National Association for Law Placement

What National Association for Law Placement does

NALP (National Association for Law Placement, Inc.) is a 501-style membership association founded in 1971 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., serving the legal career services profession across North America. Its core functional role is to convene and equip law school career services offices, law firm recruiting and professional development teams, bar associations, government agencies, and public interest organizations with the data, directories, ethical standards, and professional development programming needed to recruit and develop lawyers. The organization builds and maintains a stack of interconnected digital products: the NALP Directory of Legal Employers (NDLE, with archives from 1979 to present), the Public Service Jobs Directory (PSJD), the Canadian Directory of Legal Employers (CDLE), the NALP Job Center, the NALPconnect members-only community platform, and the NALP Bookstore for research publications.

NALP's business model is a horizontal, B2B membership subscription model priced by organization type and size — law schools pay roughly $1,000-$1,050, U.S. law firms $1,175-$2,350 by headcount, Canadian law firms $1,025-$1,425, government/public interest/bar associations $350, corporate legal organizations $750, and individual tiers ranging from $99 (Alumni) to $850 (Legal Search Consultants). Revenue is diversified across recurring membership dues, conference and event registration (Annual Education Conference, Professional Development Institute, Legal Recruiting Summit, DEI Summits, Public Service Conference, Newer Professionals Forum), and publications such as the Associate Salary Survey, Jobs & J.D.'s, and the annual Report on Diversity. Operating costs are supported by approximately 12-15 full-time staff including an Executive Director (Nikia L. Gray), Deputy Director (Frederick E. Thrasher), and a small bench of Senior Directors and Directors. The organization is governed by a Board elected from member institutions and operates an affiliated nonprofit, the NALP Foundation for Law Career Research and Education, which conducts independent research on the legal career pipeline.

Name

National Association for Law Placement

Legal name

National Association for Law Placement, Inc.

Website

https://nalp.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1971

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

National Association for Law Placement (NALP) is a 1971-founded membership association serving more than 3,000 law schools, law firms, and legal employers across North America with employment data, recruiting directories, conferences, and publications for the legal career services profession.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Legal Career Services

NAICS

Business Associations (813910)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600)

akta.pro primary industry

Continuing Education (CE/CPD) & Provider Accreditation Bodies (EDADACAF)

akta.pro secondary industry

Legal & Compliance (CLE, Paralegal CE) (EDAAALAB)

Keywords

• Legal career services
• Legal recruitment data
• Legal employer directories
• Law school career services
• Legal professional development

Headquarters

HQ city

Washington

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Membership Dues: Annual membership fees from law schools, law firms, government/public interest organizations, bar associations, and corporate legal organizations. Fees range from $350 to $2,350 per year depending on organization type and size.
2. Conference and Event Registration: Revenue from Annual Education Conference, Professional Development Institute, Legal Recruiting Summit, Diversity Equity & Inclusion Summits, and other educational events. Members receive discounted rates.
3. Publications and Research Reports: Sales of publications including Associate Salary Survey reports, Jobs & J.D.'s reports, Perspectives on Law Student Recruiting, and other research publications through the NALP Bookstore.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels11 records

Core offering

NALP operates as a membership-based professional association serving law schools, law firms, government agencies, bar associations, and corporate legal organizations. It provides searchable employer directories (NDLE, CDLE, PSJD), a legal career job board (NALP Job Center), a member community platform (NALPconnect), proprietary employment and salary research publications, and annual conferences focused on legal recruiting, professional development, and diversity initiatives.

Product overview

The National Association for Law Placement (NALP) offers a portfolio of interconnected products and services centered on legal career services, professional development, and research. The core offerings include three directories (NDLE for U.S. legal employers, CDLE for Canadian employers, and PSJD for public service positions), a Job Center platform for recruitment, and NALPconnect for member collaboration. NALP also publishes extensive research including the annual Report on Diversity and Associate Salary Survey, available through the NALP Bookstore. The organization supports members through multiple publications (NALP Bulletin+, NALP*now!*, +PD Newsletter, +DEI Newsletter, and Weekly News Digest), annual conferences and events (Annual Education Conference, Professional Development Institute, Legal Recruiting Summit, DEI Summits, and Newer Professionals Forum), and maintains an affiliated foundation for research and education.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• NALP Directory of Legal Employers (NDLE) Comprehensive searchable directory of U.S. legal employers with employment data, hiring practices, and salary information; archives from 1979-present, primarily for law schools and legal career professionals.
• Public Service Jobs Directory (PSJD)

Quantifiable outcome

• 42,817 first-year law school enrollment (13-year high, 8% increase)
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

15 partnerships are on record, tiered core, secondary and minor.

• Law School Admission Council (LSAC)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerJoint research on law student recruiting including the 2025 report on student awareness and impact of accelerated big law recruitment. NALP collaborates with LSAC on data research initiatives.
• Association of American Law Schools (AALS)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborative relationship for advancing legal education and career services. Liaison relationship for mutual advocacy and professional development.
• AccessLex InstitutesecondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership focused on legal education research and data analysis. AccessLex serves as a resource for law school data and scholarship.
• Association of Law Firm Diversity Professionals (ALFDP)secondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on diversity initiatives in the legal profession. Joint programming and knowledge sharing on diversity best practices.
• American Association of Law Libraries (AALL)secondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerLiaison relationship for collaboration on legal resources and professional development.
• Canadian Legal Career Development Network (CLCDN)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFormal liaison relationship for Canadian legal career development professionals. Collaboration on Canadian legal market research including the Canadian Associate Salary Survey.
• National LGBTQ+ Bar AssociationsecondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on LGBTQ+ inclusion in the legal profession. Liaison relationship for advocacy and resource sharing.
• Prelaw Advisors National Council (PLANC)secondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership for prelaw advising and diversity pipeline initiatives. Collaboration on resources for prospective law students.
• ABA Commission on Women in the ProfessionsecondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerLiaison relationship focused on women's advancement in the legal profession.
• ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance ProgramssecondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on lawyer wellness and assistance programs. Liaison relationship for professional support resources.
• Equal Justice Works (EJW)secondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership for public interest career development. Collaboration on public service opportunities and fellowships.
• National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE)secondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerLiaison relationship for collaboration on career services best practices across higher education.
• ABA Young Lawyers DivisionsecondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerLiaison relationship for young lawyer career development and professional transition.
• Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerLiaison relationship for HR best practices in legal career services.
• Association of Legal Administrators (ALA)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerLiaison relationship for legal administration and management professional development.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE): NACE is the closest functional analog to NALP in the broader higher-education/career-services space, providing salary benchmarking, employment-outcome data, and professional development to college career-services and employer-recruiting professionals — the same mix of data, events, and standards that NALP delivers within legal education.
• Association of American Law Schools (AALS): AALS is the membership association for law schools and shares NALP's law-school constituency; both organizations collaborate on legal education issues and overlapping faculty/dean audiences, serving as NALP's most direct allied-and-overlapping peer.
• Law School Admission Council (LSAC): LSAC administers law school admissions and operates the central prelaw data and JD application platform; NALP and LSAC are documented research partners covering the law-school-to-practice pipeline, making LSAC the closest data and pipeline peer.
• Prelaw Advisors National Council (PLANC): PLANC serves prelaw advisors and prospective law students — an adjacent but overlapping constituency for NALP — and is a documented liaison partner; it represents the pipeline-upstream peer for prospective-student guidance that funnels into NALP's downstream career-services work.
• Association of Legal Administrators (ALA): ALA serves legal-administration professionals in law firms and corporate legal departments and is a documented NALP partner; it overlaps with NALP's law-firm membership segment and shares professional-development and conference programming audiences.
• Canadian Legal Career Development Network (CLCDN): CLCDN is NALP's Canadian counterpart with a formal liaison relationship, providing Canadian Associate Salary Survey and market research; it is the most direct national/regional peer and a partner in Canadian market data collection.

Broad incumbents

• American Bar Association (ABA): The ABA is the largest broad-incumbent legal profession membership organization covering practicing lawyers, with overlapping sections and programs on legal education and recruitment; it competes for legal-industry mindshare while NALP focuses narrowly on the career-services and recruiting segment.
• Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM): SHRM is the broad-incumbent HR professional association and a documented NALP partner; it overlaps with NALP's legal-recruiting professional development for HR-adjacent legal-talent functions and competes for talent-management certifications.

Emerging players

• Equal Justice Works: Equal Justice Works is the leading public-interest fellowship organization and an NALP partner; it overlaps with NALP's PSJD product in public-service job placement and competes for public-sector law-student recruitment attention.
• Vault: Vault publishes law-firm rankings, salary data, and employer reviews and competes with NALP's salary surveys and firm-directory content for law-student and lateral-candidate mindshare, representing a private commercial-disclosure peer in legal-career information.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/groups
• Instagraminstagram.com/nalp_org
• Xx.com/nalporg
• Facebookfacebook.com/156198341071076

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles12 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about National Association for Law Placement