Top Law Schools

I will be applying to law schools this fall. I consider being able to work in California as a lawyer post-graduation as very important to me. However, due to rankings and offerings, most of the schools I am interested in applying to are East Coast T-14s and top 20 schools like GW.

Would not going to law school in California hurt my chances of being able to work there? I am asking this, because I am aware some firms will not hire you if you do not have significant ties to the state. I am from Florida, with my only connections to California being a sister that attends UCLA and some family real estate properties.

Also if I know I want to work in California after graduation is it better to attend USC, UCLA, or Berkeley over a higher ranked/more nationally prestigious school?

Thank you!

At this point all you can do is apply everywhere and see what happens. Whether it makes sense to go to a CA school will depend on what your other options are. You definitely aren't shut out of CA if you haven't lived here and don't go to school here, but getting here will obviously be tricky. OTOH the CA schools are GPA-obsessed and UCLA/USC don't place very well compared to the T-14, so for people without a great GPA CA schools tend not to be a very good deal. If you're a splitter you may very well have to balance the desire for CA with the desire to be employed in a good job. If you're not a splitter then get a high enough LSAT so that you can cruise in to Berkeley or Stanford.

Thank you for your response. I have a 3.8+ GPA from a very prestigious school and I am aware that the general rule for my school is that you need about a 3.7 to get into most T14s and about a 3.85 to get into a T5. So, I don't think that GPA should be a problem for me.

I obviously want to get employed, but I also have a strong desire to work in California. Can someone expand a little more on how much harder/how it would be harder to get a job in california without going to law school there or being from California?

With no ties you're going to need pretty good grades and a really good story to get a job in CA, and you can't bank on good grades as a 0L. I know people with top 1/3 grades at T6 with ties who didn't get CA through OCI, but that was when the economy was a bit shittier. I feel like going to LS there would help with the ties aspect and I know that some non-T14 CA schools feed into certain CA biglaw firms, but I wouldn't recommend UCLA over T6 like ever.

If you really want to work in CA why not just go to Berkeley? It doesn't place into biglaw quite as well as CCN (though some of that is probably legitimate self-selection) but it should give you a decent shot at CA biglaw with medianish grades.

Thanks again for all the posts so far.

So I have kind of come to the conclusion that Berkeley (or Stanford) aside, it is better to go to a T6 than a California school. Beyond that it is probably better to go to a UCLA/USC over a T7+. Is this a fair statement?

with near zero ties, yes, Boalt is a much better option than CCN. Heck, I'd argue that UCLA/USC are even better options than CCN for your goal. (Assumes big money at the SoCal schools vs. sticker at CCN.)

Regardless, even if attending an instate law school, Big Law will still be tough without ties.

with near zero ties, yes, Boalt is a much better option than CCN. Heck, I'd argue that UCLA/USC are even better options than CCN for your goal. (Assumes big money at the SoCal schools vs. sticker at CCN.)

Regardless, even if attending an instate law school, Big Law will still be tough without ties. San Fran is not a large legal market; focus on LA.