Top Law Schools

For those of you 0L's out there looking for info. on schools with well-regarded immigration law programs, here's a thread from a while ago.
http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 9#p2157439

I threw in my two cents in at the end. If anyone knows of law schools with great immigration law programs, please chime in. Of course, not too many law schools have specialized courses in this area of law, but some out there do. I think GULC, Harvard, Columbia have a few well-known imm. scholars on their payrolls, and UC Davis has a fantastic immigration clinic.

t.

There are a few larger firms that specialize in corporate immigration or that have small immigration departments, but a lot of immigration law is done by small firms and solo practitioners. If you want a chance to apply to clerk for immigration court should you get the grades and whatever else you need I suppose the top schools with immigration clinics are best.

But if you just want to practice immigration law and you're absolutely sure you don't want to do anything else, you might be better off going to a lower ranked school that has an immigration clinic or that has ties to places where you can get a decent internship. The reason for this is you're probably not going to make a ton of money doing immigration law as a solo or at a small firm, and if you're in private practice, you're not going to qualify for LRAP at most t14s.

For those thinking of going into immigration law this might be a useful tool when choosing law schools (although there seem to be a few missing): http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigr ... w-sch.html

yabbadabbado wrote:There are a few larger firms that specialize in corporate immigration or that have small immigration departments, but a lot of immigration law is done by small firms and solo practitioners. If you want a chance to apply to clerk for immigration court should you get the grades and whatever else you need I suppose the top schools with immigration clinics are best.

But if you just want to practice immigration law and you're absolutely sure you don't want to do anything else, you might be better off going to a lower ranked school that has an immigration clinic or that has ties to places where you can get a decent internship. The reason for this is you're probably not going to make a ton of money doing immigration law as a solo or at a small firm, and if you're in private practice, you're not going to qualify for LRAP at most t14s.

Wow. Maybe I shouldn't be studying so hard then. Because that is exactly my end goal (that + family law).

But...I thought the LRAPs were based on income? If your income is low shouldn't you qualify? Or when you said "not make at ton of money doing immigration law" did you mean a ton as compared to BIGLAW?

tommytahoe wrote:For those of you 0L's out there looking for info. on schools with well-regarded immigration law programs, here's a thread from a while ago.
http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 9#p2157439

I threw in my two cents in at the end. If anyone knows of law schools with great immigration law programs, please chime in. Of course, not too many law schools have specialized courses in this area of law, but some out there do. I think GULC, Harvard, Columbia have a few well-known imm. scholars on their payrolls, and UC Davis has a fantastic immigration clinic.

t.

Thanks for this thread, and yes, those three schools hit my radar when I did an ABA guide search for immigration clinic.

Howard seems to have one too, if I remember right.

I was thinking though (as I ponder the other poster's words on going to a lesser ranked school for this) that criminal defense experience is something one can get easily out of the top schools, right or wrong? And criminal defense skills should transfer well over to deportation defense (and are often related ANYway, they get picked up on a criminal offense and get flagged for deportation)...so would working for a criminal defense or public defender office and getting the LRAP benefit then going into immigration work? Or do people who go into immigration tend to do it from start to finish?

(I plan on asking immigration lawyers this anyway, but glad to get all input.)

Legalized, as the poster you quoted wrote that back in October they might not get back to you, but I think LRAPs are only for "public interest" law, which is usually defined as govt or n-f-p. There is obviously a possible overlap with some immigration law there, but probably not for the run of the mill corporate visa kind of stuff