Lat, you need to do an interview with this guy!

What was his deal? He's not the standard evening law student; he went to school right after college. Did he have to work to support his kids?

Need to know!!!

This is not surprising. Lots of very smart people have to go to a lower ranked school because they can't go full time. I'd like to see this guy's resume -- he probably toughed it out for a few years after graduating and built up a solid rep.

Southwestern is the Brooklyn Law School of Los Angeles. L.A. firms like OMM hire plenty of Southwestern grads, often because of the school's strong entertainment law program. Note this guy does a lot of ent law too.

Lat (re: your last paragraph) - Well, clearly you aren't digging deep enough. There probably remains some Non-Top-Tier 2L sitting in last place thinking, "Dang, I could never be a gazillionaire." It is your public service duty to continue your quest. For the good of us all.

How does Southwestern stack up against the other "directional" law schools in California -- e.g., Cal Western, Western State, Cal Northern, University of West LA and Southern Cal Institute of Law?

I doesn't hurt to be no.1 in your class. Even the previous no.1 from my regional TT school is now a partner at Gibson Dunn. It is possible to go from TT to biglaw, all you need is a 3.95 GPA.

"Directional" law schools...wah? How about the fact that you mention Southwestern, an ABA school in the same tone as Cal Northern, Univ. of West LA, and SoCal Institute, which are CBA (non-ABA) schools. No comparison. Good luck landing a job with the public defender out of the non-ABA schools. Even if you are no.1 in your class.

12:48 - Ha!! You don't get "directional"!!

Didn't he lose the Skilling case to a Tier 1 guy?

"Southwestern is the Brooklyn Law School of Los Angeles. L.A. firms like OMM hire plenty of Southwestern grads, often because of the school's strong entertainment law program. Note this guy does a lot of ent law too."

Please - Loyola is the Brooklyn - solidly tier 2. Very few firms here hire a significant number of Southwestern grads.

"This is the same Petrocelli who brought in the civil verdict against O.J. Simpson"

Wow. He shot fish in a barrel and won a still uncollected, and probably uncollectable, verdict.

Dear Tier 3 cheering section (the person who sent in the rec. on DP) - "From whence" is redundant. "Whence" means "from where." Your sentence says "from from where." If you want to use fancy words, you have to use them properly. - Tier 1

Sadly, 12:48 is right. SoCal Institute sold me a pack of lies. Here is the best job currently on our career services website:

Grocery - Service Deli/ Food Prep/ Dishwasher
Company: Gelson’s Market

Description
Job Description for Service Deli:

We have immediate openings in Calabasas

Gelson's is a full service supermarket which has achieved considerable success by consistently providing high quality products and exceptional customer service that is unparalleled in the industry. We are searching for friendly, highly personable individuals who desire a challenging and rewarding career devoted to superior customer service to join our winning team.

Service Deli Job Function/Description:
Provide a high level of service to Gelson’s customers as follows:

Give every customer immediate and undivided attention

Prepare food, offer samples and recommend products to customers

Properly weigh, package and price items for customer

Maintain a clean and sanitized work area

Assist in keeping refrigerated cases and display shelves properly stocked and faced at all times according to product movement and department standards

Observe and maintain company’s sanitation and food safety standards

Perform duties as assigned by supervision

Requirements
Job Requirements for Service Deli:

Ability to work in a fast pace environment

Available to work flexible hours including weekends

Ability to meet physical job requirements

Must be customer oriented

Ability to excel in a team environment

Benefits:

Flexible schedules

Choice of medical plans after required waiting period

Paid vacation, sick leave and holidays

Credit union membership

Direct deposit of paycheck

Service Award program

Career education program

Discount on store purchases

I hope that SoCal Institute thing is true. Makes me feel alot better as a '07 TT grad sitting in my beverly hills office overlooking rodeo drive while conducting various forms of doc review.

LAT, WHAT ABOUT SPENCER KLEIN... HEAD OF O'MELVENY GLOBAL M&A... AND HOFSTRA LAW GRADUATE....

LAT, WHAT ABOUT SPENCER KLEIN... HEAD OF O'MELVENY GLOBAL M&A... AND HOFSTRA LAW GRADUATE....

This ongoing discussion is ridiculous and getting old. Lots of people who went to non-top tier schools are smart, capable and went on to highly successful careers. I don't doubt that there are as many of them as there are top-tier grads who went on to accomplish zilch or who had mediocre or failed careers despite their flashy creds.

1:06 has this discussion nailed. I mean look at Lat. He is a Yale law grad running a message board for lowly TT, TTT, and TTTT grads. WWHKT - or What would Harold Koh Think?

12:53 lol about which school in cali deserves to be known as the "brooklyn law of the west"

I think the consensus among academics, judges and practitioners is that Loyola is the Rutgers-Newark of the West and Southwestern is the Rutgers-Camden of the West.

what about some federal court of appeals judges? judge william bauer on the 7th circuit went to depaul!

Loyola, Pepperdine, and Southwestern are all the Brooklyns of the west. The biggest one is USD, which does unbelievably well in San Diego, despite being TT, because it's the best school down there.

Geraldo went to Brooklyn!

Just looked up Southwestern on wiki, so take this with a grain of salt. But Marica Clark, the OJ prosecutor also went to Southwestern. Maybe the trial would have proceeded better had Southwestern grads no been involved on both the criminal and civil side. After all, it seems that neither southwestern grad, Clark or Petrocelli, garnered retribution for their clients. So sad.

1:31 - Shouldn't they have cancelled each other out?

Who wants to speculate as to why is Lat is avoiding covering Clarence Thomas's new book and the resumption of the battle between Thomas and Anita Hill?

1:42 - Maybe because Lat is Clarence Thomas? Conspiracy theories abound.

LAT, what about Bob DeJoy, head of Baker & McKenzie's NY tax group and rumored to be #1 grossing attorney for Baker in the world.

Albany Law grad.

1:42: Probably because nobody who reads ATL cares about that stuff?

Every time Lat does SCOTUS stuff, the post gets about eight comments (half of which are people telling him they're bored and want him to go back to salary coverage).

Lat, nobody asked for your caveat, so keep it to yourself. Three cheers for the third-tier?

. . . and the other half are "first" posts.

The entire concept of "look, a person has had a decent career and he didn't go to Yale" is pretty disgusting.

There are a lot of students studying at middle-of-the-road places and your post is insult to their hard work.

So take the smarm down a peg and maybe this site will last another year without "NY to 190" posts driving your hits up.

1:49: Didn't David Addington attend Duke Law School?

"The entire concept of 'look, a person has had a decent career and he didn't go to Yale' is pretty disgusting."

I would have used "rather condescending" instead of "pretty disgusting."

But to each his own.

Yeah, I agree with 1:52. Guys like Petrocelli should be ignored completely. Let's get back to kissing the feet of H-Y-S graduates.

Thanks 2:02, you pedantic punk.

Don't mind me, I'm just bored.

1:31 - Shouldn't they have cancelled each other out?

No. It squares the amount of mediocrity

And Lat is not an asshole. "Hard work" simply means substantially less at TTTs (the market has certainly spoken on this point...). Lat is proving that legal success is available to the entire profession, despite this.

Take the chip off your shoulder, work hard, and maybe you will snap up a decent LLM.

Lat: Please do a story on law schools w/ night or part-time programs.

This ongoing discussion is ridiculous and getting old. Lots of people who went to non-top tier schools are smart, capable and went on to highly successful careers. I don't doubt that there are as many of them as there are top-tier grads who went on to accomplish zilch or who had mediocre or failed careers despite their flashy creds.

Posted by: Lawyer | October 2, 2007 01:06 PM

Correct except there is very little doubt that there are more, not as many, top tier grads (T14s) with zilch careers.

Let's face it, if you need to talk up your t14 degree and post insults on a website devoted to law gossip, you are a loser, no matter what your degree and first job and you are destined for zerohood.

I second 2:23's statement. Kudos.

"you are destined for zerohood."

I would agree with this if we lived in a world where what you get equals what you deserve. I'm not too sure how closely reality resembles such a world. I'll get back to you all when I have a better idea. Good luck to everyone in the meantime.

gobledygook

isnt the point, though, that this guy would have zero chance of getting a job with OMM if he were a 2L today?

Next. First in his class and EIC of law review? He probably could have transferred to a T14 if he had the desire. He must have gone there for a scholarship/family reasons or something like that--not everyone who can go to a top school does. He does not count as a TTT lawyer.

I think in the spirit of 01:06 PM's comment, you should start a thread about "top-tier" grads, who went on to be losers: from 2nd in class in UPenn to hobo. Now that would be entertainment!

The point of what???

Annie, see post at 2:23.

How many e-mails do you think this guy gets a day from SW Law students looking to get hooked up?

You should do a post on Rico Petrocelli.

2:48 --

Really? This guy would have "zero chance" of getting a job with OMM if he were a 2L today? That firm may not do OCI at his school, but I'd be willing to bet he'd get an interview if he wrote directly.

2:55(1) --

There's no probably about it. This guy definitely could have transferred to a T14.

3:14--the guy probably went PT for a reason, such has having to also hold down a FT job. how many t14 schools can accomodate that schedule?

Latsisanasshole for Jesus!

Re" Cla'ence Thomas. Because Lat is an ultraliberal and would prefer to cover Hillary Clinton than Clarence Thomas. Thomas is the ultraliberal whipping boy (no pun intended). Liberals just cannot fathom how a black man can be a conservative. They translate this confusion into hatred. I suppose that independent political thought is not enumerated under their "penumbra of rights" concoction with respect to Thomas.

Just imagine what this Petrocelli guy would be doing if he had gone T1. He probably would have founded Google or won the presidency from Dubya in 04.

Nonsense- Most T-14 people I know are laboring away working insane hours and developing no real skills. My T3 friend readily admits he would like to start his own practice but all he knows how to do is shuffle paper on huge corporate deals. After 6 years working in Big Law he has the skill set of a paralegal. T14 can get you a good 1st job but after that you have to do it on your own- your time as an overpriced paper shuffler is limited- you wither demonstrate real skill or you are out the door-not matter WHERE you went to school.

Lat is a conservative you Douche..

Feature Spencer Klein of OMM.

A shout-out to night school deserves three exclamation marks?

Seriously, get over that. By my count two thirds of all patent prosecutors and likely half of the patent litigators went to night school. They had real jobs and weren't about to give them up - and get into debt for law school.

point is that these examples of TTT partners is silly because they would not get hired today by their firms as law students. I assume most came via the lateral ranks ...

12:12 you are correct. Petrocelli lateraled into OMM.

Question re: Petrocelli's bio. If he graduated first in his class, why wasn't he summa?