<p>Yes, very strange, especially since of all these schools, Chicago seems to have the highest percentage of its graduating class working for BigLaw firms. “Familiarity breeds contempt,” perhaps? Or possibly that, (for whatever reason) taking Chicago grads from deeper in the class, the law firms find more reason for dissatisfaction with what they get? All speculation, but it is an odd result.</p>
<p>I do suspect, based on what I’ve heard (and I know a lot of people in these circles) that Chicago’s student culture is more oriented toward BigLaw than that at the other top law schools. Which may account for the extremely high percentage, approaching 60% of Chicago law grads, who end up at top 250 firms, as opposed to mid-sized or boutique firms, government jobs, public interest jobs, etc. That they are hired in larger numbers relative to the size of the class, then, may be less a function of their being perceived as more desirable by law firm recruiters—apparently they’re not, according to the recruiter survey—and more a function of their being simply more willing and available to take those jobs, while a larger fraction of the class at Yale, Harvard, and Stanford are opting for alternative careers.</p>
<p>On the other hand, a 4.5 on this ranking is not exactly a “low” score. It’s well below Yale and Harvard, but still in the top handful.</p>
<p>Some, yes, but highly unlikely many/most are. The legal market is brutal right now (and may remain so for a long time). Many, many idealistic liberal arts majors go to LS bcos its one of the few (only?) roads open to them for a “career” and/or they can’t find a job. When they get out, the situation is much the same. Only now they have $200k in debt.</p>
<p>“As for I-banking, all I can say is you’d be surprised how many graduates of top law schools go that route. Maybe it’s disillusionment with the law, maybe they’re in law school only by default because they couldn’t figure out what they really wanted to do with their lives, maybe they realize during law school that they’re really better suited to I-banking than to lawyering, maybe I-banking offers a different kind of adrenaline rush and the prospect of untold wealth that makes a partnership at a law firm look pedestrian by comparison.”</p>
<p>From what I’ve observed, it’s because they find that they are getting their tails wagged by a bunch of people who are stupider than they are, but are getting paid more, and have more diverse and “bigger picture” jobs. They resent that these people are the ones running the show on their deals, and hiring them, instead of the other way around.</p>
<p>A couple of points though:
to transition to banking, some bankers of influence have to be convinced that you would be good at it, and have to want you. Such a transition is far from a guaranteed path.</p>
<p>2) Although many lawyers who I saw transitioned were sucessful, others were not. There are different personality and skill sets involved on the banking side, not just the one side that the lawyers see most. And they do not necessarily know as much as they think they do about all these other areas. And may not be equally gifted in them either.</p>
<p>Can’t disagree with any of that, but I’m not talking about mid-career transitions. I’m talking about young people being recruited into I-banking right out of law school. I don’t know the banking industry as well as you do, but my understanding is when people in this industry are looking to hire entry-level talent they’re not necessarily looking for any specific training, they just want the smartest people out there. And the reality is, law schools like YLS and HLS are so selective that the talent pool there is actually a cut above that of Ivy undergrads. I don’t know how it is now, but I’m told that a few years ago Goldman Sachs was one of the biggest recruiters at YLS.</p>
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<p>I think this is all a bit of an exaggeration. The legal market was very tough in 2009 and 2010, but my sources at our local flagship tell me there’s a lot more hiring going on this spring and the vast majority of graduates of top-30 law schools should be in pretty good shape. Certainly law grads from top schools are in much better shape than people going on the job market with only undergraduate degrees, unless their degrees are in specialized fields like engineering. </p>
<p>And no one borrows $200K for law school. A tiny handful might get to that level of total indebtedness if they borrowed $100K or more for their undergraduate education, but that’s the extreme tail of the curve. Figures I’ve seen say average total indebtedness (for those with any debt) is generally somewhere in the $50K to $90K range for graduates of public law schools, and $80K to $110K at most privates. But those for whom this level of debt is a big problem are not the graduates of Yale, Harvard, Chicago, Michigan, or Berkeley, because the vast majority of them are going to get good jobs (and did even during the bleakest days of the recession). It’s the graduates of 3rd and 4th-tier law schools who are coming out of law school carrying a similar (or at some schools larger) debt load as those at the top schools, but with substantially poorer job prospects.</p>
<p>“I’m talking about young people being recruited into I-banking right out of law school.”</p>
<p>oh sorry, that’s different…</p>
<p>I met many ex-lawyers in banking, but I never met anyone who was hired there directly out of law school. But that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen then, and certainly doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen now.</p>
<p>There are as many excellent law schools in the west coast as in the east coast. Here is a list of the top 30 law schools for USC matriculants in the last three years.</p>
<p>“The List”
American University, Washington College of Law
California Western School of Law
Chapman University School of Law
Fordham University School of Law
Georgetown University
Harvard University
Loyola Law School-Los Angeles
Northwestern University
New York University School of Law
Northwestern University
Pepperdine University
Santa Clara University
Southwestern University
University of California-Berkeley (Boalt Hall)
University of California-Davis
University of California-Hastings
University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA)
University of Hawaii-Manoa
University of Miami
University of Michigan
University of LaVerne College of Law
University of Pacific-McGeorge School of Law
University of Pennsylvania
University of San Diego
University of San Francisco
University of Southern California
University of Texas
University of Virginia
Western State University
Whittier Law School</p>
<p>Well, it’s common enough that the career development offices at the top law schools (at least Yale and Stanford, I didn’t check the others) put out publications with lots of details on how J.D. candidates can go about lining up jobs at the major banking houses—not just in the legal department, mind you, but banking jobs. Yale’s publication also includes a link to contact information YLS alums in I-banking, as well as representative narratives and tips from alums who went in that direction, most of them straight out of law school. One complication for the law students is that the hiring cycle for these jobs is not in sync with the law firm recruitment cycle, so they may need to pass up law firm jobs to pursue the I-banking path. Some do, however. And YLS very much promotes the idea that it doesn’t just train lawyers; a significant fraction of every class ends up in non-legal jobs in business and industry.</p>