Top Law Schools

First time poster...
I am the second person in my family to attend law school and I am cautious about making a decision without advice from seasoned veterans. So a few things... I do not want “BigLaw.” I want a medium to small firm job with aspirations of opening up my own practice down the line. I have connections with a few judges and the idea of clerking for a year out of law school is very attractive to me. I have to foot the bill for law school, as I do not have a wealthy family to help me out. Debt is very important but I am not opposed to taking some debt if there is a huge benefit.

So I have basically a full-ride to William and Mary (40k a year out of roughly 41k) and I have an 85% scholarship to Washington and Lee (40k out of 47k a year). I want a job coming out of law school. I am not attending law school for the academic challenge. I view this as an investment for the job I want in the future. Any insight would be helpful on the matter. Please do not say retake and go t14. That isn’t an option.

I also want to return to Maryland after law school!
Thank you!

If you don't want biglaw, then it's basically a toss-up. It looks like there's about a $20k COA difference, which isn't all that much.

So if you have a preference between the two locations in the long term, then go with that. Otherwise, there's no much else to go on. Both schools will set you up for a small firm job in VA.

WM bc it's lower COA. Check with your judge connections if you can, and see if WM + ties will get you a clerkship with them (state level i'm assuming). Maybe Maryland is better for MD clerking - i don't know. If you don't feel comfortable asking them, do a search of the judges in their counties and see where they went to school as a quick and dirty approximation.

Mid/small law is hard to get coming out of school so I think your best bet is state-level clerkship first, then apply to mid-law. Midlaw is still competitive though. I've seen postings for the MD-area mid-size firms like Shulman Rogers and they list preferences for top 20%/LR.

If you want Maryland, why not umd?

I don’t want to go to UMD because I have not heard great things about their CDO. Like I said. I want to go to a school that will give me the best opportunity to decrease debt and find a job

I'd go with W&M, but be prepared to really hustle if you want to start your career in MD.

Double post.

trebekismyhero wrote:I'd go with W&M, but be prepared to really hustle if you want to start your career in MD.

What do you mean by hustle?

BigFamilyStruggles wrote:

trebekismyhero wrote:I'd go with W&M, but be prepared to really hustle if you want to start your career in MD.

What do you mean by hustle?

It means you'll have to do most of the work yourself. You can't rely on career services since most of their connections will be in VA. So you will have to be pro-active in reaching out to people in Maryland

trebekismyhero wrote:

BigFamilyStruggles wrote:

trebekismyhero wrote:I'd go with W&M, but be prepared to really hustle if you want to start your career in MD.

What do you mean by hustle?

It means you'll have to do most of the work yourself. You can't rely on career services since most of their connections will be in VA. So you will have to be pro-active in reaching out to people in Maryland

Thank you for your insight. I’m curious. Is there a reason W&M over W&L? In your opinion....

BigFamilyStruggles wrote:

trebekismyhero wrote:

BigFamilyStruggles wrote:

trebekismyhero wrote:I'd go with W&M, but be prepared to really hustle if you want to start your career in MD.

What do you mean by hustle?

It means you'll have to do most of the work yourself. You can't rely on career services since most of their connections will be in VA. So you will have to be pro-active in reaching out to people in Maryland

Thank you for your insight. I’m curious. Is there a reason W&M over W&L? In your opinion....

W&L isn't worth any extra money than W&M. Go to whichever one is more affordable.