Top Law Schools

in at Boalt + Columbia (waiting on NYU/Chicago)

Considerations:

+ Boalt 1) walk-on membership on highly regarded boalt law and tech journal, 2) potential to do well in classes by patent law giants who are familiar with all federal judges in patent-heavy district courts/the whole CAFC, 3) opportunity to take a ton of patent-type classes, and a bunch of extra-curricular projects/clinics relating to law and tech at Boalt.

- Boalt: it concerns me that its overall ranking was 13 as recently as 2005, it also concerns me that it doesn't place its students too well in big law compared to peer schools

+ CCN: 1) t6, 2) nationwide placement, 3) big law placement

- CCN: 1) limited access to journals unlike Boalt's tech journal which has a huge reputation in patent circles, 2) lack of access to patent superstars, who might come in handy if I'm successful as a student for clerkship apps and such, 3) missed write-on comps for all of them.

My goal: federal clerkship (CAFC/patent district)

If you guys can fill in some gaps in my pros/cons analysis, I would greatly appreciate it. In the end, given my goals to become a patent federal clerk (by that I mean, CAFC or patent-oriented district) should I go to Boalt over CCN?

It sounds like you want to go to Boalt. Do it. You have very specific goals in mind, and if you see a path there, there's no reason to take the default choice of the highest-ranking school. Go where you'll be happy and where will best enable you to get where you want to be. Especially if you want to practice IP in California, Boalt beats your other options by a long shot.

anli wrote:It sounds like you want to go to Boalt. Do it. You have very specific goals in mind, and if you see a path there, there's no reason to take the default choice of the highest-ranking school. Go where you'll be happy and where will best enable you to get where you want to be. Especially if you want to practice IP in California, Boalt beats your other options by a long shot.

+1.

yea you are a good example of when to go to Boalt over CCN. I think it would be a hard choice with HYS but that isn't what we have here. While numbers are important following your interests should trump pure numbers. Especially when talking about a school as good as Boalt plus the prospect of being on a journal you will most likely enjoy.

This is unless you have a compelling reason to be in Chicago or New York

I'm having a similar quandary but for less compelling reasons. Also in at CLS, Penn, and Boalt. Probably ruling Penn out so am struggling to decide between CLS and Boalt. I'm from the east coast but moved out to CA for school last year. Don't especially care what coast I want to end up on, as I will most likely be trying for a Navy JAG commission; and could be happy in either city for the next couple of years. Does one of the two far surpass the other for JAG placements? Big pros for Boalt for me right now are location and ease of move (plus the one year I already have with CA law); but I'm sort of a name whore so CLS is very appealing. Would I be crazy to pass it up?

. . .

I don't think you can beat being so near to the Silicon Valley, especially if you want to end up working at a big firm or IP boutique. I don't know about CLS, but Berk has a great externship program that allows you to extern anywhere in the country. I actually know a guy who transferred from GW to Berk, and externed for Judge Moore on the Fed Circuit for his last semester at Berkeley, and is starting at Knobbe Martens this fall. Obviously anecdotal, but I think you are on the right track thinking that Boalt is the place to be with your strong patent-focus.

Good luck with the decision!

just curious, can the same arguments be made for going to GW over some place like Georgetown or UCLA?

Do you really want to be in the Bay Area? Based on overall employment prospects, I'd go to Columbia or Chicago. Most of what you learn for IP you learn on the job as a summer associate/associate, and IP rankings don't really matter. Not sure how much it matters for "patent federal clerking" though. I say Columbia or Chicago because based on what I have read on TLS, Boalt's OCI was a bloodbath and someone posted in the legal employment forum that only 233 offices are going to its OCI this year. Also, not sure how much secondary journals matter, from what I have heard, the bump is minimal.

For a clerkship, you're def gonna want to do chicago. Amongst judges, chicago is HIGHLY valued and a huge leg up over other schools. I say chicago, given your goals.