Top Law Schools

RedItalus10 wrote:

arhmcpo wrote:^^^ Listen to the General. 100k ITE is a pretty rosy salary... that most T30 students are not getting. Seeing as how USC is the only "top" school on your list you would want to focus your efforts there if 6 figures is key. That being said I would bet its a relatively small minority of USC students who are graduating with salaries of 100k or more. And with the kind of debt you would take on going to USC... well lets just say maybe you should shift your calculations to a lower paying job initially and coming out of a school with much less debt i.e. less debt = less salary necessary to have the kind of lifestyle you want.

I see you took pepperdine$$$$ over loyola$$/davis/hastings? What led you to that decision? Are you happy? It must be nice to not have much debt. Do you think your job prospects are diminished because of pepperdine vs. hastings or davis?

I definitely think there is a significant gap btw Hastings/Davis v. Pepperdine job prospects based on the years I've been on this board. For example I (like General Tso above, am T25%) and had about 10 midlaw interviews and 0 callbacks so right there is a good, anecdotal comparison. But for me I'm happy with the decision; I was/am highly debt averse and more concerned with high quality of life than highest salary, so biglaw was never a serious option for me, and around here you need to be top 10% to have a shot at biglaw ITE (i say this based on me T15% buddy who got nothing at OCI with a solid resume (secondary journal, no moot court/trial team). I also knew I wanted to practice in SoCal so the Hastings/Davis advantage was majorly reduced I think. If I do end up deciding to move to norcal, I'll leverage family connections for a job and other networking before making the move, in which case the fact that I didn't go to a norcal school will also be less important.

In the meantime I've been able to get excellent internships and still have viable prospects for midlaw or gov post grad. I chose Pepp$$$ over Loyola$$$ just because I liked the smaller school vibe and I felt like the law school had a lot of potential it was only beginning to tap into (i.e. the value of my degree would increase as an alum). But my decision like yours was very personal, about my own preferences (avoid debt, don't care about biglaw), and I know many people would have chosen differently; still it doesn't change the fact that I'm very happy with my choice.

Zabini wrote:Shit, I know a Hastings grad who was (supposedly) well above median before ITE (04 grad I think) who aimed at big/midlaw and the best work she could find was SF public defender's office. She's moved into a firm now and is making what I assume to be a decent wage, but I really would not count on getting any kind of significant salary coming out of Hastings

edit: as for the original question, go to USC. I guess you could go to Loyola with the intention of dropping out if you're below top 30% after the first year...but that seems wasteful and silly. Give yourself the best possible shot imo

Getting hired (as an attorney, not intern) at SF Public defender's office is harder to get than Big Law... starting salary is 90k (highest PD starting salary in US), and they barely ever hire anyone out of law school because 1) low turn over (good $$, progressive culture means they actually WIN cases, it's in a great city) and 2) it's a relatively small office (around 90 attorneys... San Diego has 260 LA has 750 or so).

just an fyi

(though they probably hired your friend as a clerk first and not as deputy PD)

USC is worth 120k from Hastings? Really? People on these threads are always so debt adverse!