Top Law Schools

I've picked through the board but not quite satisfied yet. I would welcome any insight!

I'm top 5% at a well-regarded low 50s school on the west coast. I'm accepted for transfer at Georgetown and UCLA. I have a 1/2 scholarship at the current school.

Geographic - I like LA: I have family in southern california, and I like the beach but not a huge fan of LA sprawl and traffic. i'm not interested in living in the bay area for cost of living reasons. I'm born and raised west coast and have no experience living in the east coast. However, I'm open to the idea and DC is cool. I also have close family in the east coast. Having the ability to change my mind and move somewhere else is more important than current location.

Career - interested in clerkship, but primarily aiming for mid to big law. More interested in a semblance of work-life balance and interesting work than the most prestigious firm where i work till i die. In other words, I'd rather have 90-120k, good experience and room to grow than 160k. My eventual goal is to go solo or in a small firm. Placement at current school in is 10-20% (edit - with firms over 100 attorneys).

Practice Area - business law (possibly tax focused). all these schools have good programs, but if someone had particular insight at ucla/georgetown that would be good to know.

Thanks for your help guys/gals. Looking forward to the responses.

(Edit - changed scholarship from 2/3 to 1/2)

How well does your current school place into biglaw? Given your current rank, scholarship, and your school's location on the west coast I'm not sure if making the move to UCLA is worth it.

If you want the east coast, then I'd make the jump to GULC, but it's going to be easier to land NYC biglaw from GULC than DC biglaw, and even NYC biglaw won't be a guarantee.

Placement is not good, 10-20% for over 100 attorney firms.

Scholarship is actually 1/2 now too, forgot it was weighted more heavily in the first year. But there is a chance at more money of course.

placement seems good coming out of GULC. You dont think so?

Thanks for the reply.

From what I've heard UCLA is just as well respected on the west coast as Georgetown is on the east coast, wrt big law. If you want to work in California, UCLA 100%

If you are in the top 5% at a school that places 10-20% into decent firms, why would you leave for GULC?

Thanks for the replies.

I should note, when I say 10-20%, I'm looking at firms over 100 attorneys.

ndirish2010 - I think it was a rhetorical question but here is an answer anyways:

I guess I'm risk adverse. 10-20% for current compared to ~45% for GULC (or 35% for UCLA).

The other reason would be mobility. I don't intend to stay where my current school is, and I've been strongly considering the northwest. At Lane Powell, for instance, Georgetown has more presence than either my current school or UCLA.

djt650 wrote:Thanks for the replies.

I should note, when I say 10-20%, I'm looking at firms over 100 attorneys.

ndirish2010 - I think it was a rhetorical question but here is an answer anyways:

I guess I'm risk adverse. 10-20% for current compared to ~45% for GULC (or 35% for UCLA).

The other reason would be mobility. I don't intend to stay where my current school is, and I've been strongly considering the northwest. At Lane Powell, for instance, Georgetown has more presence than either my current school or UCLA.

If you're top 5%, it looks like you have a good shot at landing biglaw from your current school based on those numbers, but obviously it's not guaranteed. The only problem is that you won't be guaranteed biglaw from GULC either, so it really comes down to how risk/debt averse you are (granted I think you'd do well at GULC's OCI given your stats).

djt650 wrote:Thanks for the replies.

I should note, when I say 10-20%, I'm looking at firms over 100 attorneys.

ndirish2010 - I think it was a rhetorical question but here is an answer anyways:

I guess I'm risk adverse. 10-20% for current compared to ~45% for GULC (or 35% for UCLA).

The other reason would be mobility. I don't intend to stay where my current school is, and I've been strongly considering the northwest. At Lane Powell, for instance, Georgetown has more presence than either my current school or UCLA.

If you're risk averse, you should definitely stay. You realize that if you transfer, you're likely to be looked at like a median student at GULC. Perhaps it won't even be that great for you, because employers will still see your 1L school and you'll be competing against GULC 2Ls. I think the prudent decision for the risk averse student would be to stay.