Good white-collar criminal law programs Forum

[mmorel02]

Are there any schools that have standout white-collar criminal law classes/programs out there? That's my main area of interest, and would like to tailor to those schools that are strong in it.

Some background: I'm not interested in big law or anything like that. I'm just interested in doing white-collar crime enforcement and prosecution, or something along those lines.

Any comments are appreciated.

[kahechsof]

Yale

[kahechsof]

IOW, whatever you want to do, you are more likely to get there from the better school.
And if there really is anything better about JMLS's legal writing course over Chicago's, you can pick it up at Cravath.

[CanadianWolf]

Probably not. Try to get a position with the federal government (SEC, IRS, FBI or DOJ) or the Manhattan DA's office.

[kalvano]

Not really. As per the usual advice, just go the best school you can get into, balancing the cost of attendance with the schools prestige.

But, you won't start anywhere doing white-collar crime enforcement unless you have an accounting background or something similar. A lot of white collar crime is heavy tax stuff, so loading up on those classes would be good. But in general, when you start as a prosecutor, you start with misdemeanor's and DUI's, etc., and work your way up.

The other option is to work for the FBI. They do a lot of white collar crime, but it depends on if you want to be an agent or a prosecutor.

[Grizz]

To do the investigating, you don't really want to be a lawyer. You want to be like a forensic accountant.

For the prosecuting, it will be a hard road. State govt. doesn't do a lot of it to begin with. You want DOJ, USAO, IRS, etc. So you want top grades from a top school.

HTH

[MartianManhunter]

1). Government hiring for DOJ and USAO is slowing to a crawl or freezing entirely (I think the crim division is only getting 3 honors hires and many sections have a hiring freeze), so your best bet is to go to a top school and then clerk/work for a top firm until the inevitable boom in hiring happens in a few years.

2). Honors programs tend to take the top kids from the top schools anyway (not whichever school is 'good for white collar'), so if you were looking for an entry level white collar proescutin gig, going to the best school you can get into would still be your best bet.

[spleenworship]

T14.

[stilltheoriginal]

Hahaha. Good luck with that career choice.

You'll end up fighting a lot of losing battles.

[EvelynS]

Just my observations...Many well-known w/c defense/prosecution lawyers have either HLS or CLS on their resumes (also noticed the same trend in attorney profiles at NYC law firms that have W/C defense division). I have seen quite a few NYU law degrees, Georgetown...I would say that T6 would be a better choice. Top grades+Top school=higher chance to get into DA office.

I am interested in w/c criminal defense. And I agree that some Accounting courses would not hurt. Otherwise, it will be very difficult to analyze perfectly polished by E&Y, Deloitte, KPMG, or PricewaterhouseCoopers Annual 10K

[timbs4339]

You will probably have to work in biglaw for at least a few years. As posters have pointed out, the number of entry-level white collar prosecution jobs is very small. You will need the training and experience provided by a big firm for them to take a chance on hiring you. It would actually be easier to work for a biglaw firm and lateral after a few years into the DOJ or another federal gov organization.

That being said, choose the school with the best biglaw options. If you don't have decent biglaw options from any school you get into, retake.