PlainAttorney Register file of Sep 29, 2026 · NY Office of Court Administration, via data.ny.gov

Law schools on the New York register: who is still registered

The share of each school’s living graduates still registered in New York, current or due

Schools with 1,000 or more
57
All living registrants
87.1%
File of
Sep 29, 2026

Across the New York register file of Sep 29, 2026, 87.1% of living registrants are registered (currently, or due to re‑register). Among the 57 law schools with 1,000 or more graduates on the register, the share runs from 84.1% to 92.5%, a narrow range that says more about where graduates practise than about the schools. Practising outside New York explains only part of the gap: the third of schools with the most graduates outside New York average 12.6% not registered, against 11.1% for the third with the fewest.

Computed from the register file of Sep 29, 2026; the pipeline checks the figures against the file’s own totals. PlainAttorney’s data editor answers for them.

New York’s 15 law schools

Share of living graduates registered, current or due: New York’s 15 law schools Touro92.5%Hofstra (Deane)92.1%CUNY91.9%Albany Law School91.3%Buffalo (SUNY)90.9%Pace (Haub)90.0%Cardozo88.9%St. John’s88.6%Fordham87.9%Cornell87.8%Syracuse87.5%Columbia87.4%New York Law School87.0%Brooklyn Law School86.6%NYU86.5%70.0%100.0%All registrants 87.1%
Share of living graduates registered, current or due: New York’s 15 law schools Touro92.5%Hofstra (Deane)92.1%CUNY91.9%Albany Law School91.3%Buffalo (SUNY)90.9%Pace (Haub)90.0%Cardozo88.9%St. John’s88.6%Fordham87.9%Cornell87.8%Syracuse87.5%Columbia87.4%New York Law School87.0%Brooklyn Law School86.6%NYU86.5%70.0%100.0%All registrants 87.1%
Share of living graduates registered, current or due: New York’s 15 law schools Touro92.5%Hofstra (Deane)92.1%CUNY91.9%Albany Law School91.3%Buffalo (SUNY)90.9%Pace (Haub)90.0%Cardozo88.9%St. John’s88.6%Fordham87.9%Cornell87.8%Syracuse87.5%Columbia87.4%New York Law School87.0%Brooklyn Law School86.6%NYU86.5%70.0%100.0%All registrants 87.1%
Share of each New York law school’s living graduates on the register file of Sep 29, 2026 who are currently registered or due to re‑register; the dashed line is the share across all living registrants. Each dot sits on a scale from 70% to 100%.

Source: NY Office of Court Administration, attorney registration file (data.ny.gov, dataset eqw2-r5nb), downloaded Sep 29, 2026; school spellings matched.

Does practice outside New York explain the gaps?

Schools with 1,000 or more living graduates on the register, in thirds by their share of graduates outside New York; averages of the schools’ shares.
Third of schoolsSchoolsOutside NYNot registered
The third with the fewest1922.8%11.1%
The middle third1940.9%12.5%
The third with the most1948.9%12.6%

Across the 57 schools the two shares move together (correlation 0.56), but the difference is small: 1.5 points between the thirds. Most graduates who are not registered are spread across every school alike, which is what retirement and leaving practice would produce; the register records neither, so this analysis cannot separate them.

Source: NY Office of Court Administration, attorney registration file (data.ny.gov, dataset eqw2-r5nb), downloaded Sep 29, 2026; school spellings matched.

Every school with 1,000 or more graduates on the register

Registered: the share currently registered or due to re‑register. Outside NY: the share with an office in another state or abroad.
Law schoolGraduatesRegisteredOutside NY
Touro University Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center6,30892.5%10%
Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University11,23492.1%15%
CUNY School of Law3,86991.9%15%
Albany Law School10,18391.3%14%
University at Buffalo School of Law (SUNY)9,82890.9%14%
Western Michigan University Cooley Law School1,45690.6%26%
Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University8,03390.0%20%
Emory University School of Law2,40589.4%40%
Washington University in St. Louis School of Law1,87889.3%45%
Notre Dame Law School1,38488.9%38%
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University12,87888.9%21%
George Washington University Law School6,33388.8%43%
Vanderbilt University Law School1,75288.8%45%
University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School6,84388.7%40%
Quinnipiac University School of Law1,48888.6%47%
St. John’s University School of Law15,59588.6%14%
William & Mary Law School1,05688.5%42%
Northeastern University School of Law1,37588.5%38%
Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law1,57588.4%41%
Widener University School of Law1,13288.4%50%
UCLA School of Law1,62988.4%49%
Stanford Law School2,16288.3%47%
American University Washington College of Law4,26188.3%49%
Duke University School of Law3,78988.3%47%
New England Law Boston1,69988.2%37%
University of Miami School of Law2,24088.1%46%
Western New England University School of Law1,38988.1%25%
Fordham University School of Law20,41887.9%22%
Georgetown University Law Center11,56287.9%44%
McGill University Faculty of Law1,00987.8%55%
Cornell Law School7,02887.8%39%
Boston College Law School3,26087.8%39%
Tulane University Law School2,19487.7%42%
University of Connecticut School of Law1,71387.6%52%
University of California, Berkeley, School of Law2,38287.5%51%
Syracuse University College of Law7,16887.5%22%
Columbia Law School18,95387.4%37%
University of Chicago Law School3,23287.4%47%
University of Virginia School of Law4,70787.2%44%
Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law3,12887.0%49%
New York Law School15,60187.0%21%
Case Western Reserve University School of Law1,25686.9%40%
University of Michigan Law School4,80686.9%42%
Howard University School of Law1,21086.7%39%
Boston University School of Law6,36286.6%37%
Brooklyn Law School20,05886.6%16%
Vermont Law and Graduate School1,20186.5%33%
USC Gould School of Law1,14786.5%56%
New York University School of Law23,24886.5%33%
Harvard Law School14,37886.1%41%
University of Texas School of Law1,71185.8%49%
Yale Law School5,03985.8%40%
Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law1,29585.3%43%
Suffolk University Law School1,90185.3%45%
Temple University Beasley School of Law1,86784.9%43%
Seton Hall University School of Law6,26284.7%56%
Rutgers Law School7,50684.1%46%

Source: NY Office of Court Administration, attorney registration file (data.ny.gov, dataset eqw2-r5nb), downloaded Sep 29, 2026; school spellings matched.

Method, limits and the data

Schools as matched from the register’s free-text spellings (the methodology page lists the rules); graduates are living registrants who give that school. “Registered” counts “Currently registered” and “Due to re‑register within 30 days of birthday”, the value every attorney passes through at each registration; it includes registrations whose due month has passed but which the register has not marked delinquent. “Outside New York” counts an office in another state or abroad; a registration with no address is in neither group.

To cite this analysis: Law schools on the New York register: who is still registered, PlainAttorney, Sep 29, 2026, plainattorney.com/research/law-school-outcomes.

The table is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with a credit to PlainAttorney: download it as CSV. The full method is on the methodology page.