Where Do Partners Come From?

[monarchylover]

Yale grads aren't all law firm partners because they're too busy becoming governors, presidents, leaders of NGOs, and CEOs law professors. HTH.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NyzQwwO4Os

[abitaman6363]

3. "[R]oughly 500 firms interview on-campus at Harvard each year; 250-300 at Georgetown; only about 125 at Yale." Perhaps they aren't lacking but there are certainly significant differences. If I am a 0L who got into Yale and Georgetown only and I want to become a partner at an NLJ 100, then I'm going Georgetown, all other things being equal. In fact, all other things won't be equal, since if I got into Yale I probably got money at Georgetown, which makes the decision a no brainer.

I am a one-day 1L at Yale so take this (and everything posted on TLS) with a grain of salt. Considering the extremely small class size at YLS (only 205 students in this entering class) and the fact that an astronomical number of YLS grads gain clerkships or do public interest work without seeking firm work, I would be wary to overvalue the number of firms that interview on campus here.

First, you must take into account the quality (not simply quantity) of firms.

Secondly, you must consider the number of applicants actually seeking such firms. (Not sure of Georgetown's size but YLS is rather small)

Third, you must consider factors other than simply the applicant pool: How much does the school rank factor into firm offers? Does a school's grading policy make it easier to gain firm offers?

Pure speculation, but I imagine so few partners hale from Yale because of the unusually large number of YLS grads striving for clerkships, professorships, non-firm positions, and jobs that have zero or mere tangential relationships to the legal profession.

Enough people recognize the stupidity of this statement that you didn't have provide a rebuttal.

Yale grads aren't all law firm partners because they're too busy becoming governors, presidents, leaders of NGOs, and CEOs. HTH.

Haha fair enough. Just making sure.

[Theodore Seto]

If you are worried about bias because the school at which I teach does well, you should consider a similar study by Prof. Bill Henderson at Indianapolis Bloomington. (http://money-law.blogspot.com/2010/10/w ... brass.html) Looking solely at partners in the five largest US law firms, which employ 11% of all lawyers employed by the NLJ 250, he ranks Loyola Los Angeles 23rd, two ranks better than my study does.

I do not claim my study is "well designed." But the numbers are what the numbers are. Some may find them useful.

[androstan]

When an associate and a law firm love each other very much, they give each other a special hug.