Top Law Schools

Hey guys. If I plan to enter the public defenders office for a few years out of LS, how important is the "ranking" of the LS I attend? Do public defender offices put a lot of emphasis on where you attended LS?

TLS wisdom is that prestige of school/grades are less important for this type of work, but still a factor. How large a factor depends on the office. If it's the local PD in a rural area, the law school down the road will probably be fine. If you're looking for NY/DC/LA defender's offices, you'll almost certainly need a top school.

Try to find bio's of attorneys from the office you want to be in (you'll have to dig since most DAs and PDs don't put rosters online). That should give you an idea of what schools feed the office.

Also, consider that these jobs are really tough to get, so you'll want a school that gives you fallback options.

Interesting, thanks. The idea is to get full rides at Pepperdine, LMU and/or USD. I'll have an offer from UCLA, but at sticker which I can not take (I'm old). So I was hoping the PD in Los Angeles would be ok with one of the other three schools. We'll see I guess.

secondshot wrote:Interesting, thanks. The idea is to get full rides at Pepperdine, LMU and/or USD. I'll have an offer from UCLA, but at sticker which I can not take (I'm old). So I was hoping the PD in Los Angeles would be ok with one of the other three schools. We'll see I guess.

What are your numbers?

You might be able to get PD work in LA from those schools, but you'll need to do really well at those schools. No more than a grad or two per year from any of those schools is likely making it to the DA's or PD's in LA.

http://law.pepperdine.edu/careers/curre ... s-2011.htm

Anyone w/ more familiarity with these schools and PD placement want to chime in?

A few nationally famous offices (Bronx, Miami, Public Defender Service in D.C., Alameda County) are pretty prestige-whorish. For the most part though, you want to find schools in areas with lots of local offices that actually hire 3Ls. New York and the San Francisco Bay Area provide the most hiring offices, so school in those two areas gives you a good shot.

Los Angeles County unfortunately does not hire 3Ls. They take volunteers, but it's uncertain those volunteers are actually hired.

Join us over here and here.

Ugh, ok, this kinda changes everything. PD is a big deal for me and I really don't want to move from LA to do so.

Numbers thus far are: 3.6 (adjusted due to W's, actual GPA is 4.0)/165(last diagnostic). I'm 40 years old, sophomore, transferring to UCLA (with honors) next Fall to finish UG.

I have 10 years of law related work experience and I'm a URM (Mexican).

I really can't take UCLA or USC at sticker to end up in PD. That's financial ruin. So my plan was full ride at any of those 3. I'm the kind of guy who loses his shit when he gets a B, so I'm pretty sure I can hold up into the top 5-10% of my class.

[BTW, tenacious, that second link you posted isn't working for me.]

Can you access it this way? http://top-law-schools.com/forums/viewt ... 3&t=155423

secondshot wrote:Ugh, ok, this kinda changes everything. PD is a big deal for me and I really don't want to move from LA to do so.

Numbers thus far are: 3.6 (adjusted due to W's, actual GPA is 4.0)/165(last diagnostic). I'm 40 years old, sophomore, transferring to UCLA (with honors) next Fall to finish UG.

I have 10 years of law related work experience and I'm a URM (Mexican).

I really can't take UCLA or USC at sticker to end up in PD. That's financial ruin. So my plan was full ride at any of those 3. I'm the kind of guy who loses his shit when he gets a B, so I'm pretty sure I can hold up into the top 5-10% of my class.

[BTW, tenacious, that second link you posted isn't working for me.]

You really can't assume that. Everyone is going to want good grades just as much as you do.

worldtraveler wrote:

secondshot wrote:Ugh, ok, this kinda changes everything. PD is a big deal for me and I really don't want to move from LA to do so.

Numbers thus far are: 3.6 (adjusted due to W's, actual GPA is 4.0)/165(last diagnostic). I'm 40 years old, sophomore, transferring to UCLA (with honors) next Fall to finish UG.

I have 10 years of law related work experience and I'm a URM (Mexican).

I really can't take UCLA or USC at sticker to end up in PD. That's financial ruin. So my plan was full ride at any of those 3. I'm the kind of guy who loses his shit when he gets a B, so I'm pretty sure I can hold up into the top 5-10% of my class.

[BTW, tenacious, that second link you posted isn't working for me.]

You really can't assume that. Everyone is going to want good grades just as much as you do.

Absolutely agree, I'm just assuming this based on the fact I've never received a B in college so far, all A's. Just considering the odds of me being in the top 5-10% "should be" high. Irrelevant though if it's not worth going to a T2 school in LA when trying to get into PD.

secondshot wrote: Absolutely agree, I'm just assuming this based on the fact I've never received a B in college so far, all A's. Just considering the odds of me being in the top 5-10% "should be" high. Irrelevant though if it's not worth going to a T2 school in LA when trying to get into PD.

Stop that.

Also, you're assuming you're going to score 165 based on your last diagnostic, right? You seriously need to stop assuming things. PLENTY of people choke on test day. Go take the LSAT and then come back.

Robbin Blue wrote:

secondshot wrote: Absolutely agree, I'm just assuming this based on the fact I've never received a B in college so far, all A's. Just considering the odds of me being in the top 5-10% "should be" high. Irrelevant though if it's not worth going to a T2 school in LA when trying to get into PD.

Stop that.

Also, you're assuming you're going to score 165 based on your last diagnostic, right? You seriously need to stop assuming things. PLENTY of people choke on test day. Go take the LSAT and then come back.

Or he could gun like hell and go to Stanford.

secondshot wrote:

worldtraveler wrote:

secondshot wrote:Ugh, ok, this kinda changes everything. PD is a big deal for me and I really don't want to move from LA to do so.

Numbers thus far are: 3.6 (adjusted due to W's, actual GPA is 4.0)/165(last diagnostic). I'm 40 years old, sophomore, transferring to UCLA (with honors) next Fall to finish UG.

I have 10 years of law related work experience and I'm a URM (Mexican).

I really can't take UCLA or USC at sticker to end up in PD. That's financial ruin. So my plan was full ride at any of those 3. I'm the kind of guy who loses his shit when he gets a B, so I'm pretty sure I can hold up into the top 5-10% of my class.

[BTW, tenacious, that second link you posted isn't working for me.]

You really can't assume that. Everyone is going to want good grades just as much as you do.

Absolutely agree, I'm just assuming this based on the fact I've never received a B in college so far, all A's. Just considering the odds of me being in the top 5-10% "should be" high. Irrelevant though if it's not worth going to a T2 school in LA when trying to get into PD.

The median undergraduate GPA of my entering law school class was a 3.6

At the end of our first semester, the median law school grade was a 3.3

Right now, my GPA is the lowest it has ever been, and I have always done well in school

You need to stop assuming you're going to finish top 10%. That's crazy. Law school classes are curved, the people you will be competing against will be a lot smarter and more driven than your competition in the past, and in a lot of ways you can't just brute force your way to an A like you can in undergrad.