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[bruinfan10]

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[jbagelboy]

If you want to clerk go to HYS. None of those schools are that great for clerking. What is total COA? Still above 150k for Cornell? Not sure I'd go to either of these for clerking.

Well, we wouldn't really know this would we, because there probably aren't more than a handful of CLS students really trying to clerk in the ninth circuit @ SF or CA Northern District

Also "clerking" is just a 1 yr means to a leg up in litigation, but it's certainly not a necessary condition. People go to MoFo SF for lit every year.

Seriously? Reread the initial post. OP is talking about clerking generally, not just clerking in the 9th circuit. If you want a federal clerkship HYS are the only schools where you have a reasonable shot.

Broadening the inquiry makes Harvard a little more attractive, but it also means OP would work in the northeast, making Cornell a stronger choice. I guess I just think your last point is stupid: More Penn grads work at firms than Virginia, but it doesn't mean UVA students can't get work at firms. The difference between Yale and Harvard clerkship opportunities for the average student is greater than between Harvard and many other T14s. It's more important to parse out what kind of qualifications a student will need to apply for/be recommended for a federal clerkship than make arbitrary distinctions among schools.

Generally, you'll need law review or EIC of another journal w/ note/article publication, and strong relationships with 2-3 profs. Doing banking deals at S&C or Wachtell requires different types of qualifications and someone on that track accrues basically zero gain from a year in chambers.

If you're just trying to suggest OP shouldn't attend law school on the assumption they will be able to clerk, then yes we agree.

[retaking23]

110k for slightly weaker odds on West Coast? I'll take the money every single time.

[lecsa]

If you want to clerk go to HYS. None of those schools are that great for clerking. What is total COA? Still above 150k for Cornell? Not sure I'd go to either of these for clerking.

Well, we wouldn't really know this would we, because there probably aren't more than a handful of CLS students really trying to clerk in the ninth circuit @ SF or CA Northern District

Also "clerking" is just a 1 yr means to a leg up in litigation, but it's certainly not a necessary condition. People go to MoFo SF for lit every year.

Seriously? Reread the initial post. OP is talking about clerking generally, not just clerking in the 9th circuit. If you want a federal clerkship HYS are the only schools where you have a reasonable shot.

You're right about the first part for sure--any AIII clerkship would be fine, even maybe flyover district, for my friend at this point--but it's not totally impossible to get a solid clerkship outside HYS. I have an N.D. Cal clerkship and a circuit clerkship lined up coming out of Michigan. It's just figuring out what class rank you need at what school to land one. Like I said earlier, at Michigan, to have a reasonable shot, you need to be top-10/20%. I imagine kids at Columbia can clerk with a lower class rank (although given Columbia's unbelievably low clerkship stats, for some reason it seems like they self-select out of the clerkship game regularly), and I expect Cornell to require a rank similar to or higher than Michigan.

I'm much more concerned though about these comments that Cornell is "the most regional non-GULC T-14" and that its great job stats are due only to NYC. Based on my personal experience with SF firms, I can't refute that comment, but at the same time, I get the sense that BigLaw recruiters are pretty familiar with the top schools in general, and given that my friend has ties to CA that I don't think many people at Cornell would have, I'm hoping that will be enough to help him break back into the Bay.

With regard to Berkeley, attending there would obviously be AWESOME given this set of goals, and I think my friend would attend there even for quite a bit lower than a 150k scholarship, but Berkeley is notoriously unpredictable and stingy with scholarship money, so no guarantees on that panning out.

Anecdotal, but everyone I've known who went to Cornell only bid on NYC. I wouldn't be surprised if the main reason it has had okay firm placements for the past 1 or 2 classes (I think for class of 2011 it was pretty low compared to the rest of the T-14) is because the vast majority bid only on NYC. (What's odd is that some NYC firms don't recruit at Cornell but do at UVA, Mich, Duke, NU, Georgetown; that might be because there are very few partners from Cornell and part of the recruiting process is based on where partners went to school.)

I would pick Cornell here just because of the cost, but I'd tell your friend he should expect to work in NYC a few years (if he can't get a clerkship) before he can lateral to CA. I wouldn't expect to work in CA off the bat. Once you get work experience, your alma mater matters much, much less.

[bruinfan10]

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