<p>If you want to work in a particular city as a lawyer, is it best to go to a decent law school that many firms from that city actually recruit from or is it better to go to a top-10 national law school to bolster your resume?</p>
<p>What city did you have in mind? The major firms from most cities recruit at the top law schools.</p>
<p>I'm sure that this depends on how large a gap you're talking about. The 20-school in a smallish city is probably better than the 10-school across the country. But the 10-school is probably better than the 350-school, no matter where they are. Etc.</p>
<p>Not to hijack the thread but I have the same question but the city I'm talking about is Chicago. I understand about UChicago/Northwestern and to a much lesser extent Illinois but what about Loyola/DePaul/ IIT?</p>
<p>... those are all in the same city, so there's no geographic dilemma and you go to the school you think is better.</p>
<p>Are you asking whether you should choose one of those three over a top 14 school? I would say no. Otherwise I'm not really sure what you're asking.</p>
<p>The city I have in mind is a city of about 300,000 people in the South...I think I could get in to a law school like UVA or Chicago, but many of the firms have strong recruiting bases at Vanderbilt and Emory.</p>
<p>I can't believe lawyers in any Southern state would prefer to hire from Emory than UVA. It's possible that the firms in some smaller towns would have an extremely cozy relationship with a local law school, especially in Alabama/Mississippi where there's tremendous loyalty to the in-state universities. But you aren't planning to work in Nashville or Atlanta.</p>
<p>My two cents is that making connections in the South might be a good reason to choose UVA over Chicago or Duke over Penn, but not a good reason to choose Emory over a better southern school like UVA.</p>
<p>Ok thanks...anyone else?</p>
<p>Bump...any thoughts?</p>