Anna Alaburda, a 37-year-old graduate of Thomas Jefferson School of Law, is finally getting the chance to argue her case against the school in court — nearly a decade after she attended, The New York Times reported.

Alaburda's case is noteworthy.

It's the first case to go to trial that accuses a law school of using inflated postgraduation employment figures and salaries to defraud applicants.

Graduates of law schools filed more than a dozen proposed class-action lawsuits in 2011 and 2012 alone, according to The Wall Street Journal. These suits claimed the schools defrauded graduates into thinking employment prospects were rosier than they really were.

But judges have thrown out most of these suits, disagreeing with the premise that law students were defrauded.

While a judge ruled that Alaburda's case couldn't proceed as a class action representing other graduates, she is pursuing the case on her own behalf in a San Diego trial that starts Monday.

Alaburda graduated from New York University with a bachelor's degree in 2002 before setting her sights on the legal profession.

She decided on the San Diego-based TJSL after reading about its postgraduation statistics in its marketing brochures and in the 2003 US News & World report, according to the lawsuit.

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US News & World Report said "80.1 percent of students [at TJSL] were employed nine months after graduation," according to the suit.

For comparison, Yale Law School, rated the No. 1 law school in the nation by US News, has a postgraduate employment rate of 88.2%, according to 2016 statistics.

Alaburda excelled at TJSL, graduating in the top tier of her class, according to The Times. She also passed the bar exam on her first attempt. She graduated from the school in 2008.

But despite her academic successes, Alaburda has been unable to find full-time employment as a lawyer.

She has sent her résumé to more than 150 law firms and received only one job offer, which "was less favorable than non-law related jobs that were available to her," the suit says.

In addition, she graduated with $150,000 in student-loan debt, a figure that has since ballooned to $170,000 accounting for interest, and has been forced to accept part-time and non-legal work to pay her bills.

TJSL stands by the assertion that its graduates find successful employment after attending the school. "We have a strong track record of producing successful graduates, with 7,000 alumni working nationally and internationally," Thomas Guernsey, dean of TJSL, told Business Insider in a statement.

As Business Insider has previously reported, TJSL can provide an opportunity for aspiring lawyers who can't get into more competitive schools.

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