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Any suggestions for Law Schools for someone interested in Education Law? I currently have an M.S. in Higher Education Administration and I am interested in specializing in Higher Education Law. Just interested to see if anyone has any insight to provide regarding schools I should consider. I'm looking for a Tier 1 Law School.

careerchange2010 wrote:Any suggestions for Law Schools for someone interested in Education Law? I currently have an M.S. in Higher Education Administration and I am interested in specializing in Higher Education Law. Just interested to see if anyone has any insight to provide regarding schools I should consider. I'm looking for a Tier 1 Law School.

I'm not really sure there is such a specialization. The 1 lawyer I know who works in higher ed runs a college's disability services, does sexual harassment training etc. I think already having a Higher Ed master's will put you ahead of competition.

Education law? Never heard of it. Just go to the best school you can, or barring that, the most affordable.

Princeton for sure.

Notre Dame has the Journal of College and Education Law. However, I go to ND, and I don't really meet that many people interested in the field...

What do you mean by education law? Are you interested in school finance litigation? Or are you interested in special ed/services for individual students? There are other possibilities too. If it's the former, there are programs/clinics/professors that get involved with that stuff and you should seek out a school that has some of that stuff. If it's the latter, I think you should be looking for general child advocacy programs (I think that's where, if anywhere, a law school would be doing that kind of work). Either way, you'll have to give a more specific answer to get really useful responses.

Also, it depends on what your numbers are and what schools you're considering. I think Yale has a really good education law clinic and I THINK I talked to a 1L a few years ago at a public interest retreat who said it was the only clinic you could do as a 1L. So obviously, Yale would be great. With that said, if you didn't know that Yale was a great place to do ANYTHING you could dream of... then we probably can't help you .

Berkeley has a course on education and the law and there is also a clinic 1Ls can do. They represent high school students up for expulsion hearings. Some of them also represent CAL undergrads in disciplinary hearings too, if that would interest you.

What do you want to be counsel for a university maybe? Biglaw and lateral seems promising... maybe. I've read that law is one of the most unique professions in that a legal education prepares you to be able to teach yourself any specialization you want so you don't need an education law program to make this happen. You might want to talk to the university counsel at your undergrad.

Georgetown has an Education Law and Policy department, but I'm not sure what they have in relation to higher education in particular.

BU has a solid program, I think there is a secondary journal and an pretty solid student organization, they have tons of events. Might be worth looking into.