Top Law Schools

Columbia sends a higher percentage of their graduates into Biglaw than any other school by a pretty large margin, but why exactly is that the case? Does Columbia Law School prepare its graduates for this kind of work better than other schools? Coach their graduates better for interviews and applications?

wjones451 wrote:Columbia sends a higher percentage of their graduates into Biglaw than any other school by a pretty large margin, but why exactly is that the case? Does Columbia Law School prepare its graduates for this kind of work better than other schools? Coach their graduates better for interviews and applications?

It's because CLS has the best legal writing program.

Location above all else.

an Ivy that's in the biggest legal market in the country is enough to do the trick.

rpupkin wrote:

wjones451 wrote:Columbia sends a higher percentage of their graduates into Biglaw than any other school by a pretty large margin, but why exactly is that the case? Does Columbia Law School prepare its graduates for this kind of work better than other schools? Coach their graduates better for interviews and applications?

It's because CLS has the best legal writing program.

Thanks for the response. I had no idea; I guess I'm still pretty new to the whole researching schools thing...

Typhoon24 wrote:Location above all else.

an Ivy that's in the biggest legal market in the country is enough to do the trick.

Yeah that does make sense. But is there something that puts them above NYU?

wjones451 wrote:

Typhoon24 wrote:Location above all else.

an Ivy that's in the biggest legal market in the country is enough to do the trick.

Yeah that does make sense. But is there something that puts them above NYU?

historically, NYU prided itself on being a university for the people...ie public interest oriented. Even though they have great big law numbers, a lot of their students (much more so than columbia) gun for PI work, so it kind of got a reputation for that. reputation means everything in legal hiring.

columbia throughout history (im pretty sure) was just a prestigious firm powerhouse.

Typhoon24 wrote:

wjones451 wrote:

Typhoon24 wrote:Location above all else.

an Ivy that's in the biggest legal market in the country is enough to do the trick.

Yeah that does make sense. But is there something that puts them above NYU?

historically, NYU prided itself on being a university for the people...ie public interest oriented. Even though they have great big law numbers, a lot of their students (much more so than columbia) gun for PI work, so it kind of got a reputation for that. reputation means everything in legal hiring.

columbia throughout history (im pretty sure) was just a prestigious firm powerhouse.

Ok. That does make a lot of sense, and NYU's PI placement definitely backs up what you're saying.

Location and tradition are the best answers. I think this report by the outgoing dean sums it up well: http://www.law.columbia.edu/magazine/62 ... r-students. That report also supports the idea that firms "retrenched" during the recession, hiring mostly from their feeder schools.

NYU, by the way, also has deep ties to NYC big law. It has been a top 10 law school for decades, and a "T6" for years and years.

It's also very much self-selection. It's not so much that CLS is better at placing in biglaw than HYS, just that fewer people at HYS want biglaw.

wjones451 wrote:

rpupkin wrote:

wjones451 wrote:Columbia sends a higher percentage of their graduates into Biglaw than any other school by a pretty large margin, but why exactly is that the case? Does Columbia Law School prepare its graduates for this kind of work better than other schools? Coach their graduates better for interviews and applications?

It's because CLS has the best legal writing program.

Thanks for the response. I had no idea; I guess I'm still pretty new to the whole researching schools thing...

Don't worry, he's joking.

It's probably partly self-selection, and also partly that HYS grads have a slightly better shot at non-biglaw options (government, policy, good non-legal jobs, academia).

wjones451 wrote:

rpupkin wrote:

wjones451 wrote:Columbia sends a higher percentage of their graduates into Biglaw than any other school by a pretty large margin, but why exactly is that the case? Does Columbia Law School prepare its graduates for this kind of work better than other schools? Coach their graduates better for interviews and applications?

It's because CLS has the best legal writing program.

Thanks for the response. I had no idea; I guess I'm still pretty new to the whole researching schools thing...

rpupkin is being sarcastic.

Some misinformation here. Obviously a joke, but just in case, CLS legal writing is probably one of the school's worst qualities (and bears little relation to firm recruiting). Moreover, I wouldn't say columbia only has a "tradition" of producing associates for elite law firms (at least not moreso than schools like chicago and harvard); it also has a deep legacy of jurisprudence, whether from the bench (cardozo, stone, today ginsburg, ect), in the academy, and in government (current USAG, SEC, countless SG's, ect), same as other old & established law programs.

As far as firm placement numbers are concerned, I think location is important: having the home market host by far the largest summer classes makes a noticeable difference. Schools like Penn, UVA, ect are great programs too but students sometimes don't have a default "home" market and spread themselves too thin. And yea, if you are just placing nlj250 apples to apples you have to look at all the stanford, yale and to a lesser degree harvard students self-selecting into clerkships for their first year (where the job #'s are captured). If you look at 2L summer employment, Columbia and similarly ranked programs would show the same %'s.