Brooklyn Law School

While Brooklyn has some great opportunities, it is incumbent on the student, for the most part, to make the effort to seize them. I think this is probably good advice in the current state of the legal industry, no matter where one goes to school. Also, frankly, attending Brooklyn or a similarly ranked school (Cardozo, NY Law School, etc.) this year and paying full ticket price is a highly risky investment — not one that I would recommend.

Alumni

A handful of people will get a good enough job that makes it possible to pay back student loans. The rest of us, well, good luck. All we get is a lifetime of crushing debt. While the Career Center actually cares and does its best, they can’t make jobs appear. The school is also vastly overpriced. It is a good *academic* education, but not a very practical one.

Alumni

Be in the top 10% and in a journal after your first year or drop out and cut your losses. That is if you went to school in order to get a job that could pay your loans. When I graduated the Career Services offices only cared about the easy to place top 10%. Everyone else was told to try the internet or given nebulous advice to network.

Alumni

Brooklyn Law School is a Job. Its not college part II. You go to school, study and go home. Don’t expect social life, don;t expect to make many friends. The job networking is not great, but the location near the Courts provides a self-starter with plenty of opportunity to find jobs. They do good at getting adjunct professors who are experienced practitioners, not just theorists.

Alumni

Brooklyn Law School teaches you how to be a practicing attorney. It’s not a stepping stone to a career in politics, business, or entertainment, although you certainly can go into those fields – it primarily teaches you the fundamentals you need to know to be an effective advocate for clients and how to represent them zealously. Jobs are available to BLS graduates with very good grades at top-tier Big Law firms, but most of the graduates will end up at mid-size or small practices. In either case, if you are good enough to get into and graduate from BLS, you are very likely good enough to pass the NY Bar and become a very good lawyer for clients.

Alumni

I was an evening student working full time at a law firm while going to school. Services such as career counseling, financial aid and social events were not geared towards evening students. If a potential applicant is planning on going to evening school he/she should be prepared to be left out of such events.

Alumni

It can be a really fun place to go to school, but it is expensive as hell. Great location, good professors, lots of fun, but may be too pricey for its ranking. Dean Wexler leavess something to be desired. She also referred to as Sexy Wex for god knows what reason. Oh and the school is being sued for fishing numbers a secret that was fairly well known to most on campus.

Alumni

It is useless, and do not go unless you a) go for free and b) have previous, SUBSTANTIVE work experience prior to law school. Otherwise, unless you get straight A’s, you will not have much of a desirable career.

Alumni

Very unfair setup for 1Ls: In the 1st semester, they group all the scholarship recipients in separate class sections from regular students (each section has its own curve so the scholarship recipients necessarily have more losses in aid than if they were spread throughout all sections). Thereafter in the spring 1L semester, they allow part-time evening students (including those who never even had a job and got in part-time with lower LSAT scores, since they cluster all evening student incomers into a separate part-time section to screw over scholarship recipients and game the USNews rankings since they dont get counted into median/avg incoming scores) to transfer into the regular sections with full-timers while remaining part-time and having NO JOB. Needless to say, this allows them a HUGE competitive advtange since they take much fewer credits and have much MORE time to study. I’m not sure if the above explanation makes sense or adequately describes the complete unfair practices to screw over scholarship recipients while gaming the USN rankings at the same time, but in any case I think BLS is the only school that does this. Any non-BLS grad I’ve spoken to was completely incredulous that they allow part-time day students w/ no jobs to compete with full-timers. Also, on a general sentiment, BLS is known to be particularly competitive and gunner-ific. FWIW, I am gainfully employed and make a good salary so I’m not an embittered unemployed grad trolling here.

Alumni

When I graduated in 2006 tuition was 33,000 a year. within six years it rose to 48,000 a year. This is a scam that would make Madoff proud.

Alumni

While Brooklyn has some great opportunities, it is incumbent on the student, for the most part, to make the effort to seize them. I think this is probably good advice in the current state of the legal industry, no matter where one goes to school. Also, frankly, attending Brooklyn or a similarly ranked school (Cardozo, NY Law School, etc.) this year and paying full ticket price is a highly risky investment — not one that I would recommend.

Alumni

If you are not top 10% of the class, forget about BigLaw and forget about your career counselor: YOU are your career counseler and have to go make it happen.

Alumni

I graduated in 2002. While I was there, I was satisfied with the quality of professors and generally with the school. However, nearing graduation, I felt that the career services office only cared about the top 10% who already had jobs. Also at time that I was applying there were some shady job placement statistics.

Alumni

BLS’ best asset is its location. Work connections, take classes with adjuncts and push your way into as many clinical programs as possible. The career services dept doesn’t work hard unless you’re top 5% but a hustler can make it happen. And always push back on your financial aid package – everyone who does gets more.

I practiced at a Vault-5 firm for five years and then moved in-house. I loved law school at Brooklyn, and I am a success story. However, if you want a similar career trajectory to my own, you will need to be in the top 2% of your graduating class.

Alumni