Colorado Law an Option if Practicing in CO? Forum

[MattM]

Hello,

I am from Texas , but grew up in Colorado and moved when I was young, if I wanted to return and practice law there should I attend Colorado or a T14/UT Austin?

I'm retaking LSAT and plan on aiming as high as possible so I can have many options....( I probably plan on prancing law in the general region of the Law School I choose to attend)

[BigZuck]

Sure, as long as your career goals are modest- small firm, local government, things like that

Don't go to UT if you want to practice in Colorado, just go to UT if you want to practice in Texas

[MattM]

Is T14 or U of Colorado a better choice for practice in CO?

( I'm taking a cycle off and not applying until Fall 2016 so I have more time to have a better overall applications and also gives me more time to think of my goals)

[MattM]

and why not UT if I am planning on applying to the T14 anyways? Texas would be cheaper tun many of the T14 since I am a TX resident

Im projecting myself as out at HYS ( UC Berkley as well)....but rest of T 14 in play. Applying to all of T14 though since you never know

[A. Nony Mouse]

Because UT won't get you a job in Colorado. There's nothing wrong with it, but it won't place well in Colorado. For CO generally you need T14 with ties (how old were you when you moved away? It tends to be insular) or one of the CO schools, ideally for low cost because unless you get biglaw (which is going to be very few people out of the local schools) your salary will be fairly modest (there are a lot of smaller firms and their salaries vary quite a bit, but it's hard to know what you'd end up at).

[BigZuck]

and why not UT if I am planning on applying to the T14 anyways? Texas would be cheaper tun many of the T14 since I am a TX resident

Im projecting myself as out at HYS ( UC Berkley as well)....but rest of T 14 in play. Applying to all of T14 though since you never know

Very few CO firms come to OCI at UT. I doubt attending UT would give you a very good shot at big law in CO. Honestly though, trying to get big law in CO is probably a fool's errand, I can't imagine there are a lot of jobs. They probably go to local kids from local schools with top grades and T14 local kids with good grades who can successfully handle the "How dare you betray us and attend an out of state school, what were you thinking?" question at OCI.

Once you have missed the big law boat (or if you weren't looking for it in the first place), you're generally looking at things like smaller firms, local government, things like that. Those jobs usually require hustle and sometimes even working there during the school year, which would be impossible from UT. If you want those kinds of jobs, then go to school in CO so that you can physically do that stuff. Maybe Kronk will correct me here though, I dunno.

I could be wrong about this but I get the sense that a lot of people see law schools this way:
1. T14 at the top. You can get a job anywhere.
2. "Super regionals" like UCLA, Vandy, UT. Place great in their home state and have some geographic flexibility emanating out into neighboring states and maybe even a little across the country.
3. "Strong regionals" which are basically state flagships, they place well in their home state but not really anywhere outside of it.
4. Bad Schools.

I don't know how true that is. I mean, I think it's kind of true on some level, but I think some people take it a little too far, especially 1. and 2. I don't think that just because Texas is close to NM, OK, CO, etc. that employers are falling all over themselves to hire someone with that sweet, sweet super regional prestige. UT definitely has a good reputation across the country but you're going to need good grades to even get a firm job in TX, and probably very good grades to get a job in a place like NY or CA. Ditto CO I imagine, it's a desirable place to live with what I imagine would be a relatively small and insular legal market.

[MattM]

Probably the best option at this point is to aim for T14 while evaluating goals.

LSAT should probably be my focus first....even if I decide not to go to a T14, a 170+ would be worth the effort to get it because of the $ it brings.

I mostly likely will attend a T14 though because of the doors it opens up for my career.

[Rigo]

Probably the best option at this point is to aim for T14 while evaluating goals.

Yup.

LSAT should probably be my focus first....even if I decide not to go to a T14, a 170+ would be worth the effort to get it because of the $ it brings.

Yup.

I mostly likely will attend a T14 though because of the doors it opens up for my career.

Don't count your chickens before they hatch. Everybody and their mother on TLS thinks they are destined for a 170+. In reality, only 2% of test takers score at that level, so prove your worth and then we can revisit your questions.

[MattM]

^ But retake and sitting out a cycle improves your chances.

I agree overall though.....most TLSer's thought Sept 2014 was a piece of cake and a minimal curve but when they got their test results back they ended up with lower scores than anticipated.

But also my chances are probably a bit higher than 2%......the median LSAT is 151 but most people here score well above that and even a 160 ( which is an 80% score but is a disappointment to many on here). Most people aren't willing to put the effort of drilling and reviewing PT's fully like people on TLS are

[Rigo]

Retaking or sitting out a cycle does nothing to improve your chances of scoring a 170+ apart from the fact it's more possible for you than someone not sitting for the test.

I'm just telling you the percentiles. You've given us nothing to indicate whether you're more or less capable than anybody else and I wasn't making any assumptions.
The LSAT score you have is the best measure of your abilities.

[Pliny]

I'm a 2L at T14, and I went to both HS and college in CO. I'm not heading back to CO, though. Some thoughts:

1) CO is a small market, and therefore is a harder market to break into. So you either want to be stellar (e.g. high rank at T14 or one of the highest ranks at a regional school), or be local and leverage alumni connections. I have a suspicion, but can't prove it, that many CO firms or firms with CO offices are wary of kids without strong ties to CO. They might figure that you're simply using them as a backup. During my screeners with CO firms there was a focus on why I chose CO. This may be especially problematic for you if all your connection is limited to what you've described.

2) CO's Biglaw market is pretty small. There are few national firms out that way, and the local firms aren't enormous. I'd have to do some more digging, but I'd wager the average salary is below $160k. Granted, COL in CO is less than many legal markets, but I'm not sure how the math works out ultimately. Also, CO Biglaw firms tend to be more limited in terms of practice. There's a lot of oil and gas and federal regulatory stuff (e.g., gov't contracts with aerospace, defense, agriculture). That may or may not appeal to you.

3) If you want to go outside Biglaw, my knowledge quickly drops off. I'd suggest finding more resources on smaller firms and government.

4) CO practice largely means practice in Denver, Boulder/Broomfield/etc., or Colorado Springs.

5) If you're truly curious, I would go peruse the websites of Denver firms and companies. Find where their associates and attorneys went to school. That should give you a much better idea of who the hiring partners are looking for. For example, the firms I looked at largely had associates from CU and DU-- but very high ranked.

If you're looking for an opinion, I would seriously consider whether you are willing to go to law school even if that means you won't practice in CO. If you go to CU or DU make sure you get it as cheap as possible because it's not going to be very portable, be prepared to work your ass off, and be ready that you might not get what you want. Otherwise, I'm a proponent of going as high up the T14 as you can and being able to find work in the traditional markets if CO doesn't pan out.

[DaRascal]

Is Colorado a good school for someone from the Northeast with no CO ties?

[Kimikho]

Is Colorado a good school for someone from the Northeast with no CO ties?

Come on DaRascal we talked about this.