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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]FWIW, The current USNWR rankings are
Georgetown 14 (tied with others)
GW and Mason tied at 31 (with several others, including W&M)
Catholic 71 (tied)
American 104

I went to AU law when it was ranked in the top 50 and liked it, have had good jobs since graduation.  But it was outrageously expensive then and seems to be so now.  I can’t fathom what it has done to fall so far in the rankings.

If I had it to do all over again and wanted to be in this area, I would live in VA and go to Mason law school.  Well ranked and a lot less expensive.  
[/quote]

Yeah, what's going on at AU Law?[/quote]

Likely nothing is "going on at AU Law," the rankings have never meant much beyond top 15 or so and they have shifted like crazy for many, many schools in recent history, and usually for no obvious reason. I attended Tulane when it was just inside the first tier at 40 and now it's 78. Nothing "going on" (although there were some issues when Katrina hit, that was over 20 years ago). [/quote]

LOL.  The "first tier" stops way short of no. 40.[/quote]

Not when I went to law school it didn't. It referred to the top 50, not the top 14 like now. [/quote]

When did you go to law school?  Fifty years ago?[/quote]

No, not 50 years ago.

When did you go to law school? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Never. You’re one of the mommies, right? Obsessing over things like this because you want your kid to go to law school? Yep. That’s what I thought.[/quote]

DP
I went to law school 30 years (been practicing ever since) and I would not recommend my kid go to law school if they couldn't go to a pretty good one and top 50 ain't it.
Top 10 maybe top 20,but not top 50[/quote]

I agree. I went to law school 25 years ago (at T10), and I would have the same advice for my kids. [/quote]

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 :-) [/quote]

Both DH and I are lawyers and would not want either of our 3 DC to go to law school.  But not going to T14 will limit where you end up.  DH says that at his big law firm, they do not recruit anywhere below Georgetown.  There are absolutely no grads or lawyers from non top law schools except for a few rain making partners who have a chip on their shoulder but went to a lower ranked law school and are only at the firm because of they business they bring in their particular niche.  And you can tell by tier of firm, how analytical the lawyers are.  DH has worked at several big law firms in the span of 30 years and has noticed quality of associates declines with reputation of firm, which is really reputation of law schools they came from. [/quote]

There is not a single large firm in any major market where there are "no grads or lawyers from non stop law schools" other than rainmakers.  Zero.  None.  Not in DC, not in NYC, not in LA, not in Chicago.  Nowhere.  [b]The demand for associates in Biglaw exceeds the supply of T14 graduates, requiring that EVERY SINGLE FIRM dip a little lower.[/b]

I'm not saying that you're better off attending a T14, but you absolutely can get a job at ANY major law firm in the United States coming out of a lower ranked one.  Yes, you will have to have done well, often extraordinarily well.  But it can be done and IS being done.

Prove me wrong.  Provide a link to a Biglaw firm without a single associate who graduated from a law school below Georgetown.  I'll wait.[/quote]

This is not true. [/quote]
Of course it is, muffin. I know multiple Biglaw attorneys in Phoenix that went to law school at Arizona State or the University of Arizona. [/quote]

In fairness, Phoenix is a second tier law market that doesn't attract the same quality law grad as New York, DC, Chicago, LA, SF etc.  [/quote]

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