Top Law Schools

Here they are:

1 University of California--Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
2 Stanford University, Stanford, CA
3 George Washington University, Washington, DC
4 Columbia University, New York, NY
5 Franklin Pierce Law Center, Concord, NH
6 Duke University, Durham, NC
7 University of Houston, Houston, TX
8 Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA
9 Boston University, Boston, MA
10 Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago-Kent), Chicago, IL

So should I go to a place like Santa Clara over say BU or Emory or WUSTL if know I want to do IP? What the hell is Franklin Pierce? Please, someone, shed some light on this.

IP lawyers don't care about USNWR IP rankings. You should probably go to Santa Clara if you want to practice in California.

And Franklin Pierce is Tier 3/4, in the middle of nowhere, New Hampshire. I wouldn't...

Just ignore them. These rankings are pretty much worthless & misleading. Only use USNWR specialty rankings among similarly ranked schools, & even then there are a lot of things you should be considering before looking @ something like this.

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Lxw wrote:IP lawyers don't care about USNWR IP rankings. You should probably go to Santa Clara if you want to practice in California.

And Franklin Pierce is Tier 3/4, in the middle of nowhere, New Hampshire. I wouldn't...

I disagree. IP rankings matter. Franklin Pierce IP grads get top jobs at big firms with 6 figs salaries.

showNprove wrote:No. These are good for tiebreakers only in case you're trying to choose between, say, Stanford or Harvard. It would appear, if all else were equal in your preferences, that you should choose Stanford if you want to do IP law.


But only use them to help guide you through schools of similar quality.

I don't know if this was a reply to mine, but this is pretty much what I was saying. But things like regular ranking, scholarship, location & pretty much everything else are a hell of a lot more important than looking @ specialty rankings for a field of law that you really don't know anything about yet. A lot can change during your 3 years, so you don't want to ignore those other factors in favor of it. & really, if you're choosing b/w Harvard & Stanford, I guess Stanford would be better . . . but does it really matter? I'm guessing the answer is no, not really. & that would probably be the answer most of the time.

JonasBrothers wrote:

Lxw wrote:IP lawyers don't care about USNWR IP rankings. You should probably go to Santa Clara if you want to practice in California.

And Franklin Pierce is Tier 3/4, in the middle of nowhere, New Hampshire. I wouldn't...

I disagree. IP rankings matter. Franklin Pierce IP grads get top jobs at big firms with 6 figs salaries.

I agree that that probably don't matter, but the other day I was browsing through the associates pages for a few of the top IP firms in DC and saw a lot a FP grads....

thanks for the replies. i guess take these with a sizable grain of salt.

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if you really want a biglaw job in IP, just make sure you sign up for the chicago-loyola patent interview program. It's held every year at the end of july. you apply in feb/march, and bid on firms in april/may, and get your interview schedule in june.

They aren't just made up rankings, despite what this smoking redneck claims. Never take advice from someone who is not sure what the difference between 3 and 4 is...

barkingbug wrote:They aren't just made up rankings, despite what this smoking redneck claims. Never take advice from someone who is not sure what the difference between 3 and 4 is...

lulz

Specialty rankings don't matter too much.

carrowd3 wrote:

JonasBrothers wrote:

Lxw wrote:IP lawyers don't care about USNWR IP rankings. You should probably go to Santa Clara if you want to practice in California.

And Franklin Pierce is Tier 3/4, in the middle of nowhere, New Hampshire. I wouldn't...

I disagree. IP rankings matter. Franklin Pierce IP grads get top jobs at big firms with 6 figs salaries.

I agree that that probably don't matter, but the other day I was browsing through the associates pages for a few of the top IP firms in DC and saw a lot a FP grads....

FP is essentially a specialized school. It is top tier for IP, and TTT for everything else. If you want IP and have the requisite background but not the numbers for T14, FP is a good option (probably better than most T20s). Also, Franklin Pierce is now the University of NH Law School. I don't know if that will help with name recognition, or hurt the FP IP brand, but it changed a month or so ago.

I disagree. IP rankings matter. Franklin Pierce IP grads get top jobs at big firms with 6 figs salaries.

Yeah, if they are in the top 10% and have a Phd in hard science- just like similarly situated students at other similarly ranked schools.

nealric wrote:

I disagree. IP rankings matter. Franklin Pierce IP grads get top jobs at big firms with 6 figs salaries.

Yeah, if they are in the top 10% and have a Phd in hard science- just like similarly situated students at other similarly ranked schools.

I am not considering FPLC for law school, but I am fairly familiar with the program. Most people I know placing into IP out of the school don't have Phd's or even masters. It is a lot of people with relevant work experience (tech background, engineering majors in college). The only people who really need higher level degrees are those looking to pursue biomedical patent work. You are right about only the top 10% or so (of the IP program, not the general campus) placing into BigLaw, but you are forgetting the even mid-level patent/IP work is much higher paying than mid-level litigation work.

These specialty rankings are based solely on votes by legal educators, who nominated up to 15 schools in each field. Legal educators chosen were a selection of those listed in the Association of American Law Schools Directory of Law Teachers 2007-2008 as currently teaching in that field. In the case of clinical and legal writing, the nominations were made by directors or members of the clinical and legal writing programs at each law school. Those programs that received the most top 15 nominations appear in descending order.

This is from the USNWR web site, the methodology for specialty rankings. aka they are a crap shoot, they are a joke, don't base your decision off of them.

Obviously anecdotal, but I do know an FP grad who was kept by a BigLaw firm in Boston last fall that had to let multiple t14ers go. The position had nothing to do with IP. I am certainly not arguing that FP is better than these schools, but the school does have a stronger network in some circles of the Northeast.

It is also no longer FP. Starting this fall, the school will be called the University of New Hampshire School of Law.

Everything that I have read indicates that overall rank trumps specialty rank, which is why I'm leaning heavily toward Emory and its TI:GER program.

barkingbug wrote:Obviously anecdotal, but I do know an FP grad who was kept by a BigLaw firm in Boston last fall that had to let multiple t14ers go. The position had nothing to do with IP. I am certainly not arguing that FP is better than these schools, but the school does have a stronger network in some circles of the Northeast.

It is also no longer FP. Starting this fall, the school will be called the University of New Hampshire School of Law.

From everything I hear, once you get your foot in the door, its more about your work quality than your grades or school.

has anyone paid for/know the full 2011 rankings? (1-26) or if someone has posted it already on another thread, can someone direct me there? I've tried searching everywhere.

Thanks!

and by full rankings i mean full IP specialty rankings

If you think those specialty rankings matter, look at the methodology. It's totally bogus.

aznflyingpanda wrote:If you think those specialty rankings matter, look at the methodology. It's totally bogus.

You're bogus. Specialty rankings matter just look at the schools of associates at FR

aznflyingpanda wrote:If you think those specialty rankings matter, look at the methodology. It's totally bogus.

Hilarious. It's USNWR. Since when does the methodology matter? Are you a Cooley student?

Franklin Pierce was started by someone from MIT...

If you can believe it, back in the day, MIT actually wanted to buy out FP and
incorporate it into its campus...but the faculty rejected the offer because they
didn't want to move from New Hampshire

prob the worst move for the school EVER