Are there any WNEC Law students posting here?

[Western_MA_Law]

i agree that WNEC is a decent school. i didn't go there, but am from western mass and pretty familiar with the school. if you want to work in wmass, i think you'll be fine. if you want to work elsewhere, you probably won't be any worse off than if you went to any other T4 school. if you had an awesome LSAT and GPA, you probably wouldn't be considering WNEC in the first place, so it might be a good option for you.

while i agree it is a good school, i have just one quibble: a WNEC grad landed a job paying $500,000 right out of law school? did i read that right? i call bull.

Well WNEC does have a lot of professionals, such as Doctors and higher up types from MassMutual and some of the CT Insurance companies, so it really isn't unreasonable one person found a job like that, it isn't like she said that was the median income from grads or anything.

[Zurichbr]

Can I get everyones opinion on WNEC v. Pace.  Which one is better and why? 

[RoniDeutch]

The person with the $500,000 job also has a medical degree. He received a $250,000 raise when he received his law degree.

[njgal]

well, that explains it!

i didn't attend WNEC, but i just spent the last couple of months there taking bar/bri and the bar exam. compared to my LS (which i love, but whose facilities SUCK), the campus is beautiful. it really was a pleasure being there this summer. the people are friendly, everything is clean and in good working order, etc.

[pappahood]

um i call bull on everyone.  you're talking about a T4 school that only has 7 firms interview on campus (http://www.nalpdirectory.com/dledir_search_advanced.asp).  the reason that it has harvard profs is not indicative of how great of a school it is, but rather the fact that it is nearly impossible to get a professorship and you need to be a HYS grad to get one (or have tons of experience).


lets use the school's own statistics.  found here: http://assets.wnec.edu/14/EmpStats2005.pdf

i'd like to point out right away that only 50% of the class is working in a field where a JD is required.  considering that you are required to have a JD to be a practicing lawyer, its safe to say that approximately half of these people are not working as attorneys.

the average salary is 58K, which is reasonably good.  but for cities like boston and others in the NE, thats actually not very much.  in fact, again, only 7 law firms are listed as even visiting campus to interview.  now of course, that doesn't mean they even actually hire you, but at least they spent some time visiting.  an example of this type of firm would be Skadden Arps.  I'd be willing to bet that they only hire the number 1 kid in the school, who was editor of the LR, and cured cancer.  its a notoriously picky firm. you should look up these firms and search for how many attorneys there actually went to WNEC, i think you'll be very disappointed. 

For example, for Skadden (sorry to say) it appears they only hired one person from NWEC and he graduated over 20 yrs ago.  Also, Robinson & Cole, a firm of over 200 lawyers, only has eight WNEC grads on staff.  Most of them were on the law review and graduated with honors, but also most of them were hired a decade ago.  In fact, the latest grad of WNEC to get hired by Robinson was three years ago, and he graduated magna cum laude and was on the law review (i.e. the very top of the class).  Needless to say, those very few firms who actually do care enough about the school to come on campus are most likely only to hire a very few number of graduates.  Do you think you're lucky enough to be one of the maybe 10 people who gets a firm job?

also, the range of salaries went all the way down to 20K starting.  in fact 16% of grads got a job paying less than 30K.  another 10% of the class doesn't even work in any kind of legal job.  and another 10% has NO JOB OF ANY KIND.  all this accounts for 1/3 of the class.

i still don't believe the 1/2 million dollar starting salary.  maybe its true, maybe its not.  but i'm not buying it just yet.  if that's true, maybe you should take it into account if your're alread a medical doctor when you enter law school (i'm mean, b/c you are aren't you?).

i don't think you should diregard the opinion of a practicing lawyer who has been in on a the hiring committee.  i doubt any of you are in a better position to determine the job prospects than somebody already working at a firm and participating in their recruitment effort.

like i said, i call bull.  if you're planning on attending this fall.  DON"T!  you cant still get all your tuition back.  go pursue a more fitting calling.

[RoniDeutch]

First of all, I personally spoke with the person who was in charge of the survery which resulted in those statistics. ONE person did graduate and started at $500,000. As you can see from the stats, 6 people were in the $100,000-500,000 range. Also, the big assumption you are making is that ALL law students want to work for a huge firm. WNEC has an outstanding clinic program along with a mock trial team that frequently makes the national championships. Is WNEC highly regarded nationally, not completely but it is making advances. Will you be able to teach at Harvard with a WNEC degree? probably not. Can you be an excellent practioner of the law with a WNEC degree...absolutely. As with any law school, a person should make a choice based on their personal preferences. If you prefer a quiet, supportive, friendly, cohesive, yet challenging environment WNEC is the school for you. I attended a Tier 1 school for undergrad and the education I have received at WNEC is of much higher quality than that school. Don't be so quick to dismiss it unless you have attended there.