Notre Dame ($) or Emory ($$) Forum

[flem]

Quick breakdown of associate hiring in the last few years I posted in another thread. Guy was choosing between UGA, Emory and Vandy

For what it's worth, here are the stats from the BigLawl firm I work for in Atlanta:

UGA: 86 (though about 30-40 are project/staff attorneys, so that number is inflated)

Emory: 35, 5 of which are project attorneys

Vanderbilt: 30, 1 of which is a project attorney

Digging further:

25 associates came from UGA

16 associates came from Emory

11 came from Vanderbilt

Digging even further:

UGA has 14 associates hired since 2009

Emory has 10

Vanderbilt has 6

Granted, UGA kids are ONLY bidding Atlanta, pretty much, whereas Emory and Vandy kids are self selecting out sometimes. Also, places are going to be digging deeper into the talent pool at Emory and Vandy than they would at UGA.

[skrillt]

Emory and UGA are pretty much peers in Atlanta, but if OP wants a shot at NE or NYC Emory is going to be much stronger than UGA in that respect. But seeing OP is content with working "somewhere in the southeast," I would say UF is the best bet at that price.

[noleknight16]

Yeah, UGA needs to be seriously considered if they gave you in-state tuition equalization.

[noleknight16]

Also, Fleming:

According to this Emory brochure (http://www.law.emory.edu/fileadmin/NEWW ... e2011a.pdf), ~20% of the Class of 2010 did in fact go to the Northeast after graduation. I think 1 out of 5 going to the Northeast from a school in GA is pretty solid mobility.

[Blindmelon]

To be fair, if OP wanted to work in NY, he should have applied to Fordham.

[flem]

Also, Fleming:

According to this Emory brochure (http://www.law.emory.edu/fileadmin/NEWW ... e2011a.pdf), ~20% of the Class of 2010 did in fact go to the Northeast after graduation. I think 1 out of 5 going to the Northeast from a school in GA is pretty solid mobility.

I'd be skeptical of that. Their employment data from 2009 (who went through OCI in '08 before the economy shit the bed) says they placed 24% in NLJ250 firms, plus a handful in AIII clerkships. Their home market is Atlanta. Is it mobile? Kind of. But I would be sure to be content living in ATL before plunking down a deposit. I'm not saying you can't get out, but I wouldn't count on it - especially if their OCI press has been any indication.

You're assuming it's one out of every five students - when it's one out of every five who responded. Of course the kids who got BigLawl in NYC or DC responded. That doesn't mean they're representative of 20% of every Emory graduating class.

[mjrogers15]

Now more than ever it is vital to know where you want to go after graduation. If t-14 is not a feasible option, then the next most important factor I have found is location. If you are going to school where you want to practice, you can network, go to events, meet people, and learn the scene. Also, it shows, at least marginally, that you are invested in that location. That being said, I weighed the same consideration of Emory v. ND when I was applying to law school. I chose ND. And in a tough economy, I got a job in a distant market. Bottom line - everyone knows and respects ND, we have grads everywhere, and we place some people almost everywhere. But we also have no "home market" affiliation so you don't get the strong location advantages that I discussed above. If you are not interested in GA or FL for a career, I'm not sure Emory is your top choice to get to the Northeast. One last caveat - whichever top 30 law school you choose, if you kill it and get the grades you will have opportunities in many different markets. Good luck.

[ze2151]

1. rogers is right on many counts. if you murder the 1L year, you will have tons of opportunities whether you choose nd or emory.

2. rogers is also right about the national lay appeal of nd. i will compare the emory-atl relationship to the penn-phila relationship. if you ask johnny or jane on the street to name the ivy league schools, penn is probably the last school he/she will think of. but in philadelphia, the penn name is sacrosanct. same goes @ emory. ask johnny or jane on the street to name the best universities in the south, and emory might come up, but only after duke, vandy, maybe even tulane. but in atlanta/georgia generally, emory is sacrosanct. that's been my experience. it is a door-opener. so be aware of that, and be prepared to work the home base market. at least you have that. as rogers said, nd lacks the same type of home field advantage, but makes up for it in other areas.

3. as i said earlier, my impression is that 1 in 7 or 1 in 8 go north of the mason-dixon (including DC even though that's technically south). maybe my experience/contact base isn't representative, but tifwiw.

the people getting jobs @ emory either 1- killed it in the classroom or 2- pounded pavement and made friends in the field. be advised, this does not mean that if you don't have a job that means you didn't do (2) well enough. i'm not naive enough to say that.