"Yes and no. The higher the rank of your law school, the easier it is to be recruited by the larger firms. However, once you have a job in any firm, your success depends on how good a lawyer and person you are," said Larry B. Sitton of Smith Moore LLP, who graduated cum laude from Wake Forest University in the 60s. As the reputation of Wake Forest has improved over the years, he said it has benefited him.
That's one reason to take pride in your school and help make it a better one. Unfortunately, some people at SWLAW will never get it.
Adrian Pruetz, a partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges LLP and co-chair of Quinn Emanuel's intellectual property litigation practice,... agrees that those who graduate from a top-tier law school, especially with a high class rank, do have access to more career opportunities. However, she said that what an attorney does with these opportunities will determine their level of success.
"I went to a law school generally ranked in the third tier, so in terms of prestige, it did not contribute to my career success. However, I received an excellent legal education there, as well as opportunities for extracurricular activities, such as moot court and serving as a legal extern, that certainly provided me with the tools to achieve a successful career," said Ms. Pruetz, who graduated magna cum laude from Marquette University Law School. She has a long list of achievements, including being named "Top 50 Women Litigators," 2003 and 2004, by The Daily Journal and a "Super Lawyer" by Los Angeles Magazine. Representative clients include Genentech, Gap, Nike, Avery Dennison, Kaiser Permanente, and Mattel.
It's good to see that graduates of third tier schools can be really successful. Of course, Marquette is now a second tier school, which goes to support the idea that students should do what they can to help SWLAW move up the rankings. A good start would be having all the 3Ls take the bar exam seriously.
"Graduating from a top law school with good grades gets you an audition for your first job and maybe with a few clients early in your career," said John Gartman, a trial lawyer and Managing Partner at Fish and Richardson's 55-lawyer San Diego office. Gartman is responsible for hiring the majority of partners in his firm.
"If you didn't go to a great law school, then you'd better have awesome grades to get your foot in the door. After that, it's talent, passion, personality, and drive," said Mr. Gartman, a graduate of the University of Texas, who was named one of the top 25 intellectual property attorneys in California by Daily Journal and as one of America's Leading Business Lawyers by Chambers USA. Gartman's representative clients include Intel, Microsoft, and Marconi.
What if I don't have those awesome grades? Is it ever possible to get my foot in the door?
"The bottom-line advice I would offer is this: go to the best school to which you are admitted and do as well as you can academically. All this will help in landing the first job. After that, it's what you individually can bring to the marketplace," said Mr. Wiley.
2 comments:
I think a good start would be to get the 3Ls to care about anything besides themselves. Actually, fuck the third years, the turn around will have to start with a different class.
It looks like the graduating class of 2006 will be that class.
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