Top Law Schools

Would it be dumb to go to a California law school if in 5-10 years i'd like to move back to the east coast to settle down?

I really would love to live in California for awhile. I love the culture and have spent a few summers there and it seems like a fun environment to spend my younger years, however family is on the east coast.

I'm talking about UCLA, USC, Berk, (UC Irvine?)...

I'd ultimately like to practice at a mid to large sized firm in California (LA, SD, or OC) for 5ish years and then move to DC and get some type of government job if possible.

Does this sound realistic (barring good grades)?

Berkeley, sure it's possible. Stanford, sure it's even more possible. The rest will depend on your career trajectory following graduation working toward FedGov work, which is no guaranteed bet anywhere else. If you can land Biglaw from UCLA/USC/UCI (which is no guarantee), you could get quality litigation work that could turn into DC FedGov work. But going to those schools thinking you'll easily do Biglaw-->DC FedGov is making several pretty risky bets that could never work out.

Your other big issue with the plan of CA Biglaw-->DC FedGov is that you're not likely to get good regulatory work in Biglaw in CA, which is generally the more prevalent type of Biglaw job that can translate to DC FedGov.

So sure it's possible, but it's certainly not likely.

Edited for clarity

Possible, but not a good idea.

From Stanford you can pretty much go wherever you want. Berkeley, you should be able to move back, but it may not be quite as easy. UCLA/USC, just assume your ranking needs to be about 10% higher than for a similar outcome on the left coast.

Every other school, it'll be an uphill struggle

Good plan, except you'll never want to leave CA for the east coast.

.

dannyswo wrote:Good plan, except you'll never want to leave CA for the east coast.

Your best bet at this would be to get a job with a big law firm satellite office that has substantial presence in DC -- Jones Day, OMM, GDC, bla bla bla. Work in Cali for a few years, then try to make the move to the DC office. It's not an impossible path, I know people who have done it from UCLA, UCI, and Boalt, and it's good to set your designs now.

But I will say that it's going to be hard to give up the CA lifestyle--both professionally and personally.