National Law Journal:  The Go-To Law Schools: A Special Report:

This annual special report focuses on what, for many law students, is the bottom line: ­whether they stand any chance in hell of landing a coveted ­associateship at a major law firm. We found that the picture was marginally brighter — but that isn’t saying much. 

The National Law Journal ranked the Top 50 law schools by the percentage of their 2012 graduates that found positions at NLJ Top 250 law firms.  Here are the Top 25:

1. Pennsylvania (60.4%)
2. Chicago (55.1%)
3. Columbia (53.1%)
4. NYU (52.9%)
5. Northwestern (51.4%)
6. Harvard (50.3%)
7. Duke (48.4%)
8. Stanford (47.3%)
9. UC-Berkeley (45.3%)
10. Cornell (44.3%)
11. Virginia (42.3%)
12. Michigan (38.4%)
13. Georgetown (31.3%)
14. Yale (30.6%)
15. UCLA (29.1%)
16. USC (28.6%)
17. Vanderbilt (26.3%)
18. Texas (25.8%)
19. Fordham (23.4%)
20. UC-Irvine (23.2%)
21. George Washington (22.5%)
22. Boston University (21.3%)
23. Boston College (21.1%)
24. Illinois (18.8%)
25. Washington University (16.3%)

The National Law Journal also lists the 17 law schools that most outperformed their U.S. News ranking. Here are the Top 10:

1. Howard (+88)
2. Villanova (+59)
3. Rutgers-Camden (+51)
4. Santa Clara (+50)
5. Seton Hall (+32)
6. Houston (+28)
7. Kentucky (+24)
8. SMU (+24)
9. Tennessee (+19)
10. Loyola-Chicago (+18)

The National Law Journal also lists the 54 law schools that saw the most graduates promoted to partner in the NLJ Top 250 in 2012. Here are the Top 10:

1. Harvard (66)
2. Georgetown (39)
3. Virginia (36)
4. NYU (33)
5. Michigan (31)
6. George Washington (29)
7. Chicago (27)
8. Columbia (27)
9. Northwestern (21)
10. Boston College (20) & Texas (20)

Prior National Law Journal Rankings by Graduates in BigLaw Jobs:

• 2012
• 2011