Best Law Schools according to lay perception

[bigs5068]

Granted a lot of people have probably used lawyers businessman etc, but most people probably have no idea of the rank the lawyer goes to. Just like I have no idea if my doctor or dentist went to a good or bad school.  If they clean my teeth properly and are licensed to be dentists I go to them. If a doctor is cool to me and makes me feel better I have no idea if the Med School they went to was ranked 200 or 5th. I think that is how most people view lawyers you have to use them and if they are licensed to be lawyers and they take care of things for you then you wouldn't know the rank of the school they went to.

[the white rabbit]

pretty sure is an opinion, beyond that would be a fact.

short of actually doing a full on cross country survey, all anyone (including you) can do is give guesses and their own opinions based on the facts they have available to them. I gave other layman in semi-simular situations, you just gave "I dont think they would".

Actually, I don't believe I expressed an opinion one way or the other.  And short of doing some kind of survey, I don't think people should say they're "pretty sure" of what laymen think in general.

"Pretty sure" suggests that you know something rather than that you think something.

Though at this point it appears we agree in concept, and we're just arguing over terminology.

I never understood why anyone cared about lay perception of law schools, anyway.

[bigs5068]

Well unless you go into Big Law, which most people don't the majority of your clients will be lay people. As a result of that understanding and respecting their opinions would probably be important.

[marcus-aurelius]

I can speak from my experience ONLY before researching into schools.  I believed Harvard and Yale to be 1 and 2 in that order.  Then, being from the NYC area, I thought Columbia and NYU were 3-4.  Finally, Georgetown I thought to be five.  I did not know Chicago had a law school, let alone many of the other top ranked schools.

[sonofapickle]

Every law school except for Cooley.

[lawboy81]

I knew U Chicago has a great law school because I have a friend who is a U Chicago undergrad and she bragged about how great their law school is...

I think it's basically a combination of 2 things: (1) general perception of how good the undergrad program is -- which BTW, I think a lot of people could give you a general idea of what they consider to be great universities based on where they and friends went, where famous people went, populare culture, etc.; (2) Region -- #1 is obviously going to be shaped by what region the person is from.

Private schools have a big advantage over public schools, generally speaking. Of course in the flagship state is usually considered "great" by people in that state, but you leave the state and your school is only known if they're good at football or basketball, and even then they're only known for football or basketball. Interestingly, there seem to be a lot of schools which have "good" (according to US News anyway) law schools that don't have good undergrad programs -- Fordham, GW, American, GMU, Minnesota, Alabama -- I would guess these schools are not highly regarded according to lay perception (though GW may be an exception). However, there aren't as many schools that have very highly regarded undergrad programs with inferior law schools -- all I can think of is Wake Forest (I know it's undergrad is around #25 and law is around #40) so might be hard to make any conclusions about these schools.

[llsatt1]

I really think a hiring attorney absent big law would be more concerned with more than an alma matter.  In the Bay Area there are about a million law schools and I interact with other 1L's at my internship and I would say that it varies a lot by the person not the school.  There are a lot of Hastings people at my internship there are some that I think are idiots, others I think are awesome, and one that I think is smart, but the person is a an absolute a-hole.  There are three Berkley people two are cool, but one is so quiet I couldn't tell you if she was a genius or a retard. She simply does not talk to anyone and maybe she is a genius and doing well I have no idea, but I would not want her to argue in court for me that is for sure, even if she does go to Berkley. Maybe she is a great writer, but she is just to shy.

There are few Santa Clara and USF people they are fine. However, far and away the best intern out of everyone goes to Florida Coastal he gets the most responsibility and has won a lot of the motions he was written. I can't say anyone has had the success rate he has.  I really in all honestly believe everything in life is related to your performance not your school. It certainly helps to go to a good school and I am sure that quiet Berkley girl will get some opportunities, but I would be terrified to have her represent me in a trial. I know there a lot of great Berkley attorneys, but her as an individual would probably be to shy to object to anything if she was in litigation. Painful shyness is not something your LSAT or GPA displays, but it would certainly affect your ability to be a good attorney.

Again there is no doubt that to some people school name is everything and it helps and I would much rather be at Stanford than GGU. However, if I ever pass the bar and become a lawyer I will look at a lot more than the name of someone's school if I have to make a hiring decision.  I have met a lot of awesome people that go to great schools as well as a lot of duds from great schools. I have met idiots that go to bad bad schools and really awesome people that go to bad schools. I am referring to undergrad right now by the way and I just think for the majority of people that personality, actual performance, and hard word would be more important for your success in any field opposed to your pedigree.

The perfect example of that is sports again. How many #1 draft picks have been terrible and how many people picked 52 or 200th have been hall of famers. The answer is a lot.  Again being a number one pick opens more doors at first, but if you can't do the job it is real noticeable and you end up like Jamarcus Russel on the street in three years.  His Pedigree was great LSU in regards to football is like Harvard in regards to law school. He led them to a champsionshiop and had good numbers in college. He was a terrible NFL quarterback though and he is gone now. His college accomplishments don't help him at all. Tom Brady picked #223 I think had to bust his ass to get noticed, but he did it and is possibly the greatest quarterback of all time. Same thing with Brett Favre and I could go on a long list of people in sports nobody expected anything from that flourished and people drafted #1 that were terrible Kwame Brown, Michael Olowkandi etc.

check your writing before you call anyone an idiot.

[bigs5068]

I wrote a long rant on a random internet forum.  It is kind of sad I spent that much time writing it and it is even sadder for someone to be upset about grammar on a random website.

Honestly, none of the interns are idiots they were all smart enough to get through the first year of law school. My point was that the FCSL student was the one everyone was most impressed with. He wrote his motions well and ended up winning a lot of them.  The fact that he went to FCSL did not matter, the substance of his motions were good and the attorneys liked that. THE END.

[llsatt1]

I wrote a long rant on a random internet forum.  It is kind of sad I spent that much time writing it and it is even sadder for someone to be upset about grammar on a random website.

Honestly, none of the interns are idiots they were all smart enough to get through the first year of law school. My point was that the FCSL student was the one everyone was most impressed with. He wrote his motions well and ended up winning a lot of them.  The fact that he went to FCSL did not matter, the substance of his motions were good and the attorneys liked that. THE END.

I stopped reading after you misspelled 'too' as 'to' the second time.  Your impression that Berkley is the correct spelling also tickles me.

[Cicero]

llsatt1, Bigs5068's writing bothered me a little at first as well, but then he explained (awhile ago) that he writes most of his posts on his phone. It can be a bit of a pain to write posts on a phone, so give him a break.