Top Law Schools

Hello all,

A few weeks ago, I asked for everyone's opinion on a regional debate between Villanova, Temple, and RU-C. Since then, I chose Villanova and was thrilled to see their employment numbers have increased by 12% in the recently published numbers.

However, to make matters complicated for myself, Cardozo just upped their offer to a full-ride. I had my eye on Dozo the whole time but the COA would have been too much originally.

Villanova COA: 7-10k per year (Living costs)
Cardozo COA: 10k+ Per year (Living costs - not familiar with area but would assume this figure to be higher considering its Manhattan)

To maintain my scholarships:
Villanova: 2.0 GPA
Cardozo: 3.0 GPA

To summarize, i am most interested in business/corporate law and am undecided between litigation/transactional work. Big law isn't a must for me but I definitely want to work in a private practice (at least mid sized).

What are your opinions between these two schools? Who has the BETTER biz law program out of the two? What school has a better reputation/chance of employment in its market? I would be very comfortable at Nova as I could see my family very easily - short drive away. However, the potential of a legal career in NYC cannot be ignored, hence why I have come back to post here. For the record, I would be content working in NYC or Philly.

Thanks again!

People's response in this thread are going to seem harsh, but you need to hear it, so I'll try to put it a little less bluntly than others will. You sound like you really want corporate work, in at least a mid-size firm. If you are set on this, you shouldn't go to either school. Neither one gives you much of a shot of obtaining your goals. You should retake the LSAT, and go somewhere better.

Also your COA seems way off unless I'm missing something. No way you are living for 10K a year anywhere, but especially Manhattan.

Good luck.

Exactly why I said I'm not from the area so the COA will probably be higher.

For future posters: I WILL be attending one of these law schools no matter what. I am not re-taking the LSAT. I appreciate your opinion but if possible, please provide a recommendation for one school or the other only.

Look, I think by this point you understand that it's unlikely you'll get the type of work that you really want. You really need to sit down and think about whether you'd be happy being a regular ol' lawyer for regular ol' people if it came to a choice between that and being unemployed. Even if we are very generous and assume that all grads employed at firms above 26 lawyers are employed as associates and not discovery/staff attorneys or even in other capacities, and that all these firms work for corporations and none of them specialize in other areas like criminal or plaintiff's PI law, that's still about 25% for Nova and less than 20% for Dozo.

Now, I know you are going to say that with a full ride you have a better chance of getting in the top 20% and getting one of these jobs, but I want you to seriously consider what will happen in two years if you strike out at getting a job with a firm that does corporate work. Would you take a job at the DA's office? What about some area like family law?

I'd also like for you to honestly consider why you want to do corporate law. Do you have any particular interest in that kind of work? Do you know anything about it? Do you just want it because you think it pays more money? That last part isn't a bad answer, in fact it's the answer most biglaw associates would give if you put them to it, but I'm curious to hear what your rationale is.

I would pick Nova. Unless they have some plan to jack up their class size that I don't know about, the lower stip, cheaper COL, and better placement into large and medium sized firms give you no reason to choose Dozo.

timbs4339 wrote:I would pick Nova. Unless they have some plan to jack up their class size that I don't know about, the lower stip, cheaper COL, and better placement into large and medium sized firms give you no reason to choose Dozo.

Yeah. And you might win one of their inaugural Enron Fellowships in Ethics.

http://articles.philly.com/2015-02-12/b ... -professor

This is a classic "Neither. Retake or don't go" scenario. These schools just aren't compatible with your goals.

You should retake- A year really isnt that long. Nova won't guarantee you what you want. Consider this, there are approx 50 people out of what will be approx 150-160 person 1L class with FULL RIDES...

Between the two options, Villanova is the better choice due to the 2.0 GPA scholarship stipulations (basically means you need to stay in good academic standing) versus Cardozo's 3.0 stipulation which could place your scholarship award in jeopardy during your last 2 years of law school.