<p>Hello CC'ers,</p>
<p>I've been so very grateful for people's helpful and experienced advice in these forums and am back with yet another question that I thought you guys may be knowledgeable about and that would be helpful for those of us who are still deciding where to attend law school. </p>
<p>This question concerns "regionality" - the currency that a law school's name has inside and outside of the location of the school - and when, where, and why it matters?</p>
<p>In a separate thread, I heard someone say that attending a TOP 14 school will allow you to have degree portability and apply for and work in any location in th U.S. Whereas anything below the T14 will likely limit you to your school's state and possibly region (the surrounding two or three states). </p>
<p>---First, why does regionality matter? Why can't a person apply for and expect to get a job anywhere in the U.S.? I've never understood the concept of regionality in terms of its reasoning. </p>
<p>---Secondly, when does regionality matter in terms of time-frame? Is it only applicable for your first job out of law school? Or does it follow you for years...possibly the rest of your career (this would be hugely important for those of us trying to decide where to attend)? </p>
<p>---Lastly, is there any way around this dilemma for those who may not have attended a T14 school? Can being the best of one's class allow one to trascend the limitations of regionality...or perhaps having had 7+ stellar years of legal experience and having made a name for oneself work? Essentially, how can how break free of this phenomenon, lol, if at all? </p>
<p>Thanks so much again to everyone who has contributed to my own and others' understanding of how the legal field works. We all greatly appreciate it and only hope I can one day give back in any possible way to the forums with my own knowledge and experiences! THANKS!!!</p>
<p>Do feel free to post personal anecdotes as well (or from others’ experiences you know of) concerning this problem, such as being turned away due to regionality or having broken free of regionality due to X/Y/Z characteristics when interviewing, etc. 
It’ll all be very helpful!</p>
<p>Regionality matters because of networking. Unlike in other fields, it’s completely expected to get legal jobs through your connections. So local law school graduates find it much easier to get work in the region they graduated from, which of course means they’re at a huge disadvantage in any other region.</p>
<p>Regionality follows you for the rest of your career. Building a career as a successful Boise lawyer doesn’t make it any easier to get a job in Topeka; if anything, they’ll assume you did something horrible and nobody in Idaho will hire you.</p>
<p>If you’re at the top of your class at almost any school T2 or above, you <em>can</em> make it into biglaw and avoid regionality. But it’s very difficult to make the top of the class, and it’s still not a guarantee that you will get into a national firm.</p>
<p>tl;dr: Regionality is very important and unavoidable for everything but working in big national firms. If you don’t want to be locked in a certain region for the rest of your working life, you should not go to a non-T14 law school there.</p>
<p>Love the two double negative of your last sentence, haha. “…you should NOT go to a NON-T14 law school there.” …meaning I SHOULD go to a T14 school if I don’t want to live somewhere the rest of my life. </p>
<p>…Thanks for the insight my man! Very helpful to consider. One of my lawyer acquaintances said something about regionality to me before, but I didn’t understand it as much until reading here and realizing how SERIOUS it was. That’s just not as true with other professions. A teacher in FL can certainly move to another state…as can an insurance claims representative…or a construction worker, etc. </p>
<p>But yeah I recognize the power of networks. I’m curious…how does one then make friends to network with in law school if you guys are all COMPETING with each other to be the top dog so to speak?? That’s seems like a lot of conflicts of interest would arise. On the one hand, you need these school friends for networking right? But, at the same time, they’re your competition in the ULTRA competitive world of law school where class rank and grades determine so much of your life. …</p>
<p>Lastly, you said if you’re top of a T2 school or above…what did you mean be T2…is that TIER 2?..Obv. you don’t mean TOP 2, lol …that’d be an impossible dream for most people. </p>
<p>Hey thanks again!!! More knowledge to place into my n otebook, Yay!!!</p>