Top Law Schools

grades?? wrote:If you want the South, Duke is by and far the best choice. UVA is second, but the name might not carry as far south. Barring these two, Vandy is next.

1. Duke
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2. UVA
3. Vandy
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everyone else.

BigZuck wrote:They all place well into NYC big law. Some schools located in large legal markets might give you a leg up there (It's probably somewhat easier to get a job in Chicago if you go to Northwestern instead of Berkeley and likewise it's probably somewhat easier to get a job in San Francisco if you go to Berkeley instead of Northwestern). But I don't think it's necessarily the same in "The South" and its hodgepodge of smaller legal markets when you consider Duke and UVA.

All things being equal if I had a southern market in mind and was going to a T14 I'd probably rather go to a Duke/UVA over a Berkeley/Cornell. But are all things ever equal? Also, in a vacuum I'd almost certainly pick Harvard over Duke/UVA for any kind of big law, regardless of latitude.

Focus on cost and try to acquire more geographic focus as soon as possible.

KissMyAxe wrote:

AT9 wrote:HYS (with ties at least, dunno how they'd factor in without ties)
UVA/Duke
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Vandy/UT
.
.
The southern T50 schools for specific state/city markets

But presxisting ties are pretty crucial regardless of where you go.

Very poorly. Maybe Atlanta would be an exception (but Atlanta sucks just so everyone knows), but outside of that, the South would view a HYS grad without ties as a goddamn carpetbagger. Hell, HYS grads with ties are viewed with skepticism by most of the South.

As for the rankings, this is close, but not quite. For one, UVA's sphere of influence is primarily around the Chesapeake Bay Area, where it does extremely well. Most people in the legal field in the South wouldn't raise an eyebrow at an UVA grad. They think it's a good school, but not anything special. In the South, Harvard is unanimously king. Yale is a distant second. Stanford would largely depend on the hiring party. Some people in the know would have it after Yale. However, many are not aware that Stanford is great academically, only knowing about their so-so football program. So, it could vary tremendously. Texas is considered like the greatest school ever in Texas, but people in the southeast do not care about that school (maybe someone else can weigh in with Louisiana's or Arkansas' perspective since they're so close). They'd all put their own state school ahead of it.

So my rankings would be:

Harvard (with ties)
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Yale (with ties)
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Duke
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Vandy
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UVA/Emory
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William and Mary
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Whatever state school rules the state in question (Basically: UT, LSU, Bama, UF/FSU, UGA, USC, UNC, Tenn, etc.)

And yes, ties are mandatory

BigZuck wrote:I enjoy rankings threads. They are very good threads and I like them very much.

PrezRand wrote:Are UVA/Duke significantly better than UT if you want to work in Texas?

BigZuck wrote:

PrezRand wrote:Are UVA/Duke significantly better than UT if you want to work in Texas?

Generally speaking probably yes, but likely depends on a bunch of factors (the specific firm, your preexisting ties, etc.)