<p>You lower-case me, and then scold me for not upper-casing you? Shame on You!</p>
<p>Concerneddad never loses a case!</p>
<p>Greybeard my friend, it that were truley the "case," I would be set for life and posting from my shack on the North Shore of Kauai, instead of my office in Oregon.</p>
<p>May I suggest that some of us are getting too wound up in the fine print and statistics here?</p>
<p>No. 1 - people at both law firms and corporations who are interviewing and hiring law school graduates, i.e. practicing lawyers including heads of legal departments, don't pay much if any attention to whether the top ranking law schools are 10, 13, 14, 16, or 18 in number, nor really to whether a given law school is no. 7 or no. 9. They consider a certain group of law schools to be tops, period. They may consider one (say, Harvard) to be a bit better than another (say Georgetown) but not necessarily by any meaningful amount (unless they happen to be an alumna or alumnus). In general, they know that law students have reasons for attending or not attending some law schools (finances being one; the fact that not everyone can get into Harvard being another). Sometimes the fact that a student did very well at a "second-tier" school may carry more weight than someone from the middle of the class at Harvard.</p>
<p>Sometimes the specific courses taken at a law school will be an important factor, if the law student is looking to work in a specific field and the hiring folks could use someone with a little background in that field. For example, in my field, intellectual property, some firms will be more interested in a student from a school like Boalt, Georgetown, Chicago, etc. who has taken IP classes than someone from Yale who hasn't (and particularly as opposed to someone who has attended a school where such classes are given but has taken few or none).</p>
<p>As far as international work is concerned, it also depends on who is doing the hiring. If the position is at an overseas office of an American law firm or corporation, then American perceptions will generally govern who is hired. If the employer is a foreign based operation looking to hire American lawyers for (at least initial) work in the US, then they probably will rely on the judgement of their US attorneys (same result) and will see how the new attorney works with the home office. If the employer is a foreign-based operation looking to hire attorneys for immediate posting overseas, then you have a whole new group of factors entering the picture - not only law school reputation but cultural-based factors.</p>
<p>Greybeard/Ccd - over.</p>
<p>I'll confess to having gone down a bit of a rabbit hole there. That's why they call it an alma mater: "Be careful what you say about my momma!"</p>
<p>I think what dadofsam has said is on the mark.</p>
<p>I would add that if you ever envision starting your own practice and getting your own clients, then the 'pop' fame of your law school will matter immensely, if for nothing else, than for sheer marketing purposes. Let's face it. Most people who aren't in the law profession will have no idea of what even the top 5 law schools in the country, and these people are going to be your potential clients. Sure, you might be able to stress the legal work you've done in the past and how your skills match well with what the client wants, but I think from a sheer customer-facing marketing perspective, we can all agree that it would be better if you also have a highly recognizable and marketable law-degree to present as well. </p>
<p>I remember when my friend's mothers got seriously injured in an industrial accident and wanted to pursue legal remedies, somebody suggested a lawyer who, among other things, had his law degree from the University of Chicago, whereupon she replied "I don't want that, I want somebody who went to a good law school". Now we all on this forum might understand that Chicago is an elite law school, but the fact remains that most regular people don't know that, and if you want to establish a legal practice in providing legal representation to regular people, it is helpful to have a law degree that is recognizable by regular people. According to her, the only 3 'good' law schools out there are Yale, Harvard, and Stanford. Nor is she the only one who thinks this way - go out to the street and ask regular Joe's which law schools besides Yale, Harvard, or Stanford do they consider to be good. Fair or not fair, marketing and brand-name matter to regular people.</p>