School where you want to practice

[alexjudka]

Hey everyone,

Im very early on in my law school search and the whole process. Im currently a Sophomore and planning on attending law school in the fall of 2009. I was feeling ambitious this morning, however and I wanted to look around at law schools to get a jump on things. I was just wondering, ive heard that it is important to go to law school where you want to practice. Is this true? I am really interested in some of the Washington DC area schools but being from NY and wanting to live in NY later on in life, would this be a problem?


Thank you for the help!

[nealric]

Depends on how highly ranked the schools is. A Harvard degree is portable anywhere. A south texas college of law degreee leaves you in Houston for at least several years after graduation.

I would divide schools into local (city they are located in only), regional (whole state, plus some surrounding states), and national.

Generally speaking, the top 14 schools are national, the top 30 are widely regional, schools ranked 30-50 are reginal with a slightly smaller area. Schools ranked 50-100 are good mostly for the city (if it is large) or state (if it is a smaller one) Schools ranked below 100 are generally local.

There are of course exceptions to this. You could end up in NYC from south texas, just dont count on it.

[Imelda Marcos]

That was great advice.  Is there a website or link where we can find this information.  To look for any exceptions, and to verify regional, national etc.? 

[juliemccoy]

nalpdirectory.com

martindale.com

[Imelda Marcos]

Thanks Julie, I'll take a look.  But I know these are employment websites right?  Maybe I should look before comment but is it reaslly true that just because someone from a firm graduated from a certain school, does that make it regional, national etc?

[iscoredawaitlist]

Thanks Julie, I'll take a look.  But I know these are employment websites right?  Maybe I should look before comment but is it reaslly true that just because someone from a firm graduated from a certain school, does that make it regional, national etc?

it also shows who goes to OCI. But neither are fantastic indicators. However, they may be as good as you can get without actually asking hiring partners of firms.

[Imelda Marcos]

Thanks Iscored.  Alright I'm off to scavenge the sites.  Thanks guys!

[juliemccoy]

LSAC and USNWR also provide basic percentages of where the grads from each school are practicing (IE: West Coast, Northeast, etc.)

[nealric]

Another way to check is go to the websites of firms that you might be interested in a given city. Almost all of them have partner/associate profiles with the law schools they attended. Check and see what schools the new associates are from and it will give you a pretty good Idea about what schools they are looking at.

[Imelda Marcos]

Thanks, great advice.  My type A has now taken over and I'm making a document of all the firms in Los Angeles with specific details about new hires (if available), campus interviews, and cities they have firms in.