Law school pedigree after Big Law?

[Anonymous]

You hear a lot about needing T14 to land a job in Big Law, but what about after landing one? How much does T14 matter then? Do law firms care in 5 or 10 years where you went to school? Are you less likely to make partner if you're not T14? Are you less respected? Does not going T14 haunt you forever?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You hear a lot about needing T14 to land a job in Big Law, but what about after landing one? How much does T14 matter then? Do law firms care in 5 or 10 years where you went to school? Are you less likely to make partner if you're not T14? Are you less respected? Does not going T14 haunt you forever?

Pretty much always matters with BigLaw unless one has a fantastic government job, but those also tend to focus on pedigree.

[Anonymous]

It’s helpful. Can you manage without it, yes. But it is much easier to be from a T14

[Anonymous]

Hmm, this has not been my experience. Partner at a Big Law firm and went to a Midwest state school for law school. Have been at two big law firms in my career and we never focused much on law school when making partnership decisions. Much more focused on book of business.

[Anonymous]

Credentials matter in small law as well. We are a firm of big law deserters and prefer to hire people who have been trained in big law.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it matters. I work in a mid-sized law firm and we look at law schools even mid-career.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You hear a lot about needing T14 to land a job in Big Law, but what about after landing one? How much does T14 matter then? Do law firms care in 5 or 10 years where you went to school? Are you less likely to make partner if you're not T14? Are you less respected? Does not going T14 haunt you forever?

Pretty much always matters with BigLaw unless one has a fantastic government job, but those also tend to focus on pedigree.

I handled Honors Program hiring for my Division for a few years. I didn't necessarily intend to focus primarily on "pedigree" but we had so many applicants that I just really didn't have a choice. I had to narrow it down somehow with hundreds and hundreds of resumes to go through. There were enough highly ranked applicants with law review/moot court that there was no way to schedule even half of them for interviews. So I had to look at the law schools. That said, I did look outside of T14 for highly ranked applicants with great resumes -- but not terribly far outside of T14. It just wasn't doable.

Not sure what the applicant pool will be looking like now, though. Sigh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hmm, this has not been my experience. Partner at a Big Law firm and went to a Midwest state school for law school. Have been at two big law firms in my career and we never focused much on law school when making partnership decisions. Much more focused on book of business.

Most Big Law firms do NOT make partnership decisions "focused on book of business." Most senior associates up for partner don't even have a "book of business." "Book of business" will count a lot for lateral partners, obviously, but not for associates coming up through the ranks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Credentials matter in small law as well. We are a firm of big law deserters and prefer to hire people who have been trained in big law.

That doesn't answer OP's question.

[Anonymous]

Yes pedigree matters, at least for a time.

Absolutely coming out of law school, pedigree is very important. And any time you're trying to lateral as an associate, pedigree is very important - but of slightly less value to the extent you have a particular skill set.

As someone already noted, jumping from associate to partner has nothing to do with having a book of business (because you won't have a book of business then). Basically, as long as you're a good associate, you'll be promoted. Has absolutely nothing to do with law school for that promotion.

Promotion from non-equity to equity partner is solely based on book of business. You can go to regional diploma mill university for your JD, and if you have $5m of business, you'll get promoted. Same with making a lateral move to another law firm. But reality is that regional diploma mill U does not tend to produce stellar rainmakers or lawyers, so we don't see many of them at the lateral partner ranks.

I would say the T14 thing is a bit fabricated. For your first biglaw gig, really, anything in T30 plus the top state school from your region - if you're top 1/3 or 1/2 from those schools, you should be fine to get recruited. I'm at an amlaw 30 firm and we have 30-ish schools we do OCI with, and once you're on that list of schools we're fairly indifferent to law school pedigree. No one cares more about harvard vs Vanderbilt once you get to the OCI stage. In fact, i think it's well known that the top 5 or so schools are not great for recruiting from, because they tend to have high attrition and often lack hard skills required for lawyering.

Once you land in biglaw, if you want to lateral as an associate, i think the T30 probably expands to T80, if the right skill set is there. Schools like Miami and American - biglaw will hire you if there's a gap that needs to be filled. Lateral pickings are usually pretty slim.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes pedigree matters, at least for a time.

Absolutely coming out of law school, pedigree is very important. And any time you're trying to lateral as an associate, pedigree is very important - but of slightly less value to the extent you have a particular skill set.

As someone already noted, jumping from associate to partner has nothing to do with having a book of business (because you won't have a book of business then). Basically, as long as you're a good associate, you'll be promoted. Has absolutely nothing to do with law school for that promotion.

Promotion from non-equity to equity partner is solely based on book of business. You can go to regional diploma mill university for your JD, and if you have $5m of business, you'll get promoted. Same with making a lateral move to another law firm. But reality is that regional diploma mill U does not tend to produce stellar rainmakers or lawyers, so we don't see many of them at the lateral partner ranks.

I would say the T14 thing is a bit fabricated. For your first biglaw gig, really, anything in T30 plus the top state school from your region - if you're top 1/3 or 1/2 from those schools, you should be fine to get recruited. I'm at an amlaw 30 firm and we have 30-ish schools we do OCI with, and once you're on that list of schools we're fairly indifferent to law school pedigree. No one cares more about harvard vs Vanderbilt once you get to the OCI stage. In fact, i think it's well known that the top 5 or so schools are not great for recruiting from, because they tend to have high attrition and often lack hard skills required for lawyering.

Once you land in biglaw, if you want to lateral as an associate, i think the T30 probably expands to T80, if the right skill set is there. Schools like Miami and American - biglaw will hire you if there's a gap that needs to be filled. Lateral pickings are usually pretty slim.

+1000

[Anonymous]

Important for getting your foot in the door, but matters less with increasing seniority. I don't think anyone cares about where you went to law school in terms when you're up for partner. Other metrics (billables, your book, business prospects, work quality, etc.) are far more important.

Source: Current partner at V20.

[Anonymous]

The more "prestigious" the big law firm the more likely it is to matter. Yes, all of the V100 like their T14 but there are some firms that are much more selective/snobby than others. In DC, for example, Wilmer, William & Connolly and Covington come to mind. Because the top lawyers in these firms and firms like them are so pedigreed, and because organizations tend to prefer to surround themselves with like people, firms such as these are more likely to give the benefit of the doubt or make assumptions regarding associates from top schools than they are to others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You hear a lot about needing T14 to land a job in Big Law, but what about after landing one? How much does T14 matter then? Do law firms care in 5 or 10 years where you went to school? Are you less likely to make partner if you're not T14? Are you less respected? Does not going T14 haunt you forever?

Yes, it is very sad for anyone who did not go to a T14. Except in this administration. But outside that, yeah.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You hear a lot about needing T14 to land a job in Big Law, but what about after landing one? How much does T14 matter then? Do law firms care in 5 or 10 years where you went to school? Are you less likely to make partner if you're not T14? Are you less respected? Does not going T14 haunt you forever?

Yes, it is very sad for anyone who did not go to a T14. Except in this administration. But outside that, yeah.

Wait, Stetson isn’t T14?