<p>anyways i was really bored and figured i'd check out where the only lawyers i know of by name graduated from... i only know of 4: Gloria Allred, Johnnie Cochran, Robert Shapiro, and Drew Rosenhaus... and i found out that three of them graduated from Loyola Law School, so i looked up where that ranks on US News's list and it's only 65... anyways just wondering if that place has a history of turning out high profile lawyers like the ones i named... i also found it interesting that these high profile lawyers graduated from such a (relatively) low ranked school because all i know about law school so far is what i've read on these boards and most people on here make it seem like you can't be successful unless you graduate from a T14...</p>
<p>also Drew Rosenhaus graduated from Duke Law School which was along the lines of what i was expecting the other three to have graduated from.</p>
<p>I'm always surprised as I look at law firms in Chicago. And consistently Loyola Law School has the most graduates working there. But that probably has more to do with both Loyola and the law firms being in Chicago.</p>
<p>i was bored again today and decided to check out Loyola out on princetonreview.com (yes, i know i shouldn't take their lists too seriously, but they are interesting) and they had Loyola Law ranked as #5 on their Best Overall Academic Experience list only behind Stanford, Chicago, UVA, and Georgetown. just found that interesting... but why is it ranked so low on US News?</p>
<p>The Princeton Review is based on polls taken from the students at the school. That can be very biase when it comes to factors like academic caliber and students' competent. If I was a second or third-year student Loyola (with no chance of transffering), I would probably say that Loyola academic is fantastic because I wouldn't want other to think that the I'm school I'm graduating from is **** (not saying Loyola is ****), plus it might boosts my school prestige and gets me a better job.</p>
<p>Note that Loyola is easily the largest law school in southern California, perhaps the whole state. In 2005, for example, 383 Loyola graduates took the California Bar exam for the first time (compared to 271 for UCLA or 188 for USC). It's an unusually large law school in an unusually high-profile city, so it's not surprising that it has some well known alumni.</p>
<p>The top 14, or whatever, law schools are not necessarily those that turn out the best - or at least the most well known - trial lawyers. They can come from any law school; it isn't the quality of their legal education that makes them who they are, although they have to know the law well. It's their personalities, their abilities to handle trials, and a lot of hard work plus a fair amount of luck to be invovled in a high-enough profile case to become well known.</p>
<p>There are a lot of trial lawyers who are as good as the ones you mentioned, but not famous. But all of them have certain abilities that go way beyond the particular law school they attended.</p>
<p>The point you bring up is fair, although I´d imagine that students at pretty much every single school realize that, so the "i might as well say this place is awesome cause it adds value to my degree" factor is prob the same at every school. Thus, any actual difference in the ranking prob. ends up reflecting the students´actual perception of their academic experience.</p>
<p>Please remember, too, that the lawyers that the OP listed are famous because they consistently place themselves in the spotlight, taking on cases where they will regularly get to call press conferences and be photographed leaving the courtroom, for example. Just because a lawyer is famous does not mean that that lawyer is necessarily the best at what they do (not to belittle any of the mentioned lawyers). Lawyers who are well regarded, and even famous, among other lawyers and who are in demand by a variety of clients might turn up in a magazine targeting other lawyers or the business community (the Wall Street Journal, the Daily Deal and American Lawyer come to mind), but will rarely be well known by the general public.</p>
<p>"figured i'd check out where the only lawyers i know of by name graduated from... i only know of 4: Gloria Allred, Johnnie Cochran, Robert Shapiro, and Drew Rosenhaus"</p>
<p>I'm willing to bet you've heard of more lawyers than that -- you just aren't thinking of them as lawyers. You don't recognize the names of anyone on the Supreme Court (5.5 Harvard, 2 Yale, 1 Northwestern, .5 Columbia)? Or the attorney general, Alberto Gonzales (Harvard)? I bet you've also heard of Senators Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joseph Lieberman (Harvard, Yale, Yale). :)</p>
<p>If what you want to do is make a lot of money as a famous trial attorney, where you go to law school doesn't play such a big role. If you want to get into the highest echelons of the profession, though, it helps. A lot.</p>