Oregon 1L offering his limited advice Forum

[llachans]

How essential is it to have ties to Oregon/Portland before law school? I'm from the Midwest and, if I'm excepted to OR, will definitely attend and intend to practice there. Will not having previous ties to this region severely hurt me when it comes around to applying for jobs?

[usuaggie]

How essential is it to have ties to Oregon/Portland before law school? I'm from the Midwest and, if I'm excepted to OR, will definitely attend and intend to practice there. Will not having previous ties to this region severely hurt me when it comes around to applying for jobs?

more people are from out of state than in state at oregon. it isn't important at all, but when you interview, it will be important to stress the fact that you want to stay in oregon. moving all the way here will help show your commitment to staying here.

That said, try to get "accepted" to oregon and not "excepted."

[llachans]

How essential is it to have ties to Oregon/Portland before law school? I'm from the Midwest and, if I'm excepted to OR, will definitely attend and intend to practice there. Will not having previous ties to this region severely hurt me when it comes around to applying for jobs?

more people are from out of state than in state at oregon. it isn't important at all, but when you interview, it will be important to stress the fact that you want to stay in oregon. moving all the way here will help show your commitment to staying here.

That said, try to get "accepted" to oregon and not "excepted."

lol. sorry about that. i've had a crazy work schedule and must have been extremely tired....

[JOThompson]

How essential is it to have ties to Oregon/Portland before law school? I'm from the Midwest and, if I'm excepted to OR, will definitely attend and intend to practice there. Will not having previous ties to this region severely hurt me when it comes around to applying for jobs?

Pretty essential, but not sufficient. Portland is a very insular and small market. With strong ties (born, raised, educated in OR), a T30 education, and top 20% grades I struck out at every PI employer I applied to. Not even rejection letters. I can't speak to the difficulty of acquiring a private firm job, but it's gotta be even tougher.

Note: I did pretty well in every other primary/secondary west coast market though, so I think that Portland is just exceptionally hard to break into.