Top Law Schools

Hi everyone,

I am in a bit of a conundrum, I need your help in order to make an informed decision on which law school to choose from. I know this may not seem to be the appropriate forum, but bear with me for a second and you will get the point of posting my question here.
Basically my dilemma has to do with my background and choosing between American University and The College of William & Mary for law school.

I am a foreign attorney graduated in a civil law country; I wish to get a JD degree from a U.S. law school in order to have two countries in which I can practice law. In this way, I want to focus on transnational/international/comparative law because those are the areas of the law where having two nation's licenses (one civil law, the other common law) would make me "special" to employers.
So here we go, if I need to chose between American University, which is ranked 45th overall, and W & M, which is ranked 28th, which one should I pick? It would seem that W & M is the obvious choice (better ranked, cheaper, cheaper cost of living etc.). BUT, American University is ranked 8th nationwide on international law, and W & M is not even top 10.

So I guess, the point at issue is, what do employers value more, graduating from a school better ranked overall or better ranked in the specific field in which one practices law?

What do you guys (and gals) think?

Cheers.

Double post FTL!!!

OneKnight wrote:Double post FTL!!!

Just trying to get as much input as possible, I never know to which tread people in here are going to read!

Both would have atrocious prospects. W&M is almost good enough to be worth going to, and nothing AU offers in terms of location or clinical opportunities can make up for the fact that W&M grads to better looking for jobs.

Specific field rankings are a crock of shit and never mean anything ever.

danieltorrey wrote:

OneKnight wrote:Double post FTL!!!

Just trying to get as much input as possible, I never know to which tread people in here are going to read!

I beg your pardon, but I don't know what is the posting etiquette here. Double posting is a major no-no?

Thanks to anyone who may enlighten me.

disco_barred wrote:Both would have atrocious prospects. W&M is almost good enough to be worth going to, and nothing AU offers in terms of location or clinical opportunities can make up for the fact that W&M grads to better looking for jobs.

Specific field rankings are a crock of shit and never mean anything ever.

Are you serious about both having atrocious prospects? What would be a good school in your experience?

danieltorrey wrote:

disco_barred wrote:Both would have atrocious prospects. W&M is almost good enough to be worth going to, and nothing AU offers in terms of location or clinical opportunities can make up for the fact that W&M grads to better looking for jobs.

Specific field rankings are a crock of shit and never mean anything ever.

Are you serious about both having atrocious prospects? What would be a good school in your experience?

Especially for anything like international law, opportunities are constrained everywhere but you really need to be at a top school to pull down the kind of work people usually refer to (i.e. international human right stuff). If you're only looking for international business, that's big firm law and you need to go to a big firm. Schools outside of the top 20-25 or so struggle to place more than 20%, often struggle to place more than 10%, of their graduates into big firm jobs.

If those are your career goals, neither AU nor WM are likely to make them happen.

Worth giving up? Nah. Worth the risk if you get a scholarship? Sure. But dealing in probabilities, which means reference to difficult law school curves, harsh competition, and crumbling legal economy you have to be cautious at either school.

I would suggest W&L over those other two. If you can get into W&M, you should be in at W&L too. W&L is really starting to focus on their Intl Law. They're even making us 1Ls take a mandatory "Transnational Law" class. There are a surprisingly large number of students doing Intl work this summer too. For example, we have students going to the UN, Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe, etc. The school is also funding a lot of Intl work. There are a handful of prominent Intl law scholars that teach at W&L, which is why they're forcing the rest of us to take these classes too. If it's something you're interested in, you should look into it.

Anonymous because of outting info about other people's work, and opinions about the mandatory programming. W&L is too small for privacy without blatant anonymity.

Both are good options for you. American due to its location & access to resources, internships & contacts that are unique to being in Washington D.C., and Wm. & Mary because they have a lot of non-law programs available for students interested in international areas of study. Some US law schools offer regular internships with foreign based law firms in their home countries, although I am not sure about American & Wm. & Mary.

Why not an LLM? You can take the NY bar with one....cheaper/faster. Which country are you trying to work in? Are you a US citizen?

sophie316 wrote:Why not an LLM? You can take the NY bar with one....cheaper/faster. Which country are you trying to work in? Are you a US citizen?

I contemplated getting an LLM, and you are correct, I could take the bar with my LLB + LLM, in such states as NY or California. So it would seem much better (as you pointed out, faster and cheaper).

However, there are other factors involved. First of all, my research indicated that lawyers that go that route can't free themselves from the stigma of being "foreign lawyers"and therefore are not given the same opportunities as to American-trained attorneys. I, being a foreign lawyer, actually agree with that. If I was a client in my home country, I probably would not hire an attorney who had not had the most basic training in that country's positive law.
I am aware that LLM's take an introductory course on American law, but that doesn't come even close to what regular JD students are exposed to. Furthermore, my professional objective is to practice transnational law, and having an LLB + JD is more valuable than LLB + LLM. Moreover, with just the LL.M I would be limited to the few states that allow that, limiting even more my opportunities. For exemple, DC is a prime market for that, which would be virtually unaccessible to me in that scenario. Several big-firms already told me that getting a JD would be better than just an LLM for those reasons.

That being said, if I couldn't get a JD, than I would definitely go for the LLM, but that just as an option if I couldn't get into any JD programs.

There are also my academic reasons for it, but already wrote quite a bit I don't want to bore you guys to death. If anyone is curious, let me know and I'll tell you.

And no, I am not a US citizen, but again, I plan on doing transnational stuff, so I don't plan on just going back to my country and practice there, I plan on going back and forth.

danieltorrey wrote:Hi everyone,

I am in a bit of a conundrum, I need your help in order to make an informed decision on which law school to choose from. I know this may not seem to be the appropriate forum, but bear with me for a second and you will get the point of posting my question here.
Basically my dilemma has to do with my background and choosing between American University and The College of William & Mary for law school.

I am a foreign attorney graduated in a civil law country; I wish to get a JD degree from a U.S. law school in order to have two countries in which I can practice law. In this way, I want to focus on transnational/international/comparative law because those are the areas of the law where having two nation's licenses (one civil law, the other common law) would make me "special" to employers.
So here we go, if I need to chose between American University, which is ranked 45th overall, and W & M, which is ranked 28th, which one should I pick? It would seem that W & M is the obvious choice (better ranked, cheaper, cheaper cost of living etc.). BUT, American University is ranked 8th nationwide on international law, and W & M is not even top 10.

So I guess, the point at issue is, what do employers value more, graduating from a school better ranked overall or better ranked in the specific field in which one practices law?

What do you guys (and gals) think?

Cheers.

If you want to go into international law and you dont go here: http://law.fiu.edu/ = gtfo

Too bad you aren't interested in Dispute Resolution, you could go to Hamline, which is ranked 2nd! (have you guys ever heard of hamline?)

^^^ Specialty rankings

.

blackacre wrote:If you want to go into international law and you dont go here: http://law.fiu.edu/ = gtfo

S. America and Mexico are poised for phenomenal economic growth over the next 10-20 years at least, and for S. American commerce, FIU is hard to beat.

I think it was a great strategic move for Florida to establish a public university law school with a strong international specialization right in the heart of the country's greatest pool of Spanish and Portuguese-speaking talent with the closest cultural ties to S. America.

When the economy picks up, S. American trade is going to be hot, Miami will be the critical trade center, and FIU will be ideally placed.

Lawof_theLand wrote:

blackacre wrote:If you want to go into international law and you dont go here: http://law.fiu.edu/ = gtfo

S. America and Mexico are poised for phenomenal economic growth over the next 10-20 years at least, and for S. American commerce, FIU is hard to beat.

I thik it was a great strategic move for Florida to establish a public university law school with a strong international specialization right in the heart of the country's greatest pool of Spanish and Portuguese-speaking talent with the closest cultural ties to S. America.

When the economy picks up, S. American trade is going to be hot, Miami will be the critical trade center, and FIU will be ideally placed.

Hahaha! Go to Miami if that is what you want, not FIU. Sorry, but it has no reputation to carry it into another country. UT is a good choice, they have a pretty extensive Latin American program, maybe even Tulane. I don't know how much stock I would put into the mission statement of a school, especially when the name has "International" in it. Maybe in a few years, but now it's not the place to be.

Lawof_theLand wrote:

blackacre wrote:If you want to go into international law and you dont go here: http://law.fiu.edu/ = gtfo

S. America and Mexico are poised for phenomenal economic growth over the next 10-20 years at least, and for S. American commerce, FIU is hard to beat.

I thik it was a great strategic move for Florida to establish a public university law school with a strong international specialization right in the heart of the country's greatest pool of Spanish and Portuguese-speaking talent with the closest cultural ties to S. America.

When the economy picks up, S. American trade is going to be hot, Miami will be the critical trade center, and FIU will be ideally placed.

is it hard to beat?

I know people from the T14 or the three schools that are worth anything in FL aren't particularly inclined to go to Florida, especially when this new wave of business reaches within its borders but come on. Get real buddy.

the three schools that are worth anything in FL

I assume you mean Stetson, FSU, and UF.

Lawof_theLand wrote:

the three schools that are worth anything in FL

I assume you mean Stetson, FSU, and UF.

Almost, UF FSU and UMiami

Lawof_theLand wrote:

the three schools that are worth anything in FL

I assume you mean Stetson, FSU, and UF.

HAHAHAHAHAHA

no

Lawof_theLand wrote:

the three schools that are worth anything in FL

I assume you mean Stetson, FSU, and UF.

blackacre wrote:

Lawof_theLand wrote:

the three schools that are worth anything in FL

I assume you mean Stetson, FSU, and UF.

If Law of the Land meant the third best school in the Tampa/St. Pete area, then we'd be talking.

rad law wrote:

blackacre wrote:

Lawof_theLand wrote:

the three schools that are worth anything in FL

I assume you mean Stetson, FSU, and UF.

If Law of the Land meant the third best school in the Tampa/St. Pete area, then we'd be talking.

This is oddly an interesting thing to consider. If thats your target market, then maybe you should take stetson over Miami (if you don't want big law and you aren't taking out 150k to attend)

This thread = /facepalm