Top Law Schools

I haven't read/heard a lot on this board regarding Atlanta. It seems that with such a low COL and decent Biglaw salaries ($125,000-$145,000), there would be more.

I'm curious what the best law school(s) are for Atlanta Biglaw. From the little i've been able to find, it seems like it's...

YH>>Virginia>>T6>>Duke>>remaining Lower T14>>Vanderbilt>>Emory>>UGA

Is that correct?

Bump.

Anyone?

JerrySeinfeld wrote: YH>>Virginia>>T6>>Duke>>remaining Lower T14>>Vanderbilt>>Emory>>UGA

Is that correct?

I'm not convinced lower T14>Vanderbilt for Atlanta (excluding Duke/UVA).

I would suggest Duke/Virginia/Vanderbilt + Ties to atlanta + gpa over 3.5/3.6 = trump everything aside from HY(S).

Why? The Atlanta market, while large, is not as large as everyone thinks it is.

Vandy > lower T14 for Atlanta.

Aberzombie1892 wrote:

JerrySeinfeld wrote: YH>>Virginia>>T6>>Duke>>remaining Lower T14>>Vanderbilt>>Emory>>UGA

Is that correct?

I'm not convinced lower T14>Vanderbilt for Atlanta (excluding Duke/UVA).

I would suggest Duke/Virginia/Vanderbilt + Ties to atlanta + gpa over 3.5/3.6 = trump everything aside from HY(S).

Why? The Atlanta market, while large, is not as large as everyone thinks it is.

Would you agree that Virginia is better than Duke or are they equal?

The Atlanta market may not be huge, but I love Atlanta, have some family down there, and the QOL combined with COL is second to only Texas.

I worked at one of these firms, and at least based on the practice group I was with, I was surprised at the number of locals that were there - Emory, UGA, a good number from GA state, and I remember there being a bunch of SAs from Mercer that year. Outside of that, WashU was another big school, as well as the other big schools from the neighboring states.

txelle wrote:I worked at one of these firms, and at least based on the practice group I was with, I was surprised at the number of locals that were there - Emory, UGA, a good number from GA state, and I remember there being a bunch of SAs from Mercer that year. Outside of that, WashU was another big school, as well as the other big schools from the neighboring states.

Can you speak to higher ranked schools and there ability to place in Atlanta Biglaw. Do you have any experience with Virginia, Duke, Michigan, and even Columbia in Atlanta?

JerrySeinfeld wrote:

txelle wrote:I worked at one of these firms, and at least based on the practice group I was with, I was surprised at the number of locals that were there - Emory, UGA, a good number from GA state, and I remember there being a bunch of SAs from Mercer that year. Outside of that, WashU was another big school, as well as the other big schools from the neighboring states.

Can you speak to higher ranked schools and there ability to place in Atlanta Biglaw. Do you have any experience with Virginia, Duke, Michigan, and even Columbia in Atlanta?

There were definitely people from Virginia, Duke, Vandy, and several schools in Illinois. I didn't know anyone who had come from the NE. However, I imagine that you would be competitive coming from schools like Columbia. It could just be that less people who attend those schools go to Atlanta.

I'm not convinced that Emory is THAT much better than UGA for Atlanta. In general, yes. In Atlanta, no.

eandy wrote:I'm not convinced that Emory is THAT much better than UGA for Atlanta. In general, yes. In Atlanta, no.

I have heard (on TLS and elsewhere) that this seems to be the case at least somewhat because the best of Emory tend to leave.

rad law wrote:

eandy wrote:I'm not convinced that Emory is THAT much better than UGA for Atlanta. In general, yes. In Atlanta, no.

I have heard (on TLS and elsewhere) that this seems to be the case at least somewhat because the best of Emory tend to leave.

Yeah, I think ITE more Emory kids are forced to stay. Should be interesting to see how this affects UGA.

txelle wrote:

JerrySeinfeld wrote:

txelle wrote:I worked at one of these firms, and at least based on the practice group I was with, I was surprised at the number of locals that were there - Emory, UGA, a good number from GA state, and I remember there being a bunch of SAs from Mercer that year. Outside of that, WashU was another big school, as well as the other big schools from the neighboring states.

Can you speak to higher ranked schools and there ability to place in Atlanta Biglaw. Do you have any experience with Virginia, Duke, Michigan, and even Columbia in Atlanta?

There were definitely people from Virginia, Duke, Vandy, and several schools in Illinois. I didn't know anyone who had come from the NE. However, I imagine that you would be competitive coming from schools like Columbia. It could just be that less people who attend those schools go to Atlanta.

Outside of HYS, if you wanted to work in Atlanta, which school would you go to?

JerrySeinfeld wrote:

txelle wrote:

JerrySeinfeld wrote:

txelle wrote:I worked at one of these firms, and at least based on the practice group I was with, I was surprised at the number of locals that were there - Emory, UGA, a good number from GA state, and I remember there being a bunch of SAs from Mercer that year. Outside of that, WashU was another big school, as well as the other big schools from the neighboring states.

Can you speak to higher ranked schools and there ability to place in Atlanta Biglaw. Do you have any experience with Virginia, Duke, Michigan, and even Columbia in Atlanta?

There were definitely people from Virginia, Duke, Vandy, and several schools in Illinois. I didn't know anyone who had come from the NE. However, I imagine that you would be competitive coming from schools like Columbia. It could just be that less people who attend those schools go to Atlanta.

Outside of HYS, if you wanted to work in Atlanta, which school would you go to?

If you knew for sure you wanted to be in Atlanta, I'd say Emory. I would choose that or one of the big schools in the neighboring states like Duke.

txelle wrote: If you knew for sure you wanted to be in Atlanta, I'd say Emory. I would choose that or one of the big schools in the neighboring states like Duke.

I wouldn't.

UVA/Duke > Vanderbilt > Emory for ATL.

Emory would be good if you don't have a pre-existing connection to the area, however.

Any thoughts on how Chicago does in ATL?

zcc2012 wrote:Any thoughts on how Chicago does in ATL?

You would definitely want a connection to Atlanta.

Born and raised in GA. Family is there.

Trying to decide if the Chicago price tag is worth it as a transfer.

zcc2012 wrote:Born and raised in GA. Family is there.

Trying to decide if the Chicago price tag is worth it as a transfer.

Career services at Chicago might have some data on it. I'd see how people from your current school/rank did and then see what the Chicago data looks like.

zcc2012 wrote:Any thoughts on how Chicago does in ATL?

I went to an accepted students reception at King and Spalding that had 4 accepted students and lots of Chicago alumni.There seemed to be fairly good representation from the firms that I think are suppose to be good in Chicago (obviously I could be mistaken) The guy hosting it was former managing partner for that office of King and Spalding, the head of securities law for King and Spalding, there were several people from alston and bird, kilpatrick and stockton there was a guy from Greenberg and Taurig and maybe a woman from Troutman Sanders (not sure about this one I didn't talk to the person I'm thinking about)

Obviously this is all anecdotal but the people that were there seemed to be doing well at prestigious atlanta firms. Some that I spoke to had lateraled from other offices, some had gone there directly. I spoke to two guys who were UGA UGs. Honestly I don't know if you would be able to find much more than anecdotal evidence with Chicago's small class size and the fact that Atlanta isnt a usual target market.

The word that I've gotten regarding Atlanta big law is that Vanderbilt has done quite well recently (of course, they seem to have over-performed across the board in terms of employment). Emory or UGA are good bets too. Depends on your stats and scholarship considerations of course.

With the exception of possibly Duke and UVA, I'm not sure how strong the lower half T14 would be without ties to the Atlanta area.

An attorney in Atlanta who is a family friend told me that, outside of HY, UVA is unequivocally the best way to go for Atlanta. Just one person's opinion but I'm also going for Atl, and I took his advice very seriously.

UVA2013 wrote:An attorney in Atlanta who is a family friend told me that, outside of HY, UVA is unequivocally the best way to go for Atlanta. Just one person's opinion but I'm also going for Atl, and I took his advice very seriously.

I've spent a lot of time researching this including talking to attorneys at the top Atlanta firms. Unless you can get into HY UVA is your best bet. UVA is seen as a titan in Atlanta. Oftentimes you will notice that at many of the top ATL firms UVA is the only non Georgia school that they recruit at.

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I've also seen the grades required to get top ATL firms like King and Spalding from UVA, go to UVA. I will admit however, that it looks like if you have ties to Atlanta schools comparable to UVA in reputation do just as well (like Michigan), they just don't do any better.