Big law firm placement: Absolute number vs Percent? Forum

[zienhal]

When considering a law school's placement of graduates in 'large law firms,' how does class size factor into the metric? My first thought is a percentage measure would control for varying class sizes BUT doesn't a large class size make it harder to place a LARGER percentage of students in 'large law firms'?

Not sure if I'm over thinking this but help would be appreciated!

...should have taken more statistics.

[Yukos]

When considering a law school's placement of graduates in 'large law firms,' how does class size factor into the metric? My first thought is a percentage measure would control for varying class sizes BUT doesn't a large class size make it harder to place a LARGER percentage of students in 'large law firms'?

Not sure if I'm over thinking this but help would be appreciated!

...should have taken more statistics.

Yes it makes sense that theoretically it's "harder" to place a large percentage of a large class into biglaw jobs and so it's "impressive" when schools do it, but all that matters to you specifically is your chance of getting a biglaw job and the best proxy for that is the percentage itself, no matter the class size.

Put another way, you could argue* that GULC's placement is more impressive than Penn's, considering that GULC is gigantic and in the most competitive market in the country while Penn is small and feeds into New York. But even if you believe that, Penn would still unambiguously be a better choice because you have a much higher chance of getting a biglaw job out of there.

*I wouldn't but, you know, it's possible I guess.

[zienhal]

Ahhhh, got it. Well put. Thanks!

[utlaw2007]

When considering a law school's placement of graduates in 'large law firms,' how does class size factor into the metric? My first thought is a percentage measure would control for varying class sizes BUT doesn't a large class size make it harder to place a LARGER percentage of students in 'large law firms'?

Not sure if I'm over thinking this but help would be appreciated!

...should have taken more statistics.

Yes it makes sense that theoretically it's "harder" to place a large percentage of a large class into biglaw jobs and so it's "impressive" when schools do it, but all that matters to you specifically is your chance of getting a biglaw job and the best proxy for that is the percentage itself, no matter the class size.

Put another way, you could argue* that GULC's placement is more impressive than Penn's, considering that GULC is gigantic and in the most competitive market in the country while Penn is small and feeds into New York. But even if you believe that, Penn would still unambiguously be a better choice because you have a much higher chance of getting a biglaw job out of there.

*I wouldn't but, you know, it's possible I guess.