Northeastern for Big Law? Pros/cons?

[Serenity Now]

If you're making 25k a year, you've made bigger mistakes than attending Northeastern.

[TheDudeMan]

If you're making 25k a year, you've made bigger mistakes than attending Northeastern.

Wow 25k is a stretch, $50k is a hard-reality for a Northeastern or other similarly positioned school.  That's reality.  If you want sugar coating, go talk to mommy as she is likely the moron that told you what a great lawyer you would be despite your sub par GPA and LSAT score.

[Serenity Now]

I'm well aware of the consequences of attending a lower-ranked school, so spare me the inane "go to mommy" garbage.  My point was with the silly 25k figure. If you're so dumb you can only find a legal job that pays 25k, find a non-legal one that pays more.

[TheDudeMan]

I'm well aware of the consequences of attending a lower-ranked school, so spare me the inane "go to mommy" garbage.  My point was with the silly 25k figure. If you're so dumb you can only find a legal job that pays 25k, find a non-legal one that pays more.

The reason people "bite the bullet" so to speak and take super low paying legal jobs is to get their foot in the door.  If you go find a non-legal job after graduating law school, you pretty much just wasted 3-4 years of your life and a truckload of money.

[linquest]

Just how many 3L's have offers from biglaw?  I would venture a guess that its not a significant minority.

I don't know the total number of 3Ls for this current year, I just know people personally on my rotation (I'm sure there are Fall/Spring rotation people too) that have BigLaw offers.  Keep in mind, the NUSL population is largely self-selecting.  Unlike many other schools, BigLaw is NOT the predominant goal here.  Remember that this school's reputation is built on public interest and we send 3-5x as many grads into those types of jobs than the national average.  The other popular specialties here (family, personal immigration, plaintiff/union-side employment, etc) are not areas that Biglaw firms traditionally practice in.  The number of 3Ls getting Biglaw offers might be lower, but so is the proportion of students who are actually seeking those kinds of jobs.

Also, the fixation on a $50K starting salary (I'm not sure if that's an official statistic someone pulled here?) does not represent what you can be making 2 or more years down the road.  Most judicial clerkships, government jobs (even the prestigious federal Honors positions), and non-profit fellowships start in that range or less.  A large share of our recent graduates go to these positions first because of our public interest focus and that does bring our salary stats down. 

In any case, the point is that it is not impossible or a pipedream to get a Biglaw job from Northeastern if that's what you want.  We don't have traditional grades, class ranking, or law review - the factors that Biglaw firms typically rely on to select students - yet NUSL Biglaw placement is typically between 10-15% of the class each year compared to 7% average amongst other Tier 2 schools.  To put it into context, only the T-14 schools place 30%+ into BigLaw while the schools ranked at #15-50 average 19% of the graduating class. 

I freely admit that there are better schools for those dead set on a Biglaw job.  If that's your dream and you can get into a school with a significantly higher Biglaw placement rate, go for it!  But if you don't have the right numbers for that high Tier 1 school, or NUSL is a better choice for you for personal or financial reasons, you wouldn't kill your dream just by coming here.

[BeauEnigma]

I completely disagree with TheDudeMan about it being a waste to go to Law School if you aren't going to just be a lawyer. The fact is a J.D. prepares you for a number of positions besides being a lawyer. I personally am going to get a Masters and a J.D., simply because the J.D. gives you so many wonderful skills for various future careers. I also know of a woman who works for a Russian Cultural organization that is affiliated with the embassy. She had a Bachelors in Russian studies, but was unable to find a job. She went for a masters and was able to get her current position, but knows of many other individuals who had a bachelors in Russian Studies, later received a J.D., and now work in the Embassy as diplomatic officials!

Most importantly, while I understand that this discussion board is a nice place for people to vent, I find it interesting that most use it as a way to post rants that are poorly stated and at times cruel. When someone is opening a topic and is asking for advice, is it really necessary to insult and use such extreme statements? There is a difference between "sugarcoating" and being "polite." While I am a citizen of this digital age, I find it extremely disappointing that people so often lurk on these message boards to hurt others and release their own bitter feelings.

Yes, Northeastern is not T1. Yes, often there are those Big Law firms that will look at where you graduate from and deny you a position, but in the end it is hard work that is rewarded the most. While I am not a student at Northeastern, I can assure everyone from being in NYC and talking to people you will get a great education from there, an education that will only be accelerated if you work hard. I think this is something we forget when we begin to bicker about T1 or T2 or T4. There are students from ALL of these schools that fail and fall away. In the end a large part of the end results will come from what YOU put into it.

If you have the option to go to a T1 then do it, but if you can't for any reason just make sure you work hard. There will always be jerks out there that will insult you based on your school selection simply to make themselves feel better. That negative energy will eventually eat them up.

[husky10]

Northeastern got the OCI axe when the economy fell off the map.  Firms in Boston (and beyond of course) were hiring significantly less SAs, and those they DID hire were coming from Harvard, BU & BC.  Northeastern & Suffolk had to compete for the scraps.