Top Law Schools

I know the Vault as the most prestigious firms etc. but I wonder if there was an overall list of the most prestigious or competitive positions to obtain following 3L and getting your JD. This may or may not require bar admission and be a bit subjective, but just wanted to see different opinions or if a list existed anywhere. I heard of the WH internship on school forums being competitive so I interned in the WH one summer.

I think being an Astronaut would be pretty prestigious. That's my answer. Astronaut.

BigZuck wrote:I think being an Astronaut would be pretty prestigious. That's my answer. Astronaut.

I don't mean to come off as a prick, just looking for maybe a comprehensive list of positions that would add value to a resume for someone not too sure about what niche they want to go into. Funny answer though

I think the joke is that there is no one track that is niche-independent. Working in the Washington State AG or SG's office is probably pretty prestigious for WA Big law firms, it won't move the needle for a PD office in Louisiana.

Moreover, "prestige" is just a metric to get where you want to go. It isn't (or should not be) a way of impressing...girls? Your mom? Your mom's friends?

So, if you tell us where you want to go, people can suggest stepping stones to get you there.

If, as I infer from your post, you don't know what you'd like to do, you can still narrow it down a bit. Litigation or Corporate? Do you have debt you need to pay off? What area of the country? Different things have different levels of prestige in different sectors (see if your corporate firm cares about a MJ clerkship in a flyover).

Sigh. To answer your question, I present a random 2L's definitive rankings of prestigious post-grad placements in ligation (because I have no idea what is prestigous outside of NYC Big law)

Litigation
1. SCOTUS Clerkship
2. Bristow Fellowship
3. DC, 2nd, 7th 9th COA
4. COA generally; top DCt clerkships (also, select State Supreme Court: like Goodwin Liu)
5. Skadden Fellow, EJW, etc
6. DOJ Honors

If this list is useless...well good. My impression is that if you are good enough for one of these things, you've already been asked if you want to apply.

Solicitor General of the United States

How far along are you in law school/your legal practice? This question sounds incredibly 0Lish.

Law. Is. Not. Prestigious.

Why don't people understand this? There is no such thing as a prestigious lawyer. Any lawyer who is prestigious is prestigious for reasons other than being a lawyer.

I heard of the WH internship on school forums being competitive so I interned in the WH one summer.

cool story bro

Anonymous User wrote:I think the joke is that there is no one track that is niche-independent. Working in the Washington State AG or SG's office is probably pretty prestigious for WA Big law firms, it won't move the needle for a PD office in Louisiana.

Moreover, "prestige" is just a metric to get where you want to go. It isn't (or should not be) a way of impressing...girls? Your mom? Your mom's friends?

So, if you tell us where you want to go, people can suggest stepping stones to get you there.

If, as I infer from your post, you don't know what you'd like to do, you can still narrow it down a bit. Litigation or Corporate? Do you have debt you need to pay off? What area of the country? Different things have different levels of prestige in different sectors (see if your corporate firm cares about a MJ clerkship in a flyover).

Sigh. To answer your question, I present a random 2L's definitive rankings of prestigious post-grad placements in ligation (because I have no idea what is prestigous outside of NYC Big law)

Litigation
1. SCOTUS Clerkship
2. Bristow Fellowship
3. DC, 2nd, 7th 9th COA
4. COA generally; top DCt clerkships (also, select State Supreme Court: like Goodwin Liu)
5. Skadden Fellow, EJW, etc
6. DOJ Honors

If this list is useless...well good. My impression is that if you are good enough for one of these things, you've already been asked if you want to apply.

Why are you anon???

TLS mod. They take like 40ish new SCOTUS clerks each year but only like 3 or 4 mods usually.

Anonymous User wrote:I know the Vault as the most prestigious firms etc. but I wonder if there was an overall list of the most prestigious or competitive positions to obtain following 3L and getting your JD. This may or may not require bar admission and be a bit subjective, but just wanted to see different opinions or if a list existed anywhere. I heard of the WH internship on school forums being competitive so I interned in the WH one summer.

Why are you anon? So you could reveal being a white house intern?

Everything is competitive. Half of law school grads don't even have JD-required jobs. Some are more competitive than others but it ultimately is not a totally fair reflection on you if you get it or not, because many jobs right out of law school are based on grades, which after a certain amount of effort are based on some luck.

If your only goal is prestige, you will be very dissatisfied with this career. There is always someone doing something more prestigious or interesting than what you're doing. You will never be content, and some of these positions will leave you overworked and burned out (or worse), especially if you aren't genuinely interested in the work.

jingosaur wrote:TLS mod. They take like 40ish new SCOTUS clerks each year but only like 3 or 4 mods usually.

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jingosaur wrote:TLS mod. They take like 40ish new SCOTUS clerks each year but only like 3 or 4 mods usually.

It's also a huge resume booster.

star fox wrote:Law. Is. Not. Prestigious.

Why don't people understand this? There is no such thing as a prestigious lawyer. Any lawyer who is prestigious is prestigious for reasons other than being a lawyer.

Wachtell seems pretty prestigious, at least among the right crowd.

Here is a comprehensive list of post-grad legal positions, and their relative prestige:

1. The thing that you are doing.
2. That thing that the top of the class is doing.
3. Those things that people at better law schools are doing.
4. Whatever things people at worse law schools do.
5. That thing that guy you hate is doing.

Best of luck. Nothing brings fulfillment and happiness like chasing prestige.

This is clearly an 0L question and is in the wrong place. Mods?

Anonymous User wrote: 1. SCOTUS Clerkship
2. Bristow Fellowship
3. DC, 2nd, 7th 9th COA
4. COA generally; top DCt clerkships (also, select State Supreme Court: like Goodwin Liu)
5. Skadden Fellow, EJW, etc
6. DOJ Honors

Also, this is wrong. As far as I'm aware, SCOTUS does not take people straight out of law school. They take clerks from feeder judges like Garland. Your #3 list of CoAs are wrong because not all judges in a circuit are equal. Wilkinson on the 4th circuit is probably more "prestigious" than most, if not all, 7th circuit judges. DOJ Honors "prestige" also depends heavily on the component. I just wanted to clarify this for other law students who are reading this thread and think that the list is somehow accurate.

As for OP, the only thing you need to worry about for "adding value" to your resume is good grades.

UVA2B wrote:How far along are you in law school/your legal practice? This question sounds incredibly 0Lish.

Sadly, not a 0L.

I guess there would have been a time in my top-law-schools.com where I wondered a similar question, although it was probably couched more in "what can I do now to position myself better for the rest of my career" rather than a laser-focus on "prestige."

Vault sucks. So does every other ranking. Go look at Chambers if you want a slightly better indication of prestige; you'll be able to narrow down firm "prestige" by things like geographical area so you aren't comparing NY firms with CA firms. Choose from there.

Litigation
1. SCOTUS Clerkship
2. Bristow Fellowship
3. DC, 2nd, 7th 9th COA
4. COA generally; top DCt clerkships (also, select State Supreme Court: like Goodwin Liu)
5. Skadden Fellow, EJW, etc
6. DOJ Honors

I think this is an okay answer in a very general vacuum (although I don't know anything about #5-6). There are tons of other things too, though, like CA AG honors program (including a SG one) that would be really great in CA, but probably more limited use elsewhere. I'll also acknowledge PeanutsNJam is correct about the problems he identified with this very general ranking... but then if we went through all the nuances and specific judges in other circuits that are more prestigious as other judges in the 9th Circuit etc., then it would probably be pages long.

Tagging so I can find out the answer to these burning questions.

Anonymous User wrote:

BigZuck wrote:I think being an Astronaut would be pretty prestigious. That's my answer. Astronaut.

I don't mean to come off as a prick, just looking for maybe a comprehensive list of positions that would add value to a resume for someone not too sure about what niche they want to go into. Funny answer though

You sound like a prick, douche, a-hole. Get over yourself. No one cares about prestige. What a pathetic life. If you worked at the white house, then go ask Obama. And the white house is not that impressive, Omarosa did the same thing twice.

SCOTUS clerk is the most prestigious gig you can land out of law school. In my experience lawyers don’t care about political positions, except judgeships solicitor general jobs, and being appointed US attorney. You can’t get any of those as a new grad.

Burger flipper, duh!

Stop chasing prestige for prestige sake.

In the end, nobody cares.

I hear all these people want to do appellate clerkships, but want to be AUSAs. Why not just do a district court clerkship then? "Well well, its not as prestigious" like what? lol.

People want to go to Wachtell because they believe that magical prestige of being an associate there says something about them. Go to Wachtell if you want to work harder than your peers and make more money than your peers. Don't go because it is prestigious. Then if they don't get Wachtell, its like "I have to get Cravath." Really? Why? There's literally 20-30 other firms where you make the same money, work on the same matters, and have the same exit options.

People are chasing shit they don't want to do because of what it signals to their peers (who in general, don't care). Stop. Figure out what will make you happy and then chase that.

Hikikomorist wrote:

star fox wrote:Law. Is. Not. Prestigious.

Why don't people understand this? There is no such thing as a prestigious lawyer. Any lawyer who is prestigious is prestigious for reasons other than being a lawyer.

Wachtell seems pretty prestigious, at least among the right crowd.

Anything can prestigious among the right crowd.

bk1 wrote:

jingosaur wrote:TLS mod. They take like 40ish new SCOTUS clerks each year but only like 3 or 4 mods usually.

It's also a huge resume booster.

And pays more than a lot of law school grads are otherwise making.