Best Lawyer programs in Illinois, ranked by enrollment
Represent clients in criminal and civil litigation and other legal proceedings, draw up legal documents, or manage or advise clients on legal transactions.
9 schools in Illinois run programs that feed this job, graduating 2,690 people a year. The job pays a median of $160,800 in Illinois across about 33,590 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).
Fields of study in Illinois that lead to this job
Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.
10 programs in Illinois that lead to this job
Ranked by graduates per year in Illinois (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own Illinois page.
| # | Program | Graduates / yr | Share of pipeline | Schools | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Median debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lawmain feeder CIP 22.0101In Illinois → | 1,772 | 65.9% | 9 | — | — |
| 2 | Programs for Foreign Lawyersmain feeder CIP 22.0202In Illinois → | 274 | 10.2% | 2 | $61,570 | $24,936 |
| 3 | CIP 22.0299In Illinois → | 149 | 5.5% | 3 | $61,570 | $24,936 |
| 4 | Advanced Legal Research/Studies, Generalmain feeder CIP 22.0201In Illinois → | 124 | 4.6% | 3 | $61,570 | $24,936 |
| 5 | Health Lawmain feeder CIP 22.0208In Illinois → | 119 | 4.4% | 1 | $61,570 | $24,936 |
| 6 | CIP 22.0205In Illinois → | 83 | 3.1% | 3 | $61,570 | $24,936 |
| 7 | CIP 22.0203In Illinois → | 79 | 2.9% | 3 | $61,570 | $24,936 |
| 8 | Tax Law/Taxationmain feeder CIP 22.0211In Illinois → | 70 | 2.6% | 2 | $61,570 | $24,936 |
| 9 | Intellectual Property Lawmain feeder CIP 22.0212In Illinois → | 17 | 0.6% | 1 | $61,570 | $24,936 |
| 10 | International Law and Legal Studiesmain feeder CIP 22.0209In Illinois → | 3 | 0.1% | 2 | $61,570 | $24,936 |
Top 9 schools in Illinois
Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 0 of the 9 schools in this state.
| # | School | Graduates / yr | Top feeder program | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Grad rate | Net price | Acceptance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Northwestern University Evanston, IL Private not-for-profit · 3 feeder programs | 551 | Law | — | 95% | $14,799 | 8% |
| 2 | Loyola University Chicago Chicago, IL Private not-for-profit · 7 feeder programs | 459 | Law | — | 73% | $33,454 | 82% |
| 3 | Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, IL Private not-for-profit · 6 feeder programs | 383 | Law | — | 75% | $19,899 | 55% |
| 4 | University of Chicago Chicago, IL Private not-for-profit · 3 feeder programs | 300 | Law | — | 96% | $13,333 | 4% |
| 5 | University of Illinois Chicago Chicago, IL Public · 1 feeder programs | 277 | Law | — | 62% | — | 77% |
| 6 | DePaul University Chicago, IL Private not-for-profit · 5 feeder programs | 276 | Law | — | 68% | $28,141 | 76% |
| 7 | University of Illinois Urbana - Champaign Champaign, IL Public · 2 feeder programs | 260 | Law | — | 85% | — | 42% |
| 8 | Northern Illinois University Dekalb, IL Public · 1 feeder programs | 109 | Law | — | 49% | — | 70% |
| 9 | Southern Illinois University - Carbondale Carbondale, IL Public · 1 feeder programs | 75 | Law | — | 62% | — | 87% |
All 9 schools in Illinois
Every school in Illinois with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.
| School | City | Control | Graduates / yr | Feeder programs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northwestern University | Evanston | Private not-for-profit | 551 | 3 |
| Loyola University Chicago | Chicago | Private not-for-profit | 459 | 7 |
| Illinois Institute of Technology | Chicago | Private not-for-profit | 383 | 6 |
| University of Chicago | Chicago | Private not-for-profit | 300 | 3 |
| University of Illinois Chicago | Chicago | Public | 277 | 1 |
| DePaul University | Chicago | Private not-for-profit | 276 | 5 |
| University of Illinois Urbana - Champaign | Champaign | Public | 260 | 2 |
| Northern Illinois University | Dekalb | Public | 109 | 1 |
| Southern Illinois University - Carbondale | Carbondale | Public | 75 | 1 |
What lawyers earn in Illinois
What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.
U.S. median $159,670. Illinois pays above the national figure.
1.00× means the state has its expected share of these jobs.
Metro areas in Illinois
Job outlook
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.
Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.
How to get in
The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national Lawyers page.
How to become a Lawyer
Job zone 5 of 5 · SVP 8.0 and above- Typical entry education
- Doctoral or professional degree
Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.
Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.
Top skills
The same job in other states
Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.
Related careers in Illinois
Every major mapped to this job
The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.
All 25 majors mapped to Lawyers20 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
- 22.0101Law
- 22.0201Advanced Legal Research/Studies, General
- 22.0202Programs for Foreign Lawyers
- 22.0203American/U.S. Law/Legal Studies/Jurisprudence
- 22.0204Canadian Law/Legal Studies/Jurisprudence(no graduates reported)
- 22.0205Banking, Corporate, Finance, and Securities Law
- 22.0206Comparative Law
- 22.0207Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources Law
- 22.0208Health Law
- 22.0209International Law and Legal Studies
- 22.0210International Business, Trade, and Tax Law
- 22.0211Tax Law/Taxation
- 22.0212Intellectual Property Law
- 22.0213Patent Law
- 22.0214Agriculture Law(no graduates reported)
- 22.0215Arts and Entertainment Law
- 22.0216Compliance Law
- 22.0217Criminal Law and Procedure
- 22.0218Entrepreneurship Law
- 22.0219Family/Child/Elder Law(no graduates reported)
- 22.0220Human Resources Law
- 22.0221Insurance Law(no graduates reported)
- 22.0222Real Estate and Land Development Law
- 22.0223Transportation Law(no graduates reported)
- 22.0224Tribal/Indigenous Law
Common questions
Answers for people weighing lawyers programs in Illinois.
What degree do you need to become a Lawyer?+
Doctoral or professional degree is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Law, which awarded 1,772 degrees in Illinois in 2024-25, 65.9% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.
Which college majors lead to becoming a Lawyer?+
The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 10 programs to this occupation. The largest are Law, Legal Research and Advanced Professional Studies. Together they graduate about 2,690 people a year in Illinois.
How much do lawyers earn in Illinois?+
The median is $160,800 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 0.7% above the U.S. median of $159,670. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.
Is demand for lawyers growing?+
BLS projects a +4.1% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, about as fast as average, with roughly 31,500 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.
How many schools offer programs for this career in Illinois?+
9 institutions in Illinois reported graduates from at least one of the 10 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.
What other job titles do lawyers work under?+
Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Lawyer, Counsel, Attorney, Attorney General among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 23-1011.
About the data on this page
Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).
BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics
May 2025Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.
BLS Employment Projections
2024–34Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.
IPEDS Completions
2024-25 (provisional)Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.
College Scorecard, Field of Study
2020-21 cohortsMedian graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.
Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes
latest availableGraduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.
NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk
CIP 2020 / SOC 2018Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.
O*NET Database 30.3
30.3Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.
Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA
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