.gov/legal-careers/volunteer-legal-internships).
DC is also the strongest appellate clerkship market in the country, and the DC Circuit is the most sought-after federal appellate court after the Supreme Court.
Read the clerkship rates alongside DC placement. Yale at 23.2 percent, UChicago at 22.7 percent and Harvard at 16.6 percent send graduates into federal chambers at rates that dwarf the DC-native schools, and many of those chambers are in Washington.
If DC appellate work is the goal, the clerkship column may matter more than the DC placement column, which is exactly the kind of inversion a single ranking hides.
Georgetown at $124,600 is among the most expensive schools in this set, and DC government salaries do not service that debt on a normal timeline.
Since July 1, 2026 federal borrowing is capped at $50,000 a year and $200,000 lifetime with Grad PLUS eliminated, which makes the gap between a DC public-sector salary and a DC cost of attendance a financing question rather than a lifestyle one. The caps come from the Reimagining and Improving Student Education final rule, published May 1, 2026 and effective July 1, 2026, which attributes them to the Working Families Tax Cuts Act (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/05/01/2026-08556/reimagining-and-improving-student-education-federal-student-loan-program-final-regulations).
That is why loan repayment assistance matters more here than in almost any other market. Georgetown runs a guaranteed summer funding program and an LRAP; our public interest table covers verified terms across the set.
Georgetown places 61.6 percent into firms of 101 or more attorneys against GW's 32.5 percent, and 5.0 percent into federal clerkships against GW's 2.6 percent. On outcomes it is not close.
GW is materially cheaper at $114,097 against $124,600, and far easier to get into at 27.2 percent against 15.8 percent. Those are real advantages for the right applicant.
Both discount broadly, GW at 77 percent of students and Georgetown at 61 percent, though Georgetown's median award is larger at $35,000 against $28,000.
The decision rule: if you can reach Georgetown's bands and finance it after negotiation, the outcome gap justifies the price. If you cannot, GW is a genuine DC school rather than a consolation, and its 236 DC placements prove it.
DC is the government market, and government hiring runs on calendars that have nothing to do with firm recruiting. Learning them in September of 1L is worth more than any school choice at the margin.
The Department of Justice is the clearest case: its Summer Law Intern Program excludes students who have not completed a full semester, so entering 1Ls are ineligible, while DOJ volunteer internships open to 1Ls only after December 1 under DOJ's own rule.
Agency windows run later than firms and vary widely. The FTC's Bureau of Competition accepts 1L applications from November 20 to January 8 for the following summer, roughly four months behind its 2L cycle.
Most of these positions are unpaid, which is why guaranteed summer funding and loan repayment assistance matter more in DC than in almost any other market.
Every number in the table comes from a primary disclosure: each school's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report for admissions, cost and aid, and its class of 2025 ABA Employment Summary for outcomes. Both are filed annually and both are free to read.
We did not use rankings, surveys or reputation. Where a figure required arithmetic, such as a percentage or a net cost, we state that it is our arithmetic and give the inputs so you can check it.
Where we could not verify something, the table says so rather than filling the gap with an estimate. That is why some rows read not published or not verified instead of carrying a number that would look more complete and mean less.
It cannot tell you your outcome. Every figure here describes a class of several hundred people, and your position inside that distribution is set by first-year grades that have not happened yet.
It cannot price your offer, because aid depends on where your numbers sit against each school's medians rather than on the median award. Half of every school's grant recipients got less than the figure shown.
And it cannot capture fit, culture, or whether you will do your best work in that building for three years. Those are discoverable only by visiting and asking current students specific questions, which is worth more than any table on this site.
Firm applications open in early November now, which is roughly a month earlier than the advice most 1Ls are given at orientation.
DOJ volunteer internships open to first-semester 1Ls only after December 1 under DOJ's own rule, and the Summer Law Intern Program excludes them entirely.
Agency windows run months behind firm windows and vary by agency, so monitoring is the strategy rather than a single application push. Most of these positions are unpaid, which makes school summer funding decisive.
GW at 41.5 percent of the class of 2025 and Georgetown at 37.1 percent are the two DC-native schools, with Georgetown sending the larger absolute number at 261 graduates. UVA is the strongest outside feeder at 28.2 percent.
Georgetown and GW, on location and network. Georgetown places 61.6 percent into large firms against GW's 32.5 percent, while GW's cost of attendance is about $10,500 lower per year.
Georgetown on outcomes: 61.6 percent large-firm placement against 32.5 percent, and 5.0 percent federal clerkships against 2.6 percent. GW is less expensive and admits at a much higher rate.
Yale at 23.2 percent, UChicago at 22.7 percent and Harvard at 16.6 percent federal clerkship rates send graduates into federal chambers at rates well above the DC-native schools, and many of those chambers are in Washington.
Written by Ali, Georgetown Law, founder of Lovare Institut.
July 30, 2026
July 30, 2026