Hi! Made a typo in my post (a pretty big typo) I didn't get into Georgetown Early Decision, I just applied really early and got accepted....! Sorry I'm stupid!
Just wanted to seek an opinion on this, since I applied to law schools now and have gotten some decisions back. I scored a 166 on the LSAT this October and I have a 3,74GPA, currently a senior attending university in Washington DC. I would like to practice in Miami.
I got a full ride to both Washington College of Law in DC and University of Miami, and was accepted to Georgetown Law. With that being said, I'm not sure how important location is to practicing law. I'm fairly interested in commercial litigation and would like to work in a legal capacity with Latin American corporations in the United States. Miami seems like the perfect location for working with Latin American corporations, however I'm not sure whether or not it would be wise to pass up a T-14 just to study where my preferred market is.
All of that being said, money is really not an object in this decision. It'd be nice to be able to set aside some funds and take one of the full scholarship offers rather than pay full tuition at Georgetown. Regardless, I'm treating the money as an opportunity cost, so it'll be minimally factored into this decision.
I guess I'm just looking for insight on my issue. These are really all the schools that I wanted to seriously consider attending, so I'm really happy with just considering these three schools. So I guess I'd like an opinion on whether or not it is worth it to attend law school in Washington, D.C. knowing that I want to practice/live in Miami. Thoughts?
Please don't give any spiels about the power of the T-14 law degree and why or negative comments about American or UMiami. I'd like to make this decision off of a coherent, strong thought process rather than a rant about someone's unemployed cousin (not trying to be a dick).
Miami vs. DC Forum
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BigZuck
- Posts: 11730
- Joined: Tue Sep 04, 2012 9:53 am
Re: Miami vs. DC
None of these are very good choices for wanting to do work with international corporations. Miami would be fine if you had modest career aspirations- small firm, local gov in Miami, things like that. But what you want is big law. Georgetown is an ok to weak-ish option for big law but it's not worth it at full freight and there are better options for big law. American is a total non-starter, it is one of the very worst law schools in all of existence and should be shut down. If you take a look at http://www.lawschooltransparency.com you'll see that many people's cousins have been laid to waste by American.
If you want large firm work I would aim a little higher than Georgetown. Luckily you're at the point where every point on the LSAT makes a difference so I would retake in June (I assume it's too late to sign up for Feb but check on that) and try to squeeze out a few more points so that you can get a good scholarship at a school like Duke or Cornell at the very least.
I'm not really sure that Miami is a place you want to be if you want to work with Latin American companies, my gut says there would be more of that kind of work in New York but presumably you've done a lot more research on Miami firms' practice areas so I'll take your word there. I think if corporate law in Miami is the long term goal you might be best served putting in a few years in New York and then laterally back (assuming you can't get a job at a big firm there at OCI I guess)
edit: Just saw "commercial litigation" too but I still think a big firm is most likely how you're going to break into international work
If you want large firm work I would aim a little higher than Georgetown. Luckily you're at the point where every point on the LSAT makes a difference so I would retake in June (I assume it's too late to sign up for Feb but check on that) and try to squeeze out a few more points so that you can get a good scholarship at a school like Duke or Cornell at the very least.
I'm not really sure that Miami is a place you want to be if you want to work with Latin American companies, my gut says there would be more of that kind of work in New York but presumably you've done a lot more research on Miami firms' practice areas so I'll take your word there. I think if corporate law in Miami is the long term goal you might be best served putting in a few years in New York and then laterally back (assuming you can't get a job at a big firm there at OCI I guess)
edit: Just saw "commercial litigation" too but I still think a big firm is most likely how you're going to break into international work
