Best Law School for Practice in Tampa Forum

[lawin813]

I am born and raised in Tampa and currently attending USF. My dad is in an area of business in which he knows a lot of lawyers and I will be doing an internship with a law firm this summer. I am graduating next year and will probably end up with a GPA around 3.5 for a PolySci major. I graduated high school in 2012 so I am graduating undergrad 2 years early. I don't know if my expedited graduation will have any weight when it comes to law schools. I am planning on taking the LSAT in June. I hope to work at Holland and Knight if possible and I know that since they were founded by two guys that went to UF that they always take a look at those graduates. On the other hand if I don't get into UF or even FSU, Stetson doesn't look like a bad choice. I know lawyers that went to Stetson and make $300,000+ a year. It's not about what you know it's about who you know.

So, my question is: Do law schools put any weight on my expedited graduation?

[rad lulz]

I am born and raised in Tampa and currently attending USF. My dad is in an area of business in which he knows a lot of lawyers and I will be doing an internship with a law firm this summer. I am graduating next year and will probably end up with a GPA around 3.5 for a PolySci major. I graduated high school in 2012 so I am graduating undergrad 2 years early. I don't know if my expedited graduation will have any weight when it comes to law schools. I am planning on taking the LSAT in June. I hope to work at Holland and Knight if possible and I know that since they were founded by two guys that went to UF that they always take a look at those graduates. On the other hand if I don't get into UF or even FSU, Stetson doesn't look like a bad choice. I know lawyers that went to Stetson and make $300,000+ a year. It's not about what you know it's about who you know.

So, my question is: Do law schools put any weight on my expedited graduation?

No, but legal employers will hold it against you that you're young. Go get work experience.

H&K is very prestige conscious. When I was doing OCI a couple years ago, they hired someone from Harvard and the #1 guy at Stetson. They'll look at UF people, but there is a 95% chance you won't be top 5%. No, they will probably not be impressed by your connection.

Only 50% get legal jobs from Stetson, so I wouldn't go there at all.

It's great that you know people, but it's not gonna get you into the large firms if you don't have the grades.

[BlueJeanBaby]

I am born and raised in Tampa and currently attending USF. My dad is in an area of business in which he knows a lot of lawyers and I will be doing an internship with a law firm this summer. I am graduating next year and will probably end up with a GPA around 3.5 for a PolySci major. I graduated high school in 2012 so I am graduating undergrad 2 years early. I don't know if my expedited graduation will have any weight when it comes to law schools. I am planning on taking the LSAT in June. I hope to work at Holland and Knight if possible and I know that since they were founded by two guys that went to UF that they always take a look at those graduates. On the other hand if I don't get into UF or even FSU, Stetson doesn't look like a bad choice. I know lawyers that went to Stetson and make $300,000+ a year. It's not about what you know it's about who you know.

So, my question is: Do law schools put any weight on my expedited graduation?

No, but legal employers will hold it against you that you're young. Go get work experience.

H&K is very prestige conscious. When I was doing OCI a couple years ago, they hired someone from Harvard and the #1 guy at Stetson. They'll look at UF people, but there is a 95% chance you won't be top 5%. No, they will probably not be impressed by your connection.

Only 50% get legal jobs from Stetson, so I wouldn't go there at all.

It's great that you know people, but it's not gonna get you into the large firms if you don't have the grades.

I know someone from UF who got H&K Tampa this year. I have no idea what his grades are/were, but I am in the market of believing he has serious connections. I think having solid legal connections can play a huge part, but I wouldn't chose a law school for that reason. If you can't get into UF or FSU, just take the LSAT again and study more.

[jeffyl00b]

So many posters posting in every thread on earth answering regional questions.

In other words, what makes you people think that FIU is a good choice to get a job in Tampa Bay without some really solid and high confidence(a statistics term) numbers?
Sounds like the usual bad advice. Actually I wonder why anyone even mentioned out of state schools for Tampa somewhat as well. Only UF/FSU/Stetson sound reasonable. The issue with the former, which isn't an issue in my opinion, is that you would be open to the whole state. When I did my undergrad, they beat it into us that the more we limit ourselves geographically the harder it is to get a job, since you shrink your possible universe. If you are from Tampa, you have probably seen how weird people are with their distances. it's not even Orlando to Tampa, but an amazing amount of people think Tampa is too far from St Pete and vice versa. It gets that regional.

Going back to the original poster, those guys that make 300,000 a year, did they know the people before they went to school, or are they really good networkers? I've witnessed too many people getting jobs from networking or relatives in my personal experience that I'm now a believer, when I used to be a naysayer. Not that I like that system, but I can't deny it's existence

[romothesavior]

Jeffy, rad lulz has extensive knowledge of the Tampa market, maybe more than any 3L on TLS. I believe a few of the other posters ITT are also from Florida. I'm not personally from Florida, which is why I kept my advice fairly general.

I disagree that it is silly to consider T14s if you want to work in Tampa (or any other secondary market, imo). In general, people who are from a secondary market who go to a prestigious school will get looks when they apply to come back. Not only that, but going to a T14 with the intention of returning to Tampa also creates backup opportunities outside of Florida, which is something that UF/FSU/Stetson are unlikely to do. So yes, I think UF/FSU/Stetson with a full ride, as well as the T14 and a few strong southern regionals (assuming the person has Tampa ties already), are all viable options for the city.

[sublime]

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