Above the Law weighs in on the Definition of the T14 Forum

[flcath]

So there's been serious disagreements (and Wikipedia edits which I would bet my scholarship are being done by TLS posters) on the meaning of the T14 term, with the 3 most popular being:

(1) The top 14 USNews schools, no shit. (ATL apparently subscribes to this definition, incorrectly asserting that they've "always" been the same 14 schools... though that is almost true.)

(2) They are the only 14 schools to ever be in the top 10. I don't have a link to this one, but there are plenty of TLS threads claiming that this has "always" been the definition. (I should point out that GULC has been in the top 10 a grand total of 1 time... at #10.)

(3) I'm a lawyer and a law professor, and neither I nor anyone IRL has ever heard of anything called the T14. Get off TLS and get a job. /s/ Brian Leiter

[protein]

What's this thing you call a job???

[tehrocstar]

Number 2 seems the most plausible since it's the one that's actually true

[FiveSermon]

Number 2 seems the most plausible since it's the one that's actually true

Yeah, wasn't Texas ranked 11 before?

[LiveFreeOrLaw]

Are you guys talking about the magazine rainkings?

[flcath]

Number 2 seems the most plausible since it's the one that's actually true

While semblance of truth (i.e., sounding true) is desirable in a meme, actual truth is unnecessary

[barry]

it's number 2

and the reason why UT is not in the T14

[BruceWayne]

So there's been serious disagreements (and Wikipedia edits which I would bet my scholarship are being done by TLS posters) on the meaning of the T14 term, with the 3 most popular being:

(1) The top 14 USNews schools, no shit. (ATL apparently subscribes to this definition, incorrectly asserting that they've "always" been the same 14 schools... though that is almost true.)

(2) They are the only 14 schools to ever be in the top 10. I don't have a link to this one, but there are plenty of TLS threads claiming that this has "always" been the definition. (I should point out that GULC has been in the top 10 a grand total of 1 time... at #10.)

(3) I'm a lawyer and a law professor, and neither I nor anyone IRL has ever heard of anything called the T14. Get off TLS and get a job. /s/ Brian Leiter

I've said this for a while. One thing that I noticed after actually attending law school is that a lot of the stuff said on here is just internet hearsay that get's passed around/circulated so frequently that it become "fact" in the eyes of TLS posters/people under 30 who like the internet a lot. The idea of CCN MVBP DCGN etc. is especially bullshit. Basically once you get involved with people in the legal field it quickly becomes apparent that it's HYS (the only real world grouping) and then the rest of the schools that are well known are all sort of mushed together with each being a bit well known for certain things (Columbia in the NYC firm world, Berkeley in the California firm world, GULC and UVA in DC etc.).

[flcath]

What's this thing you call a job???

It's what used to happen when you finished law school. (Don't blame me; I was just paraphrasing Brian Leiter.)

It's one of those things like a happy marriage and "the American middle class," that our parents' generation keeps harping on about, but I don't know if they ever actually existed.