Top Law Schools

I work for an office that administers the pension and welfare benefits, so I have some exposure to ERISA law. I'm looking to write the LSAT next year and apply for schools in the fall. My goal--at least for the time being--is to become an ERISA attorney.

Per my research, in practice, labor & employment law is different from ERISA law. However, as far as law school programs go, it seems that ERISA does fall under labor & employment law, and it's just like an elective class. I'm trying to figure out what schools might be best for ERISA law, but there's not a lot of information on the internet. It seems to be a niche practice that people get into after law school.

I'm looking for advice on how to best position myself for employment in ERISA law during my time in law school (aside from interning for a firm with an ERISA practice in the summer). It looks like most law schools have one or two ERISA classes at most. I don't know a whole lot about law school clinics, internships, externships, etc. so I'd appreciate any insight you could provide.

For what it's worth, I am going to try to attend a T-14 school or some lower ranked schools in California (where I would be looking for employment).

With narrow exceptions (none of which apply here), employers generally don't care much about a law school's specialty offerings/rankings/strengths/etc. If you want BigLaw, you should attend a T13, regardless of whether you're interested in labor & employment, bankruptcy, M&A, commercial litigation, white collar, tax...

In addition to the above, your experience is already more legit than 99.99% of lawyers who wind up in erisa, so I wouldn't sweat it.

Little known fact- firms can not find people interested in ERISA, and neither can recruiters. If that’s what you want to practice, you’ll have no problem finding an opening by reaching out to ERISA partners. Georgetown has a great ERISA curriculum for Tax LLMs, not sure if it’s available for JDs