Biglaw firms are responsive to their clients. They can't just hire someone because they're an alumni and a client will automatically be okay with paying $300/hour for that associate to work on their case. If clients are going to pay that much, they're going to demand that they have top grades from the most competitive schools. Since Illinois is no longer a very competitive school relatively speaking, it's going to be much harder for Biglaw partners to justify their billing rates to clients.Indifferent wrote: Biglaw firms that normally hire UIUC candidates aren't going to stop hiring them because the admissions office was reporting that the school's median was relatively more competitive than it was.
It's all about what the client wants. I almost had an offer for a 1L internship at a V50 firm because I used to work for one of their biggest clients. They were going to ask the legal department to approve my work, but unfortunately, I never did any projects with their legal department there, and the only people that could vouch for me were people in HR. My grades were WELL out of range for the firm, but were I able to go back in time and make friends with the legal guys at my old job, I'd probably have a job lined up. But this just goes to show how important client requests are, and how responsive Biglaw is to clients. They don't just have the freedom to hire alumni because they like hiring alumni. They hire you because they can sell your services at an elite rate to clients.
When clients get wind that Illinois' prestige is based on cooked books, they're really not going to be happy paying for that prestige.