The Best (And Worst) New York Law Schools For Biglaw Jobs
Which schools open the most Biglaw doors?
Whenever an undergrad asks me about choosing the right law school to get a Biglaw job in New York, I always say the same thing: “Go to a T14 law school — preferably Harvard, NYU, or Columbia for proximity’s sake — or go to a lower-tier school in New York and graduate in the top of your class.” It’s simply not true that, say, a St. John’s grad is locked out of Biglaw. The firms take the top folks from the local schools every year. It’s just that it’s a lot easier road to be an above-average NYU grad than a superstar at St. John’s.
But one tipster has gone through and actually broken down how many students from each New York area school are landing at specific Biglaw firms. Here’s the methodology:
I scoured the websites of Cravath, S&C, DPW, Skadden, STB, Cleary, PW, Debevoise, Latham, and K&E (Weil’s website made it impractical to include them), and saw how many associates they each currently employ from Brooklyn, Columbia, Cardozo, Fordham, Hofstra, NYLS, NYU, Pace, Rutgers, Seton Hall, St. Johns. Since I was mainly interested in recent placement, I kept the list to associates only (no partners, counsel, etc). My goal was to see how successful each school has been at placing students at these top firms, and if you’re really that much better off paying more to go to a better school (spoiler alert: you are).
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Obviously there’s room for human error here, but it does give us a general snapshot. So let’s see what this inquiry turned up. First, Cravath:
| Cravath | Associates |
| Brooklyn | 2 |
| Columbia | 76 |
| Cardozo | 1 |
| Fordham | 18 |
| Hofstra | 0 |
| New York Law | 1 |
| NYU | 45 |
| Pace | 0 |
| Rutgers | 2 |
| Seton Hall | 0 |
| St. John’s | 4 |
Next we have Sullivan & Cromwell…
| S&C | Associates |
| Brooklyn | 6 |
| Columbia | 60 |
| Cardozo | 1 |
| Fordham | 12 |
| Hofstra | 0 |
| New York Law | 4 |
| NYU | 42 |
| Pace | 1 |
| Rutgers | 0 |
| Seton Hall | 1 |
| St. John’s | 3 |
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Oof. Hofstra’s still not on the board. Maybe next one…
| Davis Polk | Associates |
| Brooklyn | 9 |
| Columbia | 76 |
| Cardozo | 6 |
| Fordham | 17 |
| Hofstra | 2 |
| New York Law | 0 |
| NYU | 67 |
| Pace | 0 |
| Rutgers | 2 |
| Seton Hall | 0 |
| St. John’s | 5 |
Hurray for Hofstra! A fairly even split between Columbia and NYU here. Not so of our next firm, Skadden…
| Skadden | Associates |
| Brooklyn | 14 |
| Columbia | 105 |
| Cardozo | 3 |
| Fordham | 23 |
| Hofstra | 0 |
| New York Law | 3 |
| NYU | 65 |
| Pace | 0 |
| Rutgers | 0 |
| Seton Hall | 1 |
| St. John’s | 2 |
Hofstra’s back to the outside looking in. But holy hell, that Columbia advantage over NYU! It’s like these people just don’t understand how superior NYU is…
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| Cleary | Associates |
| Brooklyn | 7 |
| Columbia | 77 |
| Cardozo | 7 |
| Fordham | 5 |
| Hofstra | 2 |
| New York Law | 6 |
| NYU | 83 |
| Pace | 0 |
| Rutgers | 2 |
| Seton Hall | 0 |
| St. John’s | 0 |
Of course my old firm has a soft spot for my school. Spoiler, this will be the only Biglaw firm in this sample with more NYU than Columbia grads…
| Simpson Thacher | Associates |
| Brooklyn | 7 |
| Columbia | 46 |
| Cardozo | 3 |
| Fordham | 16 |
| Hofstra | 1 |
| New York Law | 1 |
| NYU | 35 |
| Pace | 0 |
| Rutgers | 0 |
| Seton Hall | 6 |
| St. John’s | 8 |
How’s it going at Paul Weiss?
| Paul Weiss | Associates |
| Brooklyn | 8 |
| Columbia | 87 |
| Cardozo | 19 |
| Fordham | 19 |
| Hofstra | 0 |
| New York Law | 17 |
| NYU | 79 |
| Pace | 2 |
| Rutgers | 1 |
| Seton Hall | 1 |
| St. John’s | 5 |
The lesson we’re seeing is Hofstra may not be the easiest place to go if you’re looking to get into this market. Next, the former home of my Above the Law colleague Elie Mystal…
| Debevoise | Associates |
| Brooklyn | 12 |
| Columbia | 52 |
| Cardozo | 16 |
| Fordham | 6 |
| Hofstra | 1 |
| New York Law | 5 |
| NYU | 40 |
| Pace | 1 |
| Rutgers | 10 |
| Seton Hall | 3 |
| St. John’s | 12 |
Wow. Debevoise has a lot more love for Brooklyn and St. John’s than its peers. If you’re going to one of those schools, definitely hit up the firm’s sponsored events for some networking.
Now for last year’s highest grossing law firm…
| Latham | Associates |
| Brooklyn | 2 |
| Columbia | 62 |
| Cardozo | 2 |
| Fordham | 21 |
| Hofstra | 5 |
| New York Law | 0 |
| NYU | 53 |
| Pace | 0 |
| Rutgers | 1 |
| Seton Hall | 1 |
| St. John’s | 4 |
Finally, we have Kirkland…
| Kirkland | Associates |
| Brooklyn | 5 |
| Columbia | 64 |
| Cardozo | 12 |
| Fordham | 17 |
| Hofstra | 2 |
| New York Law | 1 |
| NYU | 44 |
| Pace | 0 |
| Rutgers | 1 |
| Seton Hall | 0 |
| St. John’s | 2 |
In case you were wondering how that all totals up, we have that from our hard-working tipster too:
| Law School | Associates |
| Columbia | 705 |
| NYU | 553 |
| Fordham | 152 |
| Brooklyn | 72 |
| Cardozo | 70 |
| St. John’s | 45 |
| New York Law | 38 |
| Rutgers | 19 |
| Hofstra | 13 |
| Seton Hall | 13 |
| Pace | 4 |
Use this information wisely. It’s not as though someone has to land at these sample firms to have a sterling legal career. But if you’re mulling over that law school decision and want to work in the elite tier of the legal industry, this should help guide you.
Joe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.
