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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’ve been practicing in biglaw for twenty years. There is a very strong, but not perfect, correlation between law school and capability. People from the top five law schools tend to be cerebral but not great practitioners. People from t6 to around t50 tend to be comparably very strong. Beyond that, you’re likely to find a significant decrease in quality. Also, I’m only talking about the people who have already been screened into biglaw. So in t14, that’s probably the top half or more of the class. In t50 it’s probably the top third. After t50 I think you need to be top ten or twenty percent. But even then, the quality typically significantly drops compared to your average t15 biglaw attorney.

Note this is all averages. I just fired an incompetent associate from Yale law. And one of the superstar equity partners in my group went to a “directional” law school in the Midwest I’d never heard of. But there are definitely trends.

[b]If you’re outside counsel choosing your law firm counsel, you absolutely should pay attention to both school and law firm, because these are going to be the strongest predictors of competency. Theres no objective other way for you to gauge skill set or experience[/b] .[/quote]

Op here. I assume you mean in house counsel.  Obviously you look at firm, but I’m not looking up law school or undergrad degree and major for people in the firm!! Preposterous. I assume they were screened by the firm. And for the most part, they’re coming in by referral to me by someone else who knows their work. Mostly I’m using big law firms or firms well known in that practice area, with a few exceptions for a discrete speciality. I recently had to hire a firm to negotiate a developer’s access agreement. Know what that is? I didn’t. And the big law RE partner I usually work with didn’t really know either but tried to sell me on his firm doing the work.

I will agree with you somewhat on the other things you said. I’ve seen a number of T5 law school lawyers get fired. You wouldn’t think it would happen, but it does. Why? To put it simply, ime they’re often weird. The sweet spot for smart but common sense/EQ seems to be t15/20 to 50. [/quote]

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