Case Western Reserve Law
Insider Reviews
from students and alumni of case-western-law
I had a great experience but now I’m struggling to reconcile that with the debt I had to take out. I’d recommend the school highly IF the job market wasn’t so terrible (and if it weren’t so expensive).
Alumni
The law school emphasizes practical training. Most of the faculty are excellent teachers who prioritize students. The student body is shallow, immature and conservative.
Alumni
Career services is a joke.
Alumni
The faculty was engaged with the students and always willing to talk about the law, courses, careers, etc. All you had to do was ask. The training and education was top notch and I know my career options and paths were set by the education and support I received.
Alumni
Give Cleveland a try. It’s really not that terrible! I work in Consulting now in San Francisco; and despite what all the naysayers go on about—a JD is a great help in the job market. Some of that value is tangible, in what jobs you get; but an equally important amount is the intangible benefit. Having a JD from a good school often imputes greater authority and respect on you as an employee right from the start. And from the consulting perspective—it is exactly like practicing law. You listen to people for what seems an eternity, and continue asking questions—until you find out what their actual problem is. Not the one they came into your office asking about. These are skills that are valuable in any professional setting, and one of the most important things that law school teaches.
Alumni
Administration is going through a transition, with a brand-new dean after years of an interim and a failed dean search. As such, there exists a great deal of missed communication and disorganization in the administration. At Case, you’ll be just a number in the larger pool of students.
2L
[Begin rant] I’ve met plenty of students from T14 schools… they’re not much smarter or hard working than those of us way down here in the 60′s just more pretentious, well-connected, or lucky. I wish firms would give students from lower-ranked schools more of a chance (though I understand the difficulties of screening thousands of applications). I was mocked in an interview at a top NY firm because my school gave out a class rank. Apparently schools with grades are too plebeian for Big Law. I spent last summer interning for federal appellate judge (a position I got based on merit) and spent too much time fixing up the work of a Georgetown 2L who got the position because his uncle was a former clerk [end rant]. / Case is a good school with a good mix of practical clinical experience and legal philosophy. It doesn’t have the social scene of a New York school, or the superstar professors of HYS. Really outside those issues, the only really criticism is not of the school itself but the fact that the legal community doesn’t take us or the many other similarly ranked quality schools seriously. Shame in USNWR.
2L
Case Western Reserve University utterly fails at providing real diversity in the school. To my knowledge, we have no full-time tenure track minority professors (except for Prof. Raymond Ku). The University has been shutting down its law centers, including the Center for Social Justice. It is grasping to regain its rankings by having a blinding focus on business law and forsaking all other fields of legal study. / / Although many of our professors are passionate about the law and dedicated to their students, the administration and certain alumni seem to be intent on creating a school with a myopic focus on business law. This is particularly disheartening when most of those big law firm jobs that the school is trying to attract will not even entertain applicants from our second tier program. / / Also, don’t attempt to go to career services for guidance in job searchers that don’t involve big firms, legal aid, or the prosecutors office. Their heads seem to implode if you ask a question which isn’t on their FAQs sheet.
2L
Must make law review to even participate in OCI (and law review only takes the top 20 students–only 2 people write-on. Top 20 students are usually 3.7 or above). Even though Cleveland has large firms (Squires, Jones, Baker, etc) it seems like they only hire Case students as a courtesy and, of course, only the top students.
2L
At first your classmates will all seem really weird, but eventually you’ll find your niche. Some people don’t realize they’re not at a top 12 school though and act extremely pretentious, hopefully first semester grades will bring that down a bit.
2L
It’s an incredibly risky bet unless you have a substantial scholarship and/or very good connections that could lead to employment. It’s very much a regional school, regardless of what the admissions people will tell you. The name is good in Ohio, but recognition is low elsewhere. The school is making up for declines in enrollment by massively increasing the Asian LLM student presence. There is a weird culture here, and some resentment between the American and LLM populations.
2L
