Thoughts on big ten law schools? Which ones are worth it? Forum

[Nova]

Lots of quality lulz ITT

[Redfactor]

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[Thethoughtcounts176]

OP, ignore all the comments above. The most important metric to focus on is employment placement rates. By this I mean the number of players each school will place in the NFL. Accordingly, schools like Alabama, University of Miami, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Ohio State should be your target schools.

LOL, OK let me clarify something. I thoroughly apologize for not explaining where I was coming from. I went to Purdue undergrad for engineering, Michigan for my MBA. I've worked in the Chicago area and do a good amount of networking and college recruitment at northwestern where my sister went, a chemical engineer, for some startup companies in the Chicago area.

Currently, I've moved back to the east coast and am working on some ventures in NYC but I'm originally from NJ and have good connections at Rutgers, both their main campus and Newark law school campus. I could go on about my affiliations with a bunch of the other schools that happen to be in the big ten coincidentally, but my initial interest in them was because of the connections, etc that I have with them either in the recent past or currently.


Sorry, last night I was really tired and being super lazy and ambiguous with that question instead of thoroughly explaining my situation right before I passed out.

I thank you all for the quick and heated responses though. I guess I know for sure to avoid Indiana law even though some buddies of mine are trying hard to recruit me to go there.

PS - I apologize for any typos in advance as only use my phone at work and the new swype sucks ass. haha

[Cicero76]

Guyz come on, there's nothing wrong with picking schools based on athletic conference. Who doesn't want to go to law school in the Ivy League? At least he didn't say the Big East

[09042014]

Everyone in my practice group is actually big ten grads. I really think its why I got hired. Not joking.

[JJ123]

Where do you want to practice? If outside the midwest, Michigan and Northwestern are far above all others. Otherwise, Ohio State, Minnesota, and Indiana are fantastic to practice in those states, although you will need good grades.

[Thethoughtcounts176]

yeah most likely want to practice in NY, California, or Chicago. Portland or Seattle are contenders as well. I mainly focused on these places because they have vibrant startup atmospheres. some pretty exciting things going on. I'm not really looking to get into a ton of debt just to go to a top 14 school especially because I'm not necessarily looking to go after these big firms. I'm into startups. I'm not looking to be a slave. I'm looking to go solo asap.

[Emma.]

yeah most likely want to practice in NY, California, or Chicago. Portland or Seattle are contenders as well. I mainly focused on these places because they have vibrant startup atmospheres. some pretty exciting things going on. I'm not really looking to get into a ton of debt just to go to a top 14 school especially because I'm not necessarily looking to go after these big firms. I'm into startups. I'm not looking to be a slave. I'm looking to go solo asap.

Lol

[timbs4339]

yeah most likely want to practice in NY, California, or Chicago. Portland or Seattle are contenders as well. I mainly focused on these places because they have vibrant startup atmospheres. some pretty exciting things going on. I'm not really looking to get into a ton of debt just to go to a top 14 school especially because I'm not necessarily looking to go after these big firms. I'm into startups. I'm not looking to be a slave. I'm looking to go solo asap.

You can't go solo in "startup" or corporate law out of law school. You need to work you can learn how to actually practice law, and you need to work at a firm because those are the only places that have the major VC firms as clients AND the budgets to hire and train newbies. No law school is going to teach you anything substantive, regardless of whether they are Yale or Cooley.

If you want to work in Chicago then you should go to Mich, UChi, or NW. I'm not sure why you want to limit your geographic preferences to the midwest, when a T14 on the coasts would be a much better option for what you want to do.

[09042014]

yeah most likely want to practice in NY, California, or Chicago. Portland or Seattle are contenders as well. I mainly focused on these places because they have vibrant startup atmospheres. some pretty exciting things going on. I'm not really looking to get into a ton of debt just to go to a top 14 school especially because I'm not necessarily looking to go after these big firms. I'm into startups. I'm not looking to be a slave. I'm looking to go solo asap.

You can't go solo in "startup" or corporate law out of law school. You need to work you can learn how to actually practice law, and you need to work at a firm because those are the only places that have the major VC firms as clients AND the budgets to hire and train newbies. No law school is going to teach you anything substantive, regardless of whether they are Yale or Cooley.

If you want to work in Chicago then you should go to Mich, UChi, or NW. I'm not sure why you want to limit your geographic preferences to the midwest, when a T14 on the coasts would be a much better option for what you want to do.

Mich, Uchi and NW will do placement really well in Chicago, but hold their own against the rest of the T14 nationwide too. In fact if you were looking at nyc, west and midwest, these are the exact schools you'd want to look at.

[Tasik32]

OP, check out this law firm: http://wsgr.com/WSGR/Default.aspx. There are probably quite a few other firms that specialize in start-ups and venture capital, but I know for sure that Wilson has quite a few attorneys that do that work in their NY office and I'm sure even more in Palo Alto.

Look around the website and at some of the profiles of the attorneys, see if that is the type of law you would like to do, what type of background they have, and if you have questions, then shoot one of the attorneys an email--worst case scenario is that they don't have enough time and don't respond.

Also, I'm not sure if it's true about all lawyers doing start-up/venture capital law, but to my knowledge it is a numbers game because of the risk/reward chance involved in each start-up. Firms do quite a bit of work for a lot of clients and hope that the investment in those clients pay off in the future, but they expect a lot of them won't. All that is to say, I think if you want to do that type of law you are still looking at a lot of work, being reliant on the support of a firm, and probably not getting to spend as much one on one time with a client as you may expect.

[Thethoughtcounts176]

OP, check out this law firm: http://wsgr.com/WSGR/Default.aspx. There are probably quite a few other firms that specialize in start-ups and venture capital, but I know for sure that Wilson has quite a few attorneys that do that work in their NY office and I'm sure even more in Palo Alto.

Look around the website and at some of the profiles of the attorneys, see if that is the type of law you would like to do, what type of background they have, and if you have questions, then shoot one of the attorneys an email--worst case scenario is that they don't have enough time and don't respond.

Also, I'm not sure if it's true about all lawyers doing start-up/venture capital law, but to my knowledge it is a numbers game because of the risk/reward chance involved in each start-up. Firms do quite a bit of work for a lot of clients and hope that the investment in those clients pay off in the future, but they expect a lot of them won't. All that is to say, I think if you want to do that type of law you are still looking at a lot of work, being reliant on the support of a firm, and probably not getting to spend as much one on one time with a client as you may expect.

hey thanks. I appreciate the input. I work with a lot of startups now and have quite a formidable amount of lawyer friends in the biz. Obviously with startups, a lot of effort and anguish can be had. And believe me, I know. I'm interested in this type of law because it's the next logical step for me. What I meant in my previous comment was I'm not looking to go after huge firms. I have friends at huge firms and they are basically slaves. They sleep and eat at the office. They give me the look of death when I happen to ask them to step out for lunch. I have no problem working in a ridiculous venture type environment because you have a stake in the outcome. However, with many of these large firms, the work you do is meaningless to you at the lowest level. I didn't mean to say that I'm going to immediately go solo right out of law school, but do have a decent amount of connections with firms the industries that I'm involved to not have to take a horrible job just to make $150k and never see my apt.

But I do eventually want to go out on my own. I don't necessarily have the legal experience in the fields I'm pursuing but I'm no recent undergrad direct-to-law-school newbie either. I have legitimate startup and venture experience and work with lawyers all the time.

Edit note: Nexus 4 swype is awful. The most erratic mobile typing method on any device. Terrible.

[kyle010723]

Only law school worth attending in the B1G is obviously Purdue! Wait... we are the only B1G school without a law school...

But back on topic, despite many credited advice ITT, this is clearly the only school ranking OP should consider.

[hephaestus]

What startup is going to hire a totally inexperienced lawyer? I think you need to reevaluate your plan because its unrealistic.

[BigZuck]

Wtf is this thread?

[Thethoughtcounts176]

What startup is going to hire a totally inexperienced lawyer? I think you need to reevaluate your plan because its unrealistic.

It's funny the quick assumptions that are made on threads like this. I have connections with firms that do venture, acquisitions, and a variety of things that I'm not going to get into here because I don't want to divulge too much. I'd have to write an autobiography and i work on a lot of sensitive projects.


But yeah, i guess from the assumptions what I'm trying to do is very unrealistic lol. jeez, this is hilarious. When i said I'm not looking at huge firms, i didn't mean I'm going to go solo immediately. and i think i already said that. I'm still obviously going to work to be at a firm first before i venture out on my own. I can't believe these things need to be explained to people. I appreciate a lot of the feedback I've been getting from some of the responses, but my buddies warned me that law school can be like high school all over again.

And it's obviously apparent from some of the responses on this thread in particular. The assumptions being made immediately Last time i checked that doesn't make for a good lawyer. Maybe it's the LSAT mindset Awful, lol. Internet culture at its finest. Animalistic, foaming at the mouth when any perceived mistake can be ridiculed. As I'm sure we're all perfect and of course I've read every single FAQ and sticky, so why should i not know all this obvious information?

Could I be too busy with a variety of things going on in my life that would prevent me from reading through hundreds of threads to find my answer? Or maybe I am just being lazy? You're right. I am lazy. Call me stupid but my time is a lot more valuable than being a forum hero. Ridicule this thread's topic now. As I'm sure every person here with the football references is a full time hotshot partner at a big firm right now with all their t14 debt paid off. Yeah, I'm sure that's the case for every one of them.


Fucking internet man, lol. No wonder the NSA does the shit they do. To keep track of people who make them angry on online message boards lol.

[BigZuck]

Wtf is this thread?

[rickgrimes69]

I'm really really really hoping this thread is a flame.

If not, OP don't go to law school.

[Brettanomyces]

What startup is going to hire a totally inexperienced lawyer? I think you need to reevaluate your plan because its unrealistic.

I have a friend who just graduated from HYS and is now working for a startup. K-JD.

[Clearly]

OP, ignore all the comments above. The most important metric to focus on is employment placement rates. By this I mean the number of players each school will place in the NFL. Accordingly, schools like Alabama, University of Miami, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Ohio State should be your target schools.

180

[heythatslife]

jeez, this is hilarious.

Indeed.

[kenji]

TLS shitting up another thread. Way to go

[20141023]

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[timbs4339]

You guys are forgetting something very important: UChicago used to be one of the original big ten, so I think that the OP should consider the Maroons alongside these other prestigious big-ten law schools (like Wisconsin, Indiana, etc.).

Also, this might provide some extremely useful insight about how to search for a great law school for those of you who like to base your academic decisions on American's national football league.

LOL WTF.

[jk148706]

Dude, obviously you go to the school with the most championship wins. Can't believe I'd have to explain this to someone:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ ... _champions

Michigan would be your #1, with Ohio State a close contender. Purdue law is always a solid choice despite their record. Kinda drops off after that: Definitely avoid TTT Northwestern - 8 wins in 114 years of membership? Pssht.