DC area law schools
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Anonymous
I didn't cite the ATL rankings as being "authoritative" on anything other than employment prospects. |
Anonymous
Bullshit. More than 2200 sat for the most recent DC bar exam. Of the 51 state bars and DC, only 5 (NY, CA, IL, FL and TX) had more people sit for their exams. All five are much larger jurisdictions. |
Anonymous
You sound utterly insufferable. 🙄 |
Anonymous
American and Catholic are not the schools I'd want to be compared to though. At my biglaw firm, we recruited from Georgetown and GW. We did have one lawyer from Catholic (and she was great). But that was the outlier, there was not a recruiting stream from there. She was also a lateral. You are much much better off going to a national firm, not a regional one, if you want better odds in the marketplace. Regional schools tend to send to small local firms or local govt. Or some open up as solos, which I can't fathom doing right out of school. Or they don't get legal jobs at all. |
Anonymous
This hasn’t been true since DC joined the UBE in 2016. |
Anonymous
I agree. I went to law school 25 years ago (at T10), and I would have the same advice for my kids. |
Anonymous
Well, not only that but that poster is an idiot. The point being made was that GMU doesn't live up to its ranking, which is on par with GW and William & Mary -- not Catholic or AU. |
Anonymous
Ha! I can assure you I am not young. I'm sure you meant to insult me but I'm old enough to take being called young as a compliment. So thanks, I guess? Why am I full of myself to tell the truth that my biglaw firm did not recruit from Scalia? Why is this so triggering to you? Yes, attorneys from lesser ranked law schools can do well and make it to biglaw but it's a harder path and fewer of them do. And there are many many more from the top schools. That is just the reality. Sorry it's hard for you to accept. |
Anonymous
Maybe life has changed in the quarter century since I took the bar but zero of the first year class in the DC office of the firm that I joined out of law school took the DC bar. We were pretty evenly split between NY, MD, VA and home state other than NY/MD/VA. Then we waived into DC. |
Anonymous
I think you're mixing up poster. I wrote that last post that someone said sounded young (!!!). I did not trash moms (I am one). I did not cite to ATL as being authoritative. I barely read it and don't follow their law school rankings. But it's perfectly ok that you won't hire me, Mr. Biglaw hiring partner. |
Anonymous
Are you retired? Your info is VERY dated. Sure, a few decades ago, no one in DC took the DC bar. But that has changed. Also, even back in the day (when I came out of law school), most of biglaw didn't take the NY bar. Most in DC took Maryland (known to be easier than VA) or their home state. |
Anonymous
How big was the first year class in your DC office? Was it big law? And how do you know the number is zero? Were you stalking your colleagues? I joined a DC-based Biglaw firm before you. I took the the DC bar. So did many of my fellow first years. Yes, many others elected to waive in. But I couldn't give you an exact breakdown because I didn't stalk my colleagues. |
Anonymous
18 in the DC office. AM Law took 50 firm. Not stalking. We actually spoke to one another - including "hey, I'm heading back to State X this week to be sworn in". |
Anonymous
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My daughter is a 1L at UMD Carey. She says all her friends think they will get good jobs (probably not 215k) good but ones they’ll be happy with. My daughter is instate and our 3 year cost is probably 210k.
She has one government internship lined up for the summer but is waiting for a more prestigious one before committing. My daughter wasn’t going to get into GULC based on her LSAT/ GPA. However she loves Maryland Carey. She has the 1L GPA high enough that she could probably transfer to GW but we don’t think the additional cost is worth it and she likes the school too much to leave. For my daughter her local realistic choices upon application were AU/ Catholic/ and UMD. I think it’s a mistake for folks to think they need AU or Catholic to get DC jobs. One of the government internships my daughter is a finalist for is located in DC and it’s prestigious. UMD Carey is close enough to DC that it has a good reputation there and you also have the MD market where it dominates. For everyone saying that law school is only worth it if you get a T14, it’s definitely more a risk for a BL job. Not everyone wants a BL job though so cost of attendance plays a role. For folks that are saying why spend $210k for $100k job, I say the market is bad in general and my daughter wants to do law and we think the ROI is enough. |
Anonymous
I’m surprised that you both say this. I am also a practicing lawyer for 30 plus years, as is my spouse, as are many friends, and of course colleagues. I’ve worked in big law and in house, and know many attorneys well who have worked in both areas plus government, nonprofits, smaller firms, and left the law entirely. I’m sure your circles are similar. But I have the opposite view as you do. The more experienced I am, the more I encounter attorneys in senior positions who have graduated from a variety of law schools. It’s a big world out there! I see the obsession with T14 schools usually at mid level associates and below (probably because they are trying to distinguish themselves). Those with more experience realize that there is a lot more to being strong in one’s field beyond where they went to law school. Many attorneys from top schools just don’t have it or haven’t yet found their niche, and conversely many great attorneys graduated from GW, American, Fordham, so on. I do find that I can usually tell in meetings when someone is/has been a practicing attorney (regardless of the school) because they approach the matter in an analytic way. another saying that non-lawyers don’t do that or that all lawyers do, but there is a consistency. I’d discourage my own kids from going to law school entirely, but that’s a different post 
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