Top Law Schools

I know rankings trump specialties, but out of curiosity what top-20ish programs are known for being particularly strong in this field?

None. I mean, I guess some schools might have more related course work than others.

Specialty rankings really don't matter. If, say, WUSTL was the best real estate school in the country and you wanted to be a real estate lawyer in CA, it would be foolish to choose WUSTL over UCLA.

If you mean coursework, this semester CLS is offering:

Real Estate Finance (w/ a Cleary Gottlieb partner)
Real Estate Development
Real Estate Transactions
Drafting and Negotiating a Commercial Real Estate Agreement

The RE market is huge in NYC, so it's easy to get practitioners to teach here.

not sure about NYU Law but they have a pretty good Real Esate Masters program so maybe u check out NYU Law. But all in all, specialty rankings don[t matter.

BigZuck wrote:None. I mean, I guess some schools might have more related course work than others.

Specialty rankings really don't matter. If, say, WUSTL was the best real estate school in the country and you wanted to be a real estate lawyer in CA, it would be foolish to choose WUSTL over UCLA.

That's pretty much what I was thinking, just wanted to hear from people who are actually in law school. RE is a big interest of mine and if I decide to attend law school after I finish my masters degree, I'd like to end up a market with a strong RE presence.

mizzou1987 wrote:

BigZuck wrote:None. I mean, I guess some schools might have more related course work than others.

Specialty rankings really don't matter. If, say, WUSTL was the best real estate school in the country and you wanted to be a real estate lawyer in CA, it would be foolish to choose WUSTL over UCLA.

That's pretty much what I was thinking, just wanted to hear from people who are actually in law school. RE is a big interest of mine and if I decide to attend law school after I finish my masters degree, I'd like to end up a market with a strong RE presence.

Almost all big cities will have a "strong RE presence."

Well you can choose any of the following for real estate law; Columbia University Law School, University of Michigan Law School, Gould School of Law, University of Southern California, Maurer School of Law (Indiana), University of Illinois College of Law and University of Florida Levin College of Law. They are said to be the best real estate law schools.

I can't imagine how any law school isn't going to have the courses you need to do real estate law - to the extent courses matter, of course, which isn't much.

A. Nony Mouse wrote: to the extent courses matter, of course, which isn't much.

Particularly with real estate.

A t10 attached to a good b school is probably tcr

Yale

Berkeley:

http://www.law.berkeley.edu/17887.htm

The Dean of Chicago, Michael Schill, is widely considered to be one of if not the most prominent real estate lawyers and scholars in the nation. Given Chicago's high rank and firm placement, it's a place to consider.

I wouldn't factor this in at all when deciding what school to attend. If you go to a school with good job prospects it will teach you real estate (read: 1L property followed by Trust and Estates) just fine.

Have you looked into being a realtor?

1) There is no such thing as real estate law. There are areas of law and clients who have real estate issues. Do you want to be a T+E lawyer for rich clients? Do residential home closings? Work on big real estate transactions for major landowners in cities? Sue people when those deals go bust? You need to have some idea what kind of clients you want and where you want to work.

2) Every law school has a few property law courses. No school has enough that it really has a program in that area of law. Certainly no school has enough that if you go to it, you'll be able to get a job in "real estate" law across the country because the hiring partner will say "well, you went to a mediocre law school, but it has just a fantastic real estate program!" Legal hiring doesn't work like that. Go to the school that gives you the best balance of debt (very low, like 75K max) and job prospects on LST.