Top Law Schools

USWN only shows a few schools does anyone know the rest?

michiganlady222 wrote:USWN only shows a few schools does anyone know the rest?

Don't choose a school based on specialty rankings. Choose a school because of its ability to employ you. The best schools for IP are HYS, followed by CCN.

Yes: Yale, Harvard and Stanford followed by Columbia, Chicago, and NYU then Michigan, Virginia, Penn, Berkeley, Duke, Northwestern, Cornell, and Georgetown.

Bedsole wrote:

michiganlady222 wrote:USWN only shows a few schools does anyone know the rest?

Don't choose a school based on specialty rankings. Choose a school because of its ability to employ you. The best schools for IP are HYS, followed by CCN.

this.

californiauser wrote:Yes: Yale, Harvard and Stanford followed by Columbia, Chicago, and NYU then Michigan, Virginia, Penn, Berkeley, Duke, Northwestern, Cornell, and Georgetown.

See above.

Specialty rankings are compiled based on professors' opinions, which are worth exactly 0 when it comes to actually getting a job as an IP lawyer. Ignore them.

Going to the best school that you can with as much money as you can get is the credited response. However, if you get in to comparable schools and you are certain IP is the area you want to practice, then check out the curriculum and the teaching staff. Lawrence Lessig teaches at HLS. Robert Merges is at Berkeley, as is Pamela Samuelson. These people are total badasses and the opportunity to have them teach/mentor/lead your clinic/recommend you is awesome. I believe there can be credited reasons to go to a school for a "specialty" (although I am still a 0L, so take my advice with a pleasant bucket of salt), but future employment and financial considerations trump them by a good mile.

And when you get to that point in your research, still disregard USNews Specialty Rankings. Anything that honestly suggests that Santa Clara or American is a better choice than HYCCNMVP is trolling hard.

midnight_circus wrote:HYCCNMVP

Blatant anti-Stanford trolling.

Bedsole wrote:

midnight_circus wrote:HYCCNMVP

Blatant anti-Stanford trolling.

LOL, never! You'll note I also left off Berkeley. Those are the two schools that USNews ranks 1 & 2 for IP. My comment was meant to be a scathing condemnation of their blatant anti-every-other-T14 trolling.

I'd never troll against the NerdNation. Not after that Oregon game last night.

IP law is so much less competitive than everything else, rankings really don't even matter that much. Go to your favorite T14 at the lowest cost possible and you'll be fine. If you're not fine, going to Berkeley instead of Virginia wasn't going to help you.

midnight_circus wrote:Lawrence Lessig teaches at HLS. Robert Merges is at Berkeley, as is Pamela Samuelson. These people are total badasses and the opportunity to have them teach/mentor/lead your clinic/recommend you is awesome.

And make sure you look at their IP specialty - not every IP professor will be solid in patent, trademark, AND copyright.

Also, as another poster said, IP is significantly less competitive, assuming you're going into patent law and have a degree that permits you to sit for the patent bar. Soft IP is a lot harder to break into.