Biglaw, Job Searches, Law Schools, Money

Non-Top-Tier Law Schools: Better Know A District Market

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As we mentioned on Friday, due to the popularity of Non-Top-Tier Law School Week, we’ve extended it to include all of this week. We will continue to explore — and to challenge — the following claim:

Even if times might be great for Biglaw shops and the top-tier grads they hire, it’s hard out here for graduates of non-elite law schools (especially those not at the top of their class).

The thesis was articulated last week in this post, based on this Wall Street Journal article.
This latest post falls on the “challenge” side of the ledger. Several readers have emailed us to point out that, in essence, not all non-top-tier schools are created equal. Geography — i.e., presence in (or proximity to) a strong legal market, especially one without many top law schools to compete with — makes a big difference.
What do we mean by all this? Find out, after the jump.


From one correspondent:

[You should] invite comments on how geography affects the job prospects of non-top-tier grads. For example, I recently graduated from a second-tier law school in Texas. In my class, eight (or maybe nine) of us got federal district clerkships, one is clerking for the 5th Circuit, one for the Texas Supreme Court, and I think another for a US Magistrate Judge. We also have some grads clerking for various state appellate courts.

I am also aware of classmates outside the top 1/3 who just started work at BigTex firms. Everyone I know who was in the top quarter is working at a BigTex firm.

All of that is a long-winded way of saying that the job prospects for my class were not awful. At least not to the extent that your recent coverage would indicate the case to be for non-top-tier schools.

And why is that? Geography may play a role:

I attribute that good fortune in large part to the lack of top-tier law schools in the area. Sure, UT is an excellent school, but there isn’t another top-tier school anywhere close to here. Vanderbilt would probably be the closest (or Wash U maybe). Thus, it is easier, I think, for a non-top-tier grad such as myself than it is for a graduate of, say, St. John’s, who has to compete with graduates from Harvard, Yale, Columbia, etc. I’m sure similar difficulties exist for non-top-tier graduates in Chicago and L.A.

So I think it would be interesting to break down how graduates from non-top-tier students fare in (off the top of my head) Dallas, Houston, Denver, and Miami, versus how non-top-tier graduates from the NYC, Chicago, D.C., L.A., or San Francisco areas do.

Sorry for the length, but I wanted to fully explain my thoughts. Keep up the good work!

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Interesting. Amd one could also argue the flip-side: if you’re attending a non-top-tier law school in a top-tier legal market, there are more employers available to apply to. As law firms find it harder and harder to recruit exclusively at top-tier law schools, they’re going deeper and deeper into the classes of non-top-tier law schools located in top-tier markets (e.g., Brooklyn, Cardozo, etc.).
Another take on the geography issue, from a second reader:

To the Seton Hall guy from the WSJ story who’s becoming an electrician…. gimme a break. Even at a small New Jersey firm doing personal injury work, you can eventually work your way up to a decent living. Yes, you may have to start out at $50k…..but if it’s not working out, you hang your own shingle after a few years of experience under your belt. How ’bout some initiative before succumbing to a manual labor job?

This tipster continues:

I’m top 20 percent (probably just made Law Review by the skin of my teeth last year). A survey of the rising 3L’s on Law Review this past summer showed these results:

— 15 summered at AmLaw 100 “BigLaw” firms (including Sullivan & Cromwell, Shearman, Davis Polk, Latham, etc).

— Another 5 summered at big regional-type firms (200-400 lawyer), where they’ll start in the $125k-$145k range.

— Another 5 worked at large (100-200 lawyer) NJ firms, where they’ll start in the $110-$120k range.

— 3 worked in gov’t type jobs (Prosecutor’s Office, etc) though surely could have worked in the private sector.

Perhaps Seton Hall isn’t the “typical” 2nd Tier school b/c of proximity to NYC, but in any event, at a large NJ firm, partners bring home $500k+/year. Not to shabby, and the hours aren’t NY crazy. So maybe BigLaw isn’t the end-all-be-all, and going to a 2nd Tier school isn’t the end of the world.

Well-put. We may be biased, ’cause it’s our home state, but partners in big New Jersey law firms do quite nicely for themselves. Our source concludes:

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My friends in the middle-half-percentile tell me they’re pretty pissed about the help they got from Career Services at Seton Hall, which is clearly geared towards placing the top 10 percent in BigLaw NYC firms. Having said that, although cost-of-living is high in NJ and Seton Hall is expensive, I think even a middle-of-the-pack student here can make a decent living when they get out. Clerk, work at a Prosecutor’s Office for a few years, etc… There are many ways to “get there.”

Thoughts? Are these two readers right to point out that life isn’t that bleak for non-top-tier graduates, provided that they’re in a good part of the country or legal market? Or are they just a pair of pollyannas?

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