Top Law Schools

UPDATED: I just got into Northwestern and University of Illinois!

Please help me choose. I am very confused on what I should do. Thanks in advance!

I just finished my 1L year at Seattle U. I did pretty well (around top 10%...I may have just missed the 10% cutoff (think 9-12%)...but I won't know for certain what my exact rank is until August when the part-timers / summer torts class finishes). I am very fortunate to have options.

I really like SU (the professors, the location, the students, the city, etc). I would be happy to graduate from SU. But here are my concerns about SU:
1) I am worried about my career prospects because I want to clerk for a federal judge for 1 year after law school and / or work in BigLaw (optimally in Seattle in corporate law - either transactional or litigation....not sure which yet),
2) the classes offered at SU don't seem to be as business focused as I would like (though they have enough business-oriented classes for me to take I think...just not quite the selection of some of the T-14 or top 20 schools), and
3) the students at SU are bloody smart, and I am concerned that my rank could fall in 2L or 3L (you never know, as law school grading seems somewhat arbitrary).

Just so you know, SU has ~40 employers coming to OCI (most of which are Seattle BigLaw, but only 21 interview slots are available for each employer and employers seem to pick who they want to interview). I am not sure if this selection of OCI employers and method of OCI interview bidding will work for or against me. Thoughts?

I have good work experience and a graduate degree that I think law firms will appreciate during OCI. I have a reasonable summer internship during 1L summer. I also know some attorneys in Seattle (including Partners in BigLaw) that I have worked with before law school in a substantive capacity. From the research I have done, these BigLaw connections probably are only marginally helpful during OCI (it may make a difference later for lateral moves, however).

I really liked legal writing, so I would like to be on law review at whatever school I go to (I won't find out if I made SU's write-on until late August).

Prestige is kind of important to me. And T-14 schools have always been my dream (don't know if any of them will be possibilities)...praying that they will be though.

Please note that I have been a long-time lurker and an infrequent poster. I created a new account to protect my anonymity for this poll since transferring is a touchy subject and I am providing a fair amount of info about myself.

P.S.: I will try to update this poll as new decision options roll in (if any).

Some other schools that I applied to that *may (read: hopefully)* be added to this poll are:
* T-14 schools (sans HYSCCN) - I blanketed them because transferring seems to be relatively haphazard / uncertain in terms of admission.
* University of Washington

Bump. Comments and voting are both welcome and appreciated.

I have a big decision to make very, very soon.

send an application to washington. IF you want to stay in the area- it would be a good school to apply to.

Have you tried to get more money from Seattle? Seems as though you want to stay there, and I dont know if the schools you have in mind will help get you back there, or make the road easier for you than staying put.

Dont worry about 2L and 3L. You konw what it takes, and have the ability and track record to get it done at SU.

northwood wrote:send an application to washington. IF you want to stay in the area- it would be a good school to apply to.

Have you tried to get more money from Seattle? Seems as though you want to stay there, and I dont know if the schools you have in mind will help get you back there, or make the road easier for you than staying put.

Dont worry about 2L and 3L. You konw what it takes, and have the ability and track record to get it done at SU.

Thanks, northwood! I applied to University of Washington already and am waiting to hear back from them. I don't think that I can get more money from SU, but I guess I can try (I am getting ~$15K already and that seems to be their cap other than for a couple of named scholarships where people get a full ride). This ~$15K scholarship is contingent on staying in the top 25% of the class. Money is a bit of an issue, but I am really much more concerned about job prospects than the nominal difference in tuition for 2 years of law school.

Seems likely you'll get into U of Wash. Sounds like it makes sense for you to go there.

Does HYS have a lot of pull in the Seattle BigLaw market? How about the others in the T14? I'm interested in this as I intend on practicing in the Seattle area (I have ties).

Maybe you should go to U-Washington and get the best of both worlds. SU's former dean is now the dean there, it's a prestige upgrade, and you get to stay in Seattle. Plus the football team is about to kick some ass.

That said, I would get out of SU if i had the opportunity. The best way to get good job prospects in Seattle is to go to a top school away from Seattle. Neither WUSTL nor GWU is dominant in the Seattle market, but they can get you better jobs in Seattle than SU. D.C. is a really nice place to study law, and it's a suprisingly beautiful, international city with a lot of culture and much to do. I say go to GWU!

Blessedassurance wrote:Does HYS have a lot of pull in the Seattle BigLaw market? How about the others in the T14? I'm interested in this as I intend on practicing in the Seattle area (I have ties).

HYS - or another T14 if those aren't available - is the best way to get Seattle employment. After that, U-Washington is the best option.

PDaddy wrote: D.C. is a really nice place to study law, and it's a suprisingly beautiful, international city with a lot of culture and much to do.

Because Seattle is none of these things, obviously.

OP, the TLS mantra is that Seattle is impossible to get into without ties, and obviously, you have them. I don't think you could go wrong attending any of the schools you mentioned, and UW would definitely be a safe choice.

PDaddy wrote: HYS - or another T14 if those aren't available - is the best way to get Seattle employment. After that, U-Washington is the best option.

Thanks.

Blessedassurance wrote:Does HYS have a lot of pull in the Seattle BigLaw market? How about the others in the T14? I'm interested in this as I intend on practicing in the Seattle area (I have ties).

Yes, HYS has a lot of pull in Seattle BigLaw. Other T14 also have a lot of pull in the Seattle market.

One attorney who used to be a recruiter at a BigLaw firm in Seattle told me a good way to think about hiring in Seattle BigLaw is that if there are 15 spots at a firm, then 1/2 are reserved for the T14 (maybe T20) and the other 1/2 are reserved for UW and SU. Since UW has ~1/2 the class size as SU, getting these spots from SU is obviously 2 times as hard (statistically speaking). If there is an odd number of SAs that a firm is seeking or if a firm is seeking only 1 SA, then the draw probably goes to UW unless the hiring partner is an SU grad, it is an SU shop (unlikely), etc. Also, since some people from UW want to get SA gigs in their home market, more firms probably interview at UW, and SU is more of a regional school in the NW (well-regarded in the NW, but not well-known outside the NW), UW also is slightly less competitive in terms of how many people probably apply to Seattle BigLaw.

Hope this all makes sense. Now for the updated poll (please vote / re-vote)! Thanks!