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Does where you went to Law school affect your ultimate placement into a specified area within a firm? For example, if a firm's best practice area is M&A, is a Harvard grad more likely to ultimately end up in M&A than a T2 grad? Or is it based on individual interests and abilities?

acijku2 wrote:Does where you went to Law school affect your ultimate placement into a specified area within a firm? For example, if a firm's best practice area is M&A, is a Harvard grad more likely to ultimately end up in M&A than a T2 grad? Or is it based on individual interests and abilities?

I'm pretty sure that the school affects your ability to get a big-law job period.

If you specifically want to do m&a and you don't get put in it, it means that your firm doesn't have a great m&a group.

But to your broader point, groups that don't take a lot of people at my firm take the people they like, which could have correlation with school. At a place like Cleary I'd imagine school attended could have influence in who gets to be in the sovereign debt group. This probably varies by firm and group size though.

gnomgnomuch wrote:

acijku2 wrote:Does where you went to Law school affect your ultimate placement into a specified area within a firm? For example, if a firm's best practice area is M&A, is a Harvard grad more likely to ultimately end up in M&A than a T2 grad? Or is it based on individual interests and abilities?

I'm pretty sure that the school affects your ability to get a big-law job period.

I'm not disputing this. I just wanted to know that once in big law does school dictate which area you ultimately end up in. Is it possible that a T2 grad would not be placed in a practice area because of where he graduated from? or is it more once your hired and show interest and ability in an area that is all that generally matters.