<p>If you've ever wondered which law schools are most likely to allow you to find a job at BIGLAW, the National Law Journal today published a review of the percentage of students from a number of top law schools who accepted positions at BIGLAW. Yes, the survey is flawed. For example, it doesn't take into account how many students at a particular law school didn't seek jobs at BIGLAW. It also doesn't report how many students at a particular law school were offered jobs at BIGLAW where the students may have declined those offers. It also does not take into account how many BIGLAW offers any particular student may have obtained in the interviewing process. The survey focuses on graduates taking jobs at the National Law Journal's top 250 law firms. Flaws and all, this survey provides more information that we would have without it. </p>
<p>In any event, the reported results are as follows:</p>
<p>Columbia, 74.8% accepted positions
Northwestern, 73.5%
Chicago, 73.1%
NYU, 72.8%
Penn, 69%
Cornell, 62.2%
Harvard, 61.1%
Duke, 59.3%
UVa, 58.1%
Michigan, 56.4%
Berkeley, 53.7%
Stanford, 51.4%
Georgetown, 48.5%
USC, 43.6%
Vanderbilt, 40.3%
GW, 39.6%
UCLA, 39.1%
BU, 38.8%
Yale, 38.5%
BC, 36.8%</p>
<p>Northwestern's huge leap from #11 to #2 has been attributed to its continued emphasis on hiring students with work experience prior to law school. </p>
<p>Interesting, law firms like Skadden Arps (one of the country's largest) indicated that it actively recruits at only 15 of the top law schools, though it actually hires from over 50 different law schools. Another very large law firm, Baker & Mackenzie, actively recruits at only 13 law schools. </p>
<p>Some additional exerpts from the article follow:</p>
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All together, the top 20 law schools that NLJ 250 law firms relied on most to fill their first-year associate ranks sent 54.9% of their graduates to those firms, compared with 51.6% in 2006.
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This year's list of go-to schools was compiled from recruiting information that law firms provided on the 2007 NLJ 250, The National Law Journal's annual survey of the nation's largest law firms.
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In 2007, the top 20 schools sent 3,511 of their graduates to work as first-year associates at NLJ 250 law firms. Total graduates among those schools in 2007 equaled 6,395. In 2006, the 20 go-to law schools sent 3,561 to NLJ 250 law firms out of 6,902 graduates.
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Dropping from the list of top 20 schools was University of Texas School of Law, ranked No. 19 last year. Of its 460 J.D. graduates in 2007, 35.2% became attorneys at NLJ 250 law firms. Also falling off the list was Fordham University School of Law, which was ranked No. 17 last year, when 38.8% of its 2006 graduates went to work at NLJ 250 firms. Of the 498 graduates in 2007, 36.1% took NLJ 250 jobs.
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But a few of the biggest law firms turned to schools that were not among the top 20 schools. For example, 1,447-attorney Reed Smith and 1,381-lawyer Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis hired from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law more than any other law school. In addition, 1,766-attorney Greenberg Traurig most frequently hired from University of Miami School of Law for its first-year associates.
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