Elevated Services, Record-Breaking Placements: How UB School of Law is Driving Career Success

Let’s start with the numbers: the Class of 2024 achieved a record-high 95.625% placement rate, one of the best in the law school's history! This milestone is proof that UB’s students are getting the stepping stone they need to launch into meaningful careers.

So, what’s behind this success? A deeply personalized, proactive approach to career development that starts from your very first semester.

Navigating the legal job market is a daunting task for seasoned professionals, not to mention first-year students. That’s why UB School of Law’s Career Services Office (CSO) gets involved early.

“We start by introducing students to various kinds of jobs,” says Lisa Bauer, assistant dean for career services. “By December or January of their first year, students should be applying for their first summer internship, and we don’t want them missing deadlines for their dream jobs. It’s very important in law school to have those internships in order to get you where you want to be long term.”

New programming like Bauer Power Hours offers small-group coaching on practical job search skills from resume and cover letter writing to networking through LinkedIn and succeeding in interviews. These fun and casual sessions are held regularly throughout the semester and provide a supportive space for students to build confidence and camaraderie while honing their job-searching skills.

“It’s designed to be a group counseling session for careers,” Bauer explains. “We really focus intensely on some specific career search skills that you need to have.”

These sessions are especially valuable as students prepare for their first legal job, the all-important 1L summer internship that could play a major role in shaping career trajectories. 

Alongside Bauer Power Hours, the CSO also hosts Plan Your Path, a weekly hybrid event series where students interact with practicing attorneys—including many UB Law alumni—to discover the ins and outs of various legal careers.

Fall sessions cover broad sectors like government, public interest, private firms, in-house counsel and the judiciary. In spring, the focus narrows to specific practice areas like litigation, corporate law, environmental law and more.

“As a former law student, I remember how daunting it was to research the wide variety of legal career opportunities,” says Jessica Simonetti ’20, now working for the Legal Aid Society of Rochester, NY. “Events like this are invaluable, because students are able to hear firsthand accounts from attorneys in a specific field.”

Career planning at UB Law isn’t just about programming. On Monday mornings, students can stop by the CSO’s Sip and Share sessions led by Associate Dean Jennifer Scharf ’05. Held in O’Brian Hall, these sessions involve a free cup of coffee, a snack and casual conversation with the Career Services team.

“It’s a way for them to get to know us and their colleagues,” says Bauer. “It’s reinforced the open-door policy in our offices that we’ve always been committed to.”

One thing is for sure: if you invest in UB School of Law, you can be sure that UB School of Law is investing in you. Top-tier academics and experiential learning, plus a rockstar career services team, equals a recipe for success. With a 95.625% placement rate for the Class of 2024, UB’s students aren’t just dreaming about the future—they’re stepping into it.

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