Weren't the Oscars just a royal bore? Much more exciting is The National Law Journal's newly released go-to list—the much anticipated compilation of law schools most favored by the firms of the NLJ 250.
First, a quick overview of the market from the NLJ's Karen Sloan:
Most law schools sent slightly larger percentages of their 2012 classes into first-year associate jobs at these firms than they did in 2011. Among the 50 schools most popular with hiring firms, 25 percent of graduates landed associate jobs, up from 22 percent in 2011.
In other words, the legal job market still sucks. So what law school should you attend if you want to maximize your chances of getting a Big Law job? Here are the law school winners in three categories:
1. Best-Performing Law School for New Associate Hires: Penn. By a healthy margin (5 percent more than its nearest competitor), University of Pennsylvania Law School placed the highest percentage of 2012 graduates into NLJ250 firms. Last year, Penn also got first place in this category.
We have no idea for Penn's magic spell over Big Law. (Are the students more personable? More attractive? Or is the placement office just better?) But considering that it's only rank seventh in U.S. New & World Report, Penn's top job placement standing is pretty awesome.
The following are Big Law's 10 favorite law schools for new hires:
Number of Grads in 2012 Percent at NLJ 250 firms
|
1 |
University of Pennsylvania Law School |
163 |
60.37% |
|
2 |
University of Chicago Law School |
119 |
55.09% |
|
3 |
Columbia Law School |
245 |
53.26% |
|
4 |
New York University School of Law |
253 |
52.93% |
|
5 |
Northwestern University School of Law |
144 |
51.43% |
|
6 |
Harvard Law School |
297 |
50.34% |
|
7 |
Duke Law School |
107 |
48.42% |
|
8 |
Stanford Law School |
86 |
47.25% |
|
9 |
University of California, Berkeley School of Law |
139 |
45.28% |
|
10 |
Cornell Law School |
85 |
44.27% |
What's more, Harvard actually dropped to sixth place this year (from fourth place last year), though it still sent the largest number (almost 300) of grads to Big Law (it is the second-biggest law school in the country, next to Georgetown). And, just like last year, Yale Law School didn't appear on the top 10 list (as we all know, Yale grads are way too special to work in law firms).
Another sobering fact is that only six law schools sent 50 percent or more of their grads to big firms. So while the market has stabilized since the economic downturn, going to a top go-to law school is no guarantee that you'll end up with a big firm job.
2. Best-Performing Law School for New Partners: Harvard. Harvard is still king when it comes to making partners, representing the largest number (66) of new partners in the NLJ 250. Even on a percentage basis, Harvard still outperformed other schools: Using the number of total grads from the class of 2012 as a basis, Harvard produced 11 percent new partners. In comparison, Columbia produced 6 percent and NYU 7 percent new partners. (Click here to see complete chart.)
3. Best-Performing Underdog Law School: Howard. What should you do if you didn't get into a respectably rated (in my book, that means top 25; others might draw the line at top 50 or 100) law school? Well, you might check the underdog list—schools that outperformed their U.S. New & World Report rankings in placing graduates at NLJ 25o firms. Here are the top five in the category. (Click here to see complete chart.)
Law School Go-To Rank U.S. News Rank
|
Howard University School of Law |
31 |
119 |
|
Villanova University School of Law |
42 |
101 |
|
Rutgers School of Law–Camden |
48 |
99 |
|
Santa Clara University School of Law |
46 |
96 |
|
Seton Hall University School of Law |
37 |
69 |
So even if you didn't get into a top 50-ranked law school, you might still have a shot at a big-firm job—albeit a very, very long shot.
Note: The original post stated that Harvard had the highest percentage of NLJ25o hires last year. Harvard was number four last year. We regret the error.
Do you have topics you'd like to discuss or tips to share? Email chief blogger Vivia Chen at vchen@alm.com.
Follow The Careerist on Twitter: twitter.com/lawcareerist
"Another sobering fact is that only six law schools sent 50 percent or more of their grads to big firms. So while the market has stabilized since the economic downturn, going to a top go-to law school is no guarantee that you'll end up with a big firm job.
This statement assumes that the vase majority of law students were trying to obtain a big firm position. Perhaps students are making other choices like government, small firms, clerking or public service.
Posted by: BD | March 1, 2013 at 08:14 PM
The report, while generally positive as it pertains to Tier 1 schools, probably understates the number of good outcomes for graduates of those schools, in that it (presumably) doesn't count students taking judicial clerkships. At Duke, for example, a large number of 3Ls who would be attractive to BigLaw have accepted clerkships. I imagine the same is true of the other top schools.
Posted by: Dan Bowling | February 26, 2013 at 09:38 AM