Law School Discussion

What classes are you taking? How many credits are you allowed per-semester?

I'd be interested in hearing the 2L's comments on the job issue, given current "conditions."

Oh ok... well, since you pulled my leg, I'll take yet another break from studying...

Most of the people that I know who are in the top 1/3 or so have a job lined up for the summer. Not all of those count as "BIGLAW," though, but I'd venture to guess that if you are in the top 1/3 and make a journal, you're in good shape, so long as you attack the bigger markets. I know of two people who are on a journal and don't have jobs. I think it had a lot to do with them skipping big markets and applying to niche markets that either cut back on hiring or that they didn't have a connection to, but honestly I am just guessing.

The ATL jobs were seemingly unavailable if you had a strong connection to a geographic area outside of the southeast, however. I don't think many interviews were granted to people who had "New York, NY" listed anywhere on their resume, for example, regardless of rank. At least on the east coast, NY is the only market that doesn't seem to care about local connections at all. Even if you do have a connection to a market, it may not be strong enough (for example, I have a connection to Philadelphia through my undergrad, but apparently that wasn't convincing enough for Philly firms).

RPP can probably do a better job of commenting on this, but I think the job market for Patent/IP lawyers is still pretty good. I don't think I know of any Enginerds who are unemployed at the moment. I don't, however, know every future patent lawyer at Emory.

I've mentally excluded people from this analysis who want to work for the government, or small firms, or anything outside of BIG/MID-LAW. Those jobs might not be filled until next semester.

And keep in mind, if you start school in Fall of 2010, then you want the economy to be good in the Fall of 2011, because that's when you interview for your 2L job (..and the firms apparently register in February 2011), which is what matters.

True, but if the economy heats up after firms do their hiring for Summer 2012, they will likely have slots open for 3Ls in Fall 2012 OCI. So, at most he'd miss out on a really nice paycheck during 2L summer.

And I'm not sure what the deal is going to be with the money this year.  We got a letter from the President of the entire university basically saying their investments (endowment) were looking rough, and so they're not going to be dishing out as much cash-money for social events and scholarships until things pick up.

We can't be doing that bad... Harvard apparently lost more this past year than the entire value of Emory's endowment.

But, I think the law school looks to be getting more and more attention now, so it might come close to evening out.

Partlett is apparently a pretty impressive fundraiser. He brought in some big checks last year, IIRC, which goes into a separate endowment for the law school. So, while the University as a whole may be having a rough year financially, that doesn't mean that the Law School endowment is necessarily in bad shape. Nonetheless, I don't know any specifics about the school's finances and I don't think I care to learn about it until after I fully understand Hearsay and all of it's glorious exceptions.

Oh, and hi Sarapi, welcome to the Emory.

I am from st. louis and am sensing some sort of paradox.  Missou is ranked 59th amd SLU is ranked 95th. Almost everyone who is not knowledgable about law school rankings automatically assumes SLU is the better school because it has a better reputation in the area for undergraduate. After talking to many SLU law students, many also assume that they are closely ranked to missou. Taking other factors out of the equation (cost, programs, ect) would it be better to go to a school with a stronger local reputation and lower ranking or a higher ranking school with a seemingly lower reputation?

Go to the school that places kids in JOBS better. Srsly. Don't screw around.

I sure don't think they preferred 63s or 62s over 164s, though.

They don't, but there is an affirmative action program in place.

(although our class is a lot smaller than the 2L class; I heard the 2Ls were over-enrolled, but obviously a smaller student body could also be seen as a rankings play.  Or it could be that even the money couldn't get Emory a full class of 165s and 166s).

The school shot up in the rankings around the same time as the accept deadline for the 2L class. They got more acceptances than they anticipated. Happens all the time. We were lucky to hold steady in the rankings. We should shoot up again this year, depending on how other schools did comparatively. The 1L class raised the LSAT median a point, and GPA by a bit as well, so I am cautiously expecting it.

EDIT: Actually, I think Notre Dame may jump us in the rankings.

I also not want, but NEED to set up my career in a progressive city.

No you don't. Why would you? Also, "progressive" is a stupid term. It was coined by Teddy Roosevelt, who happens to be John McCain's role-model: Does that make McCain "progressive"?

Just say, "I want to live in a city that votes for Democrats." That is really all the term means in common usage anyway.

Basically what I'm asking is this-if I were to get my JD at Ole Miss, finish high in my class, and possibly get an LLM (I'm thinking about environmental)from a top program, would I have any shot at leaving the southeastern region? Thanks a million if you want to take a shot at this one!

If you finish high in your class at Ole Miss (no guarantee, remember), and are willing to do A LOT of legwork, you will get out of the Southeast.

It sounds like you're more interested in moving north than in the type of city though. You could just as easily target Atlanta, which is hardly a conservative stronghold.