Question about law schools

The quality of the law school can have an impact on how easily you get hired, how much you make, where you work and all of that.

Obviously, someone graduating from Harvard Law will have better job prospects than someone graduating from SW Texas School of Law.

That being said, you should not have a hard time finding a reasonable job at a good salary if you graduate at the top of your class from any law school.

4.0 is a 4.0 is a 4.0 even if the school is not as good. I know some law schools have different grade structures, but you get the idea.

I believe in Texas, UT Law and SMU are considered the best.

One thing I've heard is that networking, internships, and the specific classes you have taken are very good for getting better jobs even if you don't have the highest GPA.

Remember: What do you call the person who graduates last in law school?

Answer: A lawyer.

So the potential is always there if you are smart enough to graduate and pass the bar.

 

Middle of the road, high ranking school.


Not that I'd know.....

 

It depends! ( See I did learn something this semester!)
All the above being true, it is also relative to what you want to do. Want to be a litigator in Houston? You are more likely to get hired as a STCL law grad at the same place in your class with Moot court experience than a UH grad. Why? Because that's what South Texas is known for. They completely kick ass in moot court championships bar none, icluding all the big boy top tier schools.
You want to practice Health law in Houston? Go to UH. Want to do intellectual property in California? Go to Berkeley. That being said, all the above is true meaning you graduate with a good rank from a top tier law school and you get a top tier job (as long as you don't blow the interview.)

 

Tell your friend to pick the best school he can get into, and afford, in the state in which he wishes to practice (unless he lands a spot in an nationally-known school like Harvard, Yale, etc.).

 

goto this site it gives you that kind of info. It tells you avg cost how much people usually leave earning at their first job etc. It also gives the bar pssing rate as well.

http://www.princetonreview.com/law/

 

That and he (or she) absolutely MUST visit the law school they are thinking about going to while classes are in session and talk to law students to find out how they feel about the school.

 

Lawyers are vastly overated. But they are good for clearing out a room.

 

The six or eight schools claiming to be "Top 5" have national clout and will land you anywhere you want (with the possible exception of NYU, maybe).

The fifteen or so schools claiming to be "Top 10" have at least coastal clout if not quite national and will most likely land you a job on your side of the Mississippi.

Any lower than that, and it's all a crapshoot more dependent on the economic environment and personal aptitute than the name of the school.

I'm only talking about the maybe 200 or so firms that claim to be "Top 100" (notice a pattern here?) and compete on the national level with starting salaries of at least $125K. But you do pretty boring work for the first 4 or 5 years.

I would strongly advise against spending private school $$$ on any regional schools. It's not pretty when the times are tough.

 

Salaries and job opportunities can be really impacted on what school and what ranking in that school. I remember reading some stats about the top 500 highest paid lawyers and which schools they went to awhile back. It was as expected, the top money makers came from the top 15 ranked schools and after that the drop off was a bit more pronounced until you had say 1-2 lawyers from tier 2-3 schools.

From all the articles and all the people I've spoken to there are a few basic guidelines.

1. If you can get into the top schools Harvard, Yale, Michigan, NYU, etc., then you do it. They have a reputation all over the country and will immediately turn heads in an interview.

2. If you know where you want to practice and you're looking to save a few bucks then a local school is good. If you're expecting to live and work in Western Washington then a degree from Gonzaga would be great. Just don't expect the same prospects if you take that degree into New York City. The local area around the school will be very familiar with grads and could be more inclined to hire a local then a hotshot from Columbia.

3. Some schools are known to have strong individual programs. Univ. of Houston has a strong healthcare law program, Williamette excels in dispute resolution, Vermont Law school has the top environmental law program in the country. However I have heard if you have a strong credentials it's better to go to a top school, (Yale), then a mediocre school with a top program (Vermont). If Environmental law is your thing and you graduate top of your class at Vermont and then move to Cali. (which by the way has more law schools than any other state by far), you're not apt to generate a lot of attention.

In the end it comes down to the same thing as any other job. It's not what you know it's who you know or who you can impress. The more pc term known as networking. There are always cases of lawyers coming from schools that no one has heard of and litigating circles around the ivy league crowd. However coming from a top school will give you a much better chance of getting that first interview.

Mulder mentioned visiting the school of choice and getting opinions from the students themselves, a great idea. Here's a link where law students rate their schools and give some positives and negatives. Want a good laugh look up the opinions on Cooley in Michigan.

 

I believe you are mistaken here, sir. This joke applies only to doctors, unfortunately. When it comes to lawyers, it goes like this (at least in NYC):

Q: What do you call the person who graduates last in law school?

A: A taxi driver with a ton of debt.

 

Correct!

Though I think an NYU degree is pretty usable in most big markets, with San Fran maybe being the exception.

 

Might have helped if I had given the link I talked about.

http://www.4law.net/rating/index.php

 

Yeah. You suck at math.

 

That's true for the night students but the day population is mostly fresh out of school.

It is actually on the lower end of private schools in regards to cost, but ya it's till expensive.

 

Wouldn't put too much stock in that site though, even though it looks like they are mostly positive reviews. 4 law school is kind of running joke in class. Wanna get royally hammered socratically? Try to get through a recitation using a 4 law school case brief...

 

Actually that Cooley law school really is terrible. A sub 40% bar passage rate speaks for itself. I don't even think it was ABA accredited till recently.

 

Oh no, I was talking about the positive reviews for STCL.
Cooley blows! Might as well get an online law degree.

 

Joe Jamail graduated near the bottom of his class, if I remember right.