Top Law Schools

What law school has the most prestigious professors of constitutional law ? I know Harvard and Yale are probably the top 2 schools , does anybody know what school what rank after them?

adil91 wrote:What law school has the most prestigious professors of constitutional law ? I know Harvard and Yale are probably the top 2 schools , does anybody know what school what rank after them?

Stanford, followed by Columbia, Chicago, NYU...

Top 6, but really harvard and yale.

The Consititutional law rankings aren't out yet.

I don't see how it could matter. Constitutional Law isn't a practice field and you can learn what you need to know at any school.

You would pick a school based on the professor you will have for one single 1L class in a topic that is largely irrelevant to the practice of law?

Oban wrote:I don't see how it could matter. Constitutional Law isn't a practice field and you can learn what you need to know at any school.

If you want to work somewhere where you will have the opportunity to practice "constitutional law" you have to go to an elite school, most of the time.

minnbills wrote:

Oban wrote:I don't see how it could matter. Constitutional Law isn't a practice field and you can learn what you need to know at any school.

If you want to work somewhere where you will have the opportunity to practice "constitutional law" you have to go to an elite school, most of the time.

Yale and Stanford. Anything else will get you a second glance. Harvard's a degree farm, and CCN... maybe Chicago. Strongly consider that career path once again.

kaiser wrote:You would pick a school based on the professor you will have for one single 1L class in a topic that is largely irrelevant to the practice of law?

This.

But Brian Leiter said back in 2002 that Harvard, UT, and Yale were excellent. Columbia, Georgetown, NYU, Stanford, Berkeley, and Chicago are also strong. http://www.leiterrankings.com/faculty/2 ... html#const

Edit: Stanford also has Pam Karlan. Apparently, she's awesome. But she's teaching at Yale this year.

MartianManhunter wrote:

kaiser wrote:You would pick a school based on the professor you will have for one single 1L class in a topic that is largely irrelevant to the practice of law?

This.

But Brian Leiter said back in 2002 that Harvard, UT, and Yale were excellent. Columbia, Georgetown, NYU, Stanford, Berkeley, and Chicago are also strong. http://www.leiterrankings.com/faculty/2 ... html#const

Edit: Stanford also has Pam Karlan. Apparently, she's awesome. But she's teaching at Yale this year.

Brian Leiter.

Best Conlaw professors? Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Chicago.

I don't think Columbia makes this list because their faculty is strongly skewed away from theory and towards practice.

The problem with Harvard is that they have more all stars than anyone, but the size of the school dilutes the educational quality you receive a lot.

If you can end up at the the top of the curve in each class, the order of job prospects in firms with strong constitutional-related appellate lit is probably:

Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Chicago, Columbia, <top regional in the market you want>

If you end up at the median (or equivalent), the order is:

Yale, Stanford, Chicago, Harvard, Columbia.

BackToTheOldHouse wrote:

MartianManhunter wrote:

kaiser wrote:You would pick a school based on the professor you will have for one single 1L class in a topic that is largely irrelevant to the practice of law?

This.

But Brian Leiter said back in 2002 that Harvard, UT, and Yale were excellent. Columbia, Georgetown, NYU, Stanford, Berkeley, and Chicago are also strong. http://www.leiterrankings.com/faculty/2 ... html#const

Edit: Stanford also has Pam Karlan. Apparently, she's awesome. But she's teaching at Yale this year.

Brian Leiter.

Yeah, UT is strong because of the number of high-profile conservative appellate boutiques with alumni at the school. Does this translate into work for students at the boutiques?

TaipeiMort wrote:Best Conlaw professors? Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Chicago.

I don't think Columbia makes this list because their faculty is strongly skewed away from theory and towards practice.

The problem with Harvard is that they have more all stars than anyone, but the size of the school dilutes the educational quality you receive a lot.

If you can end up at the the top of the curve in each class, the order of job prospects in firms with strong constitutional-related appellate lit is probably:

Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Chicago, Columbia, <top regional in the market you want>

If you end up at the median (or equivalent), the order is:

Yale, Stanford, Chicago, Harvard, Columbia.

Enough with the Chicago lovefest. Chicago's a great school, but con law isn't its strength. According to Leiter's own rankings, none of the top 20 con law profs teach at Chicago (http://www.leiterrankings.com/new/2010_ ... pact.shtml). If Leiter can't make the school look good...

Don't forget that UVA has Fred Schauer (poached from Harvard), who is maybe THE top constitutional law guy around.

I'm sort of surprised that this thread has gone so long without someone getting real. Although Constitutional Law is an interesting and important 1L class, it should not be a salient point in your consideration of where to attend law school for a few reasons:

1. There really isn't a practice of "Constitional Law" - As a litigator you would have to rely on statutory, common law, and constitutional authority in briefs/arguments. There really is no such thing as a "Constitutional Lawyer."

2. The reputation of your professor won't matter for landing a firm, PI, or government job. The connections/reptation of your professors will matter for landing a clerkship but it won't matter whether the professor teaches con law or not. You'll just need to figure out who they are and seek them out through your electives.

3. Even if a school has an all-star professor you, more likely than not, will not be instructed by him/her because that teacher will be only one of several teaching Con Law the semester you take it and because you don't pick your Con Law professor/section, it is assigned to you.

Although this could be an interesting discussion to have, it really shouldn't be an important consideration in determining where you attend law school.

It might help if you picked a particular area of Constitutional law, e.g. First Amendment, Executive powers, etc. Professors will have specializations. Some may write about the Constitution broadly, but that's more of a legal history/political theory issue.