2012 Lewis & Clark People Forum

[llachans]

These are some of my tops too I really love the PNW, and want to stay here after school, but I here so many different things about job prospects

My biggest concern is that I'm from the Midwest and won't have any connections in the PNW after graduation (aside from ones I make during law school). I've always wanted to move out to the West Coast though so, since my scores are only good enough to get into a regional school, this would be the time to move out there.

[atcushman]

What other schools have you applied for llachans in the PNW I think most of us here all have apps in at SU, U of O Wil, U of the Pac, Gonzaga etc...

[llachans]

What other schools have you applied for llachans in the PNW I think most of us here all have apps in at SU, U of O Wil, U of the Pac, Gonzaga etc...

Other than L&C, SU and U of O. With a 3.5/160, I'm thinking I'll get into one of those. L&C and U of O are definitely two of my top choices. U of Pac just mailed me today and I was thinking of possibly looking into them too. Because I am from the Midwest, I'm unfamiliar with the schools in PNW aside from rankings. In your opinion, should I throw some apps towards U of Pac, Gonzaga, or any northern CA schools? How are these schools with employment prospects? (sorry for non-Lewis & Clark related questions, but it's hard to get an answer that doesn't require bashing in other forums.)

I'm also applying to a few other schools not in the PNW.

[atcushman]

My uncle went to U Pacific and he liked it and I have a lot of family in the area so it ranked a little higher on my list than it did for others...I dont really know if I would consider it PNW though and Cal is a hard market, I have heard a lot of U Pacific people have a hard time competing with grads from higher ranked schools like Stanford...Gonzaga kind of has the same problem competing with SU and UW Im sure with your numbers you will have no prob with SU L&C or UO. I am hoping to get into either U of O or L&C for their environmental law programs which are in the top 10 (Im pretty sure top 5) in the country. As for job prospects its pretty much the same as anywhere else, get in the top of your class get on law review get a good internship get connections....get an alright job ha ha ha...I have heard that L&C and U of O and even Willamette all have pretty strong networks in Oregon.

[Campagnolo]

Other than L&C, SU and U of O. With a 3.5/160, I'm thinking I'll get into one of those. L&C and U of O are definitely two of my top choices. U of Pac just mailed me today and I was thinking of possibly looking into them too. Because I am from the Midwest, I'm unfamiliar with the schools in PNW aside from rankings. In your opinion, should I throw some apps towards U of Pac, Gonzaga, or any northern CA schools? How are these schools with employment prospects? (sorry for non-Lewis & Clark related questions, but it's hard to get an answer that doesn't require bashing in other forums.)

I work in a small law firm in Portland as an assistant. Oregon places a bit better than Lewis and Clark almost everywhere in Portland, despite the rankings. The lawyers at the firm honestly don't know much about the rankings.

What they do know, however, is football.

Don't expect to get a degree from UW and get a job down in Portland. While it's possible, it is unlikely. And the other Washington schools? Forget it. My office recently interviewed about 5 applicants for an associate's position. When I could, I sneaked a peak at the resumes. Two were from Willamette and in the top 3% of the class. They weren't hired. While I think it's down to personality once you're in the interview chair, my point is that this is November and gads in the top 3% from Willamette are still looking for work. It's not pretty here in Portland. The legal market just isn't that big, and more than 500 JDs are produced every year here.

[un-vordox]

Has anyone else seen that thread with a link for 2010 1L clerkship placement in Portland? I didn't tag it and now I regret it because my searches aren't turning anything up. L&C did the best, followed by UW.

[neeko]

Has anyone else seen that thread with a link for 2010 1L clerkship placement in Portland? I didn't tag it and now I regret it because my searches aren't turning anything up. L&C did the best, followed by UW.

I would like to see this, too.

[llachans]

Has anyone else seen that thread with a link for 2010 1L clerkship placement in Portland? I didn't tag it and now I regret it because my searches aren't turning anything up. L&C did the best, followed by UW.

I would like to see this, too.

+1.

I'm trying to gather as much info on Portland and Seattle's job markets as I possibly can.

[Campagnolo]

What is 1L clerkship placement? Do you mean people working for judges during the summer between 1L and 2L?

[un-vordox]

Sorry, I mean 1L's that were hired by a firm, listed by firm and including the school they attend. They were posted on a website that I can't find. I actually think it might have been for summer 2011.

Considering the amount of law students in Oregon, the list was really short, but there was a link posted somewhere on TLS. I just can't seem to find it....

[un-vordox]

Found it. It wasn't 1L's. It was ALL SA's

--LinkRemoved--

Bummer. I guess my hazy memory is optimistic.

[un-vordox]

The good news is that it doesn't appear to be comprehensive.

[neeko]

Found it. It wasn't 1L's. It was ALL SA's

--LinkRemoved--

Bummer. I guess my hazy memory is optimistic.

This looks good for L&C, bad for Oregon.

[un-vordox]

Yeah, I think the more surprising thing is that someone made it on the list from Willamette but not UO.

[rinkrat19]

I'm in the middle of going through all the Portland NALP firms and making a spreadsheet of where all the younger associates (graduating 2000 or later, approximately) went to law school.

About halfway through the list, the score is:
L&C - 38
Oregon - 26
Willamette - 13
UW - 9
Michigan - 6
everyone else <4

The vast majority graduated with honors or were on a journal, frequently both.

ETA: at first glance, this looks great for L&C/Oregon, but think about the numbers. In the last 11 years, fewer than 160 grads (assuming that halfway through the list of firms, I've counted half the grads) of the three Oregon law schools got NALP firm jobs--somewhere in the ballpark of ~15 a year. The problem isn't that local firms aren't willing to hire local grads, it's that there just aren't enough firms with enough jobs. As a result, the tip top students get those jobs.

[indo]

Eugene just seems too far from everything, and it reminds me of UC Davis.

I don't think that's a very good comparison - Davis (population 80,000) is within 15 minutes of Sacramento (City: 500,000; Metro: 1.4 million) and 1 hour from the San Francisco Bay Area (population 7+ million).

Maybe the cities of Davis and Eugene are similar, but the surroundings are quite different in terms of population centers.

+1

Lake tahoe is only about 2 hours drive.

[neeko]

Rink, thanks for posting that info

[llachans]

Wow. This thread is turning out to be really helpful. This is definitely useful information and serves as some food for thought.

Rinkrat - If you add more to that spreadsheet, I'd really appreciate if you could list an updated version!

[charliep]

portland seems awesome, so im going to apply

[un-vordox]

I'm in the middle of going through all the Portland NALP firms and making a spreadsheet of where all the younger associates (graduating 2000 or later, approximately) went to law school.

Any update on this?

[rinkrat19]

I'm in the middle of going through all the Portland NALP firms and making a spreadsheet of where all the younger associates (graduating 2000 or later, approximately) went to law school.

Any update on this?

I have one firm left to go through. Unfortunately, it's Tonkon Torp. Big firm.

[un-vordox]

You found this data on nalp.org?

[rinkrat19]

You found this data on nalp.org?

Haha, no.

I used the NALP search for a list of Portland firms. (There are obviously a lot more firms, mid-and small-law, but NALP seems like a good place to start since NALP follows the rules for OCI and such.)

Then I went to each firm's site, did a search for lawyers in the Portland office, and went through all the profiles to find people who graduated in 2000 or later. It's not perfect. Some firms don't list grad year so I was approximating by their photo and possible clues in their bio.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... nItVU90VkE

My classifications of 'honors' is a little iffy, too. I counted Latin honors, named scholarships, and even (sometimes) Dean's List, but there's no guarantee I was consistent. Some firms don't list honors and/or journals, or were inconsistent.

[crit_racer]

Thanks for doing this, rinkrat. Glad to see UT has 3 associates working in PDX. I am gonna be bombing the city hard with mass mailings as it is probably my #1 choice market

[rinkrat19]

Thanks for doing this, rinkrat. Glad to see UT has 3 associates working in PDX. I am gonna be bombing the city hard with mass mailings as it is probably my #1 choice market

I'll be class of 2015 at Northwestern and definitely mass-mailing the Portland market to try and come home. Fortunately my ties are as deep as they come (lived here for 25 years, family here, went to UG in-state, own a house here).