. Forum

[johnnyutah]

I came across quite a few Cooley grads as partners in Philly when I was doing my firm research this week. Just saying.

Hahah, what firms?

What you want me to dig them back up? I wasn't writing names down. There were also quite a few WCU (my UG) -> Widener partners. So what's wrong with T4?

I browsed firms on this list and a few others:

http://www.averyindex.com/philadelphia.php

Fuckin' Cooley grads bustin' up in my town and takin' my JERBS!!

[r6_philly]

Fuckin' Cooley grads bustin' up in my town and takin' my JERBS!!

Maybe if you had gone to Cooley, they'd like you better and offer you a jerb? It probably isn't terribly hard to get on LR at Widener and get a local job? For free probably?

[mrmangs]

I guess my point is that in gauging lay prestige the whole point is that youre dealing with people who aren't fully informed yet about the nuances of law schools (what is the value of that really?).

I think there is some value to it. Yeah, it won't help you with hiring partners at law firms, because they obviously know what's up, but it might help you interacting with clients and business people (the latter esp if you go transactional).

I came across quite a few Cooley grads as partners in Philly when I was doing my firm research this week. Just saying.

Sure, what matters for making partner is largely rainmaking ability. Plenty of extremely intelligent, analytical thinkers can't bring home the bacon. If a Cooley grad has a respectable book of business, the world is his/her oyster.

My only point is that, at the margins, "prestige" might help in interactions with certain clients, relative, of course, to the metric they use. With hiring partners, this tends to be law school rank,. But a CEO who only knows MBA rankings might, on first impression, favor a lawyer who graduated from Northwestern over one who graduated from Michigan. With potential clients who only have a general sense of lay prestige, law school rankings might also be flouted in the first impression a lawyer makes on them (all else being equal). Not saying this will be a major boost, as the quality of a client relationship is determined mainly by good work and communication, but lay prestige or whatever could help in making a good first impression.

[almightypush]

it is definitely not columbia, i have been around and no one knows what school that is. it is definitely berkeley, duke, and cornell.

have to give the edge to duke with the nationally recognizable basketball team

UNC.

r6_philly ftw.

[FlightoftheEarls]

Any time I see someone on TV going to a law school, it's always Georgetown.

Agree with Georgetown, but . . .



Ari Gold man be the only reason any lay person really knows about Michigan Law. But it's not too shabby of a reason, if you ask me.

[reversejinx]

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[imbored25]

why did you put boalt instead of berkeley

[Patriot1208]

Well, it seems like OP is asking about lay prestige (even though he says he/she is not). And Georgetown probably outranks every school out of HYS in lay prestige.

[2011Law]

OP left out Princeton Law.

[HeavenWood]

For Philly, the three most prestigious seem to be Penn, Georgetown, and Columbia. Granted, Penn wouldn't be on a lay prestige list for anything outside the Delaware Valley.

[jdstl]

Perspective from the midwest [St. Louis]:

Contrary to some people's perceptions, I feel like Columbia is generally recognized as an Ivy, though obviously not thought of on the level of HYS. For some reason certain names, ie. "Berkeley", seem to be recognized as prestigious even by folks not familiar with school rankings, etc.

I find that UChicago is a very impressive "name" to anyone who has recently applied to colleges or grad school (or has kids who have done so); its status becomes apparent if you go through that process. But almost no recognition among complete lay-people.

In St. Louis, people basically think of WUSTL as the near equivalent of Harvard, it's reputation here is hard to overstate.

My "glint in the eye at the mention of their names" in St. Louis, outside of HYS, would be something like:

1. Berkeley (but not if you call it Boalt)
2/3. Columbia + Georgetown
4. Cornell
5. WUSTL
6. Duke
7. UChicago (though very hit or miss)
8. Michigan-Virginia-Penn, etc. ("oh, how come you didn't just go to Mizzou?")

[Patriot1208]

Perspective from the midwest [St. Louis]:

Contrary to some people's perceptions, I feel like Columbia is generally recognized as an Ivy, though obviously not thought of on the level of HYS. For some reason certain names, ie. "Berkeley", seem to be recognized as prestigious even by folks not familiar with school rankings, etc.

I find that UChicago is a very impressive "name" to anyone who has recently applied to colleges or grad school (or has kids who have done so); its status becomes apparent if you go through that process. But almost no recognition among complete lay-people.

In St. Louis, people basically think of WUSTL as the near equivalent of Harvard, it's reputation here is hard to overstate.

My "glint in the eye at the mention of their names" in St. Louis, outside of HYS, would be something like:

1. Berkeley (but not if you call it Boalt)
2/3. Columbia + Georgetown
4. Cornell
5. WUSTL
6. Duke
7. UChicago (though very hit or miss)
8. Michigan-Virginia-Penn, etc. ("oh, how come you didn't just go to Mizzou?")

No joke, twice when I talked about Columbia, people thought I was talking about Mizzou.

[mrmangs]

Perspective from the midwest [St. Louis]:

Contrary to some people's perceptions, I feel like Columbia is generally recognized as an Ivy, though obviously not thought of on the level of HYS. For some reason certain names, ie. "Berkeley", seem to be recognized as prestigious even by folks not familiar with school rankings, etc.

I find that UChicago is a very impressive "name" to anyone who has recently applied to colleges or grad school (or has kids who have done so); its status becomes apparent if you go through that process. But almost no recognition among complete lay-people.

In St. Louis, people basically think of WUSTL as the near equivalent of Harvard, it's reputation here is hard to overstate.

My "glint in the eye at the mention of their names" in St. Louis, outside of HYS, would be something like:

1. Berkeley (but not if you call it Boalt)
2/3. Columbia + Georgetown
4. Cornell
5. WUSTL
6. Duke
7. UChicago (though very hit or miss)
8. Michigan-Virginia-Penn, etc. ("oh, how come you didn't just go to Mizzou?")

Nice tar.

[rso11]

Do we even care about lay prestige??
(now there's a snotty comment for you! haha)

[dextermorgan]

Columbia, Cornell and Princeton.

Ivy league is all that matters.

[jdstl]

Perspective from the midwest [St. Louis]:

Contrary to some people's perceptions, I feel like Columbia is generally recognized as an Ivy, though obviously not thought of on the level of HYS. For some reason certain names, ie. "Berkeley", seem to be recognized as prestigious even by folks not familiar with school rankings, etc.

I find that UChicago is a very impressive "name" to anyone who has recently applied to colleges or grad school (or has kids who have done so); its status becomes apparent if you go through that process. But almost no recognition among complete lay-people.

In St. Louis, people basically think of WUSTL as the near equivalent of Harvard, it's reputation here is hard to overstate.

My "glint in the eye at the mention of their names" in St. Louis, outside of HYS, would be something like:

1. Berkeley (but not if you call it Boalt)
2/3. Columbia + Georgetown
4. Cornell
5. WUSTL
6. Duke
7. UChicago (though very hit or miss)
8. Michigan-Virginia-Penn, etc. ("oh, how come you didn't just go to Mizzou?")

Nice tar.

Pretty obscure at this point too, surprised someone recognized it!

[reversejinx]

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[reversejinx]

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[T6Hopeful]

Which degree, in 50 years, when I'm an old man, will make the biggest impact when I tell some random person where I went to law school?

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 7&t=141975

What you really want is this thread or the over 9000 like it all over the forum.

Seriously though, for random layperson (that is, given no specific demographics) I'd say Georgetown (and I can't even choose two others that are close without at least narrowing it down to what region of the country we're talking about).

[cornellbeez]

Columbia, Georgetown. People at the federal courthouse I externed at thought Georgetown was on Harvard's level.
Then maybe Cornell.

State schools are at the bottom of the list, or anything that sounds like a state school (so NYU/Chicago/Penn/Mich/UVA are out).

Duke doesn't have that much academic prestige where I'm from. Berkeley grads are too common where I'm from, and it's a state school, so that's out. Northwestern doesn't have much lay prestige where I'm from.

This is a stupid thread though. If you can't even get a legal job with your Georgetttown degree, which is likely ITE, why would you even tell people you had a law degree especially since people think Georgetown is on Harvard's level? People will just assume that you are a stupid idiot and/or were a big failure because you couldn't even get a job out of Georgetttown.