Why is Cooley Law so despised?

[themanwithnoname]

Sooner or later, I will get the experience to compete at a big firm or wherever I choose to go. 

Actually, big firms rarely look outside biglaw to hire people, at least if you are talking major market.

At the worst case, I'll just go back to my old job and be on the fast track to make partner with a law degree. I'll be the first guy they call when they need a legal opinion for complex M&A transactions, business combinations, and hosts of other transactions that I already work deal with on a daily basis.

You actually may not provide legal advice to your accounting firm's clients. It is against the rules of professional responsibility for a business owned by non-lawyers to sell legal advice. You may give legal advice to your accounting firm.

[TheDudeMan]

Not sure where you are getting your bigfirms rarely hire outside of biglaw theory as I summered at a big firm and the majority of laterals came from smaller firms where they proved themselves and had hands-on experience compared to their Biglaw counterparts.

[TheDudeMan]

You are basing this on?  Because everyone I know that worked in Biglaw, both in NYC and DC, have seen the smaller and boutique firms pull many laterals over.  Now, if by similar sized firms you mean 100 associate firm to mega firm, then I would agree.

I'm not saying that a 5 person shop is going to end up at Vault 20, but I will say that a 50 attorney boutique lawyer can easily jump to Biglaw if they do good work.

[themanwithnoname]

I do not think it is very common for a person from a 50 person boutique to jump to biglaw, unless it is one of those boutiques that is actually as selective as biglaw (Keeker, Susman,etc)

[kenpostudent]

Sooner or later, I will get the experience to compete at a big firm or wherever I choose to go. 

Actually, big firms rarely look outside biglaw to hire people, at least if you are talking major market.

At the worst case, I'll just go back to my old job and be on the fast track to make partner with a law degree. I'll be the first guy they call when they need a legal opinion for complex M&A transactions, business combinations, and hosts of other transactions that I already work deal with on a daily basis.

You actually may not provide legal advice to your accounting firm's clients. It is against the rules of professional responsibility for a business owned by non-lawyers to sell legal advice. You may give legal advice to your accounting firm.

No, you are correct, attorneys cannot sell legal advice outside to the public from a business not owned by lawyers. However, a CPA who is also an attorney can offer a legal opinion to the partner who is signing the audit... which is what auditors care about... not getting sued as the result of missing risky audit areas.

An accountant can offer legal services in the context of tax consulting. CPAs have the ability to represent clients before the IRS and help to structure business transactions on behalf of management. A law degree can only aid in that end. Again, this is a back-up for me... just like fraud examination and expert witness work. I'm a damn good accountant. A legal education can only help me... wherever I choose to get it.

[kenpostudent]

You do see the massive hypocrisy in your last statement right?  Unfortunately, you're still under this impression that a lot of 0Ls have that the system credits people who are hard workers, had previous work experience, and great personality.  Good luck trying to lateral into a big firm from a firm with no exit options based on your networking, hard work, and experience.  As I said, you'll get a callback.  And when that hiring committee compromised of mainly T14/T30 partners is sitting around reviewing the sheets from the people that interviewed you (because you're not going to meet them all), I'm sure th  Again, once you're in law school, you'll understand how this system works, and what it rewards.

[/quote]

If I'm wrong, and we'll know in a few years, then I'll be sure to let you tell me that you told me so. Of course, if I'm right, I'll be happy to personally make you print this post out and eat it. Would you prefer salt with that?

[petermharrington]

I think we get too caught up in this somewhat elitist ranking system. By no means am I trying to defend a school like Cooley but we need to take other considerations into account. I've seen my share of socially awkward Ivy League graduates who have issues performing in a courtroom despite their "pedigree" and what not.

This really reminds me of the hype and build up before an NFL or NBA draft. Everyone expects the "pedigree" players from the elite schools to result in the best players on the professional level. And admittedly, they generally do outperform the lesser known schools. But you also commonly see players from marginal, mid-major conferences step up their games and develop into superstars. 

If these players never got drafted or were not able to walk onto a professional team, how would they have ever developed into professional superstars?

I often wonder how much law school performance correlates with the actual practice of law. I guess the only way to quantify success in practice is to measure post-graduate salaries. And graduates from the elite schools who end up in BIGLAW firms are generally going to earn more than graduates working in mid-level firms and public interest. 

Who knows

[cooleylawstudent]

Cooley rules. Period.

[Sephiroth]

I don't even know why law schools such as "Cooley" or "Whittier" even bother to exist...when it's that low..and WORSE, when students aver that that's where they'll be attending!  My gosh, Southwestern too, they all suck.  I heard Whittier LS used to be the Jack-in-The-Box Super Size Fast Food Stop.

[Sephiroth]

Cooley rules. Period.