Top Law Schools

With WUSTL's large firm employment seeing some impressive gains in the last few years (27-29% a few years ago to 41-45% the last couple of years), how far down the class rankings are large firms in St. Louis recruiting? Is it somewhat reasonable to think if you're in the top half of the class you have a decent shot at St. Louis biglaw?

That is hard to say. There are probably only 50 SA's in STL, some of which are filled by t13 students returning home as well as the very best students from schools like Mizzou, SLU, etc.

If you have strong ties to the legal community in STL and you’re in the top half at WUSTL, it might be reasonable. But just being top half at WUSTL is unlikely to be enough by itself since STL is a smaller market (as carson already mentioned).

WUSTL is doing well because they’re placing in a currently healthy legal market where you can reasonably think you’ll be biglaw secure if you’re in the top half, but you’ll need NYC, Chicago, and smaller markets where you have ties to really feel good about that. It might be STL, but it’d be foolish to put all of your eggs in the STL basket unless you have significant ties, and even then you’ll want other markets to target as backup plans.

Keep in mind that you are seeing the results of a very healthy hiring market. When I started law school, all of the 2Ls told me that all you needed was a smile and biglaw was yours. What actually happened was the great recession, and biglaw offers went from ubiquitous to the exception.

With biglaw hiring and the stock market: past performance is not necessarily an indication of future returns.

nealric wrote:Keep in mind that you are seeing the results of a very healthy hiring market. When I started law school, all of the 2Ls told me that all you needed was a smile and biglaw was yours. What actually happened was the great recession, and biglaw offers went from ubiquitous to the exception.

With biglaw hiring and the stock market: past performance is not necessarily an indication of future returns.

Agreed. I'm assuming the economy stays mostly stable over the next few years, which I realize is not certain and we're already in the longest period of sustained economic growth in US history. But assuming nothing like the Great Recession occurs anytime soon, what would your assessment be?

While plenty of WUSTL median kids get STL biglaw, it's far from a guarantee. A lot of median grads struck out at OCI as well. You'd have to be in the top 1/3 to be "comfortable" about getting biglaw.