Top Law Schools

At what point would it be better to attend one verse the other assuming cost does not matter? I have connections to LA (grew up here and went to USC for undergrad). Would getting straight P's at Berkeley still place well in LA big law still (worst case scenario)? What rank would be needed for Berkeley law and USC/UCLA law to place equally in LA? Like median at Berkeley and top 30% at USC/UCLA?

Hiring doesn't work like a computer formula. That being said, Berkeley has generally better big law numbers than USC/UCLA. Law firms may have special alumni connections to one school over the other, but basically at any of these schools it will come down to how good your grades are compared to your classmates, your interview abilities, and a little bit of luck.

If you want the most prestige and career flexibility, go to Berkeley and get good grades there. Don't worry so much about predicting what grades will lead to certain situations. You can have lower grades than someone and end up at a better firm than them.

CR7 wrote:Hiring doesn't work like a computer formula. That being said, Berkeley has generally better big law numbers than USC/UCLA. Law firms may have special alumni connections to one school over the other, but basically at any of these schools it will come down to how good your grades are compared to your classmates, your interview abilities, and a little bit of luck.

If you want the most prestige and career flexibility, go to Berkeley and get good grades there. Don't worry so much about predicting what grades will lead to certain situations. You can have lower grades than someone and end up at a better firm than them.

Berkeley places half it’s class in big law and UCLA places a third. Firms have grade cutoffs for these schools but I don’t know what they are because I’m in NYC. It might be here on the forums somewhere or some current 2Ls might be able to help.

I'm note quite sure how above poster is defining "BigLaw," but Berkeley's 25% salary in private practice is $180K, i.e. Cravath scale, and UCLA's is $100K, per NALP. Seems like the best way to cut the data.

https://www.law.berkeley.edu/careers/em ... tatistics/

https://law.ucla.edu/~/media/Assets/Car ... acted.ashx

LBJ's Hair wrote:I'm note quite sure how above poster is defining "BigLaw," but Berkeley's 25% salary in private practice is $180K, i.e. Cravath scale, and UCLA's is $100K, per NALP. Seems like the best way to cut the data.

https://www.law.berkeley.edu/careers/em ... tatistics/

https://law.ucla.edu/~/media/Assets/Car ... acted.ashx

I was going by LST - they use “large firm” all the data is broken down on their site
https://www.lstreports.com/schools/berkeley/

https://www.lstreports.com/schools/ucla/

They don’t have a correlation of law GPA to jobs because that data isn’t available.

BerkeleyLaw wrote:At what point would it be better to attend one verse the other assuming cost does not matter? I have connections to LA (grew up here and went to USC for undergrad). Would getting straight P's at Berkeley still place well in LA big law still (worst case scenario)? What rank would be needed for Berkeley law and USC/UCLA law to place equally in LA? Like median at Berkeley and top 30% at USC/UCLA?

I'm puzzled by the "cost does not matter" condition given your desire to enter private practice. Is $200-300k chump change to you/your wealthy parents? I mean, that's great if so, but the vast majority of folks - even those who grew up with a privileged upper middle class background - aren't in the situation where $200-300k to them is more like $20-30k to most people.

Berkeley is notoriously stingy so the best option if you want BigLaw is likely to be a different T13. Median at USC/UCLA will likely not land BigLaw.