I know that law schools pay attention to the rankings, but do employers really pay attention to them? Do they actually wait every March/April for the US New Rankings to come out and make decisions about where to do OCI? I know it's conventional wisdom that they do. But I'm really not so sure. I've yet to see on any employer's website or in any employer's hiring memos anything about the law school rankings. If it's so important, why don't they ever mention it, and make it more visible in their hiring procedures? I mean, is an employer really going to stop hiring from a particular school just because it drops in the rankings? Is there any evidence of this?
Do schools that go from Tier 2 to Tier 3 in the rankings really have different hiring prospects (as indicated by any data) because of this? For example, Hamline and William Mitchell go back and forth between Tier 3 and Tier 4 all the time, does it really change anything in terms of hiring prospects? And Syracuse is a Tier 3 school this year, but last year it was in the Top 100, is this really going to make a difference in their normal hiring numbers/trends? Does this even matter? Do schools who move up in the rankings actually get more hiring opportunities comparatively? If so, is there any evidence of this?
George Washington placed 20th last year, now they're 28th this year, does this really matter in terms of career prospects? Are employers actually making decisions not to hire at GWU just because of this? My guess is, no.
Discuss.