The Rager's Cycle Is Done: Who Wants To Take A Crack? (WUSTL vs UIUC vs SLU)

[RageLaw]

Keep in mind, I'd also be fine with working for a few years in a St. Louis firm and then IF i wanted to move elsewhere, trying to pursue a lateral at that time.  I can't say Chicago BIGLAW right out of school is my number one priority.  I'm also not convinced Martindale is the end all to end all of identifying alumni networks. 

[Lobstah!]

Keep in mind, I'd also be fine with working for a few years in a St. Louis firm and then IF i wanted to move elsewhere, trying to pursue a lateral at that time.  I can't say Chicago BIGLAW right out of school is my number one priority.  I'm also not convinced Martindale is the end all to end all of identifying alumni networks. 

Credited. I do a lot of research on firms and lawyers at my job and Martindale doesn't have everyone and doesn't have identifying information for many.

[whartonn]

Keep in mind, I'd also be fine with working for a few years in a St. Louis firm and then IF i wanted to move elsewhere, trying to pursue a lateral at that time.  I can't say Chicago BIGLAW right out of school is my number one priority.  I'm also not convinced Martindale is the end all to end all of identifying alumni networks. 

1) Lateraling has a lot to with business origination, but also depends on credentials. You will have a much easier time lateraling to Chicago (or any other market) with a T20 law degree than with a T2/T3 degree.

2) As for Martindale not being the final source, I fully agree. Even if not fully accurate, the disparity between SLU at 5 lawyers in Chicago, and WUSTL with hundreds in Chicago, is quite stark. To be more thorough, you might want to check the websites of some bigger firms in Chicago to see how many SLU alumni they have.

3) Finally, I wouldn't assume that there are lots of BigLaw slots for SLU grads in St Louis just because there are lots of SLU alumni in St Louis BigLaw. If Chicago is it's second biggest market, and only a handful of SLU grads get jobs in Chicago, you are going to be fighting a lot of classmates for work in fairly small legal market after graduation.

[Lobstah!]

Keep in mind, I'd also be fine with working for a few years in a St. Louis firm and then IF i wanted to move elsewhere, trying to pursue a lateral at that time.  I can't say Chicago BIGLAW right out of school is my number one priority.  I'm also not convinced Martindale is the end all to end all of identifying alumni networks. 

1) Lateraling has a lot to with business origination, but also depends on credentials. You will have a much easier time lateraling to Chicago (or any other market) with a T20 law degree than with a T2/T3 degree.

2) As for Martindale not being the final source, I fully agree. Even if not fully accurate, the disparity between SLU at 5 lawyers in Chicago, and WUSTL with hundreds in Chicago, is quite stark. To be more thorough, you might want to check the websites of some bigger firms in Chicago to see how many SLU alumni they have.

3) Finally, I wouldn't assume that there are lots of BigLaw slots for SLU grads in St Louis just because St Louis has lots SLU alumni in BigLaw. If Chicago is it's second biggest market, and only a handful of SLU grads get jobs in Chicago, you are going to be fighting a lot of classmates for work in small legal market after graduation.

It's starting to bother me that all your posts are based on the assumption that Chicago is the second biggest market for SLU grads. It's not. Kansas City is.

Not trying to argue or get super involved in the discussion. Just wanted to clear that up for everyone.

[skeeball]

You don't have to be top 5% if you do health law at SLU and want to be in Chicago. You have to do well, just not THAT well, and you have to find a position there over the summer.

How can you support that contention? Martindale shows that there is only 1 (ONE!!) associate in all of Chicago who is a SLU grad. Even if there were 15x that number of SLU grads in Chicago, it would still indicate that SLU is placing a miniscule number of students in Chicago each year. After looking at Martindale, it might actually be more accurate to say that you need to be top 5% AND be lucky to get a job in Chicago from SLU.

PS: If you have statistics showing otherwise, please post.

I don't think I would have so many classmates from Chicago if it was that hard to find a job up there. There could be a lot of people that are from Chicago, and go back up there to work for an uncle or someone they know. Martidale-Hubble isn't the Bible. Plus, a lot SLU grads aren't LOOKING for jobs in Chicago.

That's not to say it's piece of cake, I also know people who are struggling to find jobs up there.

If you want big law Chicago, I'd say go UIUC. You can learn health law on the job.

[whartonn]

It's starting to bother me that all your posts are based on the assumption that Chicago is the second biggest market for SLU grads. It's not. Kansas City is.

Not trying to argue or get super involved in the discussion. Just wanted to clear that up for everyone.

Very sorry for the misunderstanding. Just responding to RageLaw's post at 2:25 pm which stated that Chicago was their #2 placement area.

[skeeball]

As far as Big Law jobs in St. Louis...you can definately get those if you go to SLU, but you have to have awesome grade. But you have to have awesome grades to get into Big Law in ANY market, unless you went to a T30.

[whartonn]

But you have to have awesome grades to get into Big Law in ANY market, unless you went to a T30.

Which WUSTL is...

Thus my reasoning that OP will have better career options, much greater career flexability, and more safety in terms of class ranking coming from WUSTL.

[RageLaw]

I appreciate everybody's feedback a lot!  I guess at the end of the day, I have to decide which problem I would rather deal with in 3 years: a ton of debt or a tough time finding work in certain places. 

[upgrade]

What are you hoping to concentrate on in the health law field?  The seem to be a billion different things one could call "health law."