National Jurist - September 2007 - (Page 32)

100 NALP firms, a sharp contrast and a surprising result for many law students. The reality that 50 percent of all interviews take place at such a small percent of the nation’s law schools, and that the vast majority of associates at large law firms get started through on-campus interviews, highlights the exclusivity and importance of the process. “At a lesser ranked school, it’s a really tough thing to get your foot in the door [with large employers],” said Ruth Lammert-Reeves, who oversaw admissions and financial aid at Georgetown for 28 years before retiring this year. But while a law school’s prestige ranking is an important factor, it is not the only factor that determines where the big firms interview. The ELITE law schools Students at the traditional elite law schools certainly have more choices. Many law firms consult U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings, and frequent the schools at the top of the chart. In fact, 21 of the top 25 schools where large law firms interview are also in the top 25 of U.S. News & World Report’s rankings, which are largely determined by reputation and employment placement rate. Yet, there are some stark differences. Yale Law School, for example, ranks at the top of the academic charts but only 18th on the list of schools where firms interview, perhaps as a result of its smaller class size and slightly more remote location than many of the other schools on the list. Howard University ranks 8th in terms of interviews, but far lower in U.S. News & World Report’s rankings. And Georgetown University, at number one for interviews, is only 14th in U.S. News. After prestige, location appears to be the second strongest factor in terms of number of employers who interview onsite. More law firms are located in Washington, D.C., and New York City, and schools in those regions fare much better in the ranking. Powell Goldstein, for instance, visited about 16 law schools during the 20062007 school year, all of them in the Atlanta and Washington, D.C. areas. Troutman Sanders similarly visited law schools in just a handful of metropolitan cities, all of them correlating with the firm’s own locations. Seventeen of the top 25 schools on the list are located in seven of the nation’s eight largest metropolitan areas — Washington, D.C., Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Law firms are also more likely to interview at larger law schools. The top 25 schools on the list average 983 students, while all law schools average just 722. But size, location and prestige alone do not explain the big differences. For some schools, other factors make a big difference — including reputation and sheer hard work — as evidenced by University of Detroit Mercy’s recent efforts (see story on page 36). Where law firms interview Hundreds of law firms interview law students each fall through on campus interviews. To determine where law firms are more likely to visit, we tabulated the number of NALPmember law firms that interview on campus. This does not represent all law firms that interview on a given campus, but it is a good indicator for the number of large law firms. Law school state DC VA MI MA NY NY DC DC NC PA IL IL CA TN CA NY TX CT CA NY IN MA CA MA CA #firms 280 245 226 223 206 196 188 184 183 179 167 166 161 155 152 149 136 129 122 121 115 112 104 104 102 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 23 25 Georgetown University Law Center University of Virginia School of Law University of Michigan Law School Harvard Law School New York University Columbia University School of Law The George Washington University Law School Howard University School of Law Duke Law School University of Pennsylvania Law School Northwestern University School of Law The University of Chicago Law School Univ. of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall) Vanderbilt University Law School Stanford Law School Fordham Law School The University of Texas School of Law Yale Law School UCLA School of Law Cornell Law School University of Notre Dame Law School Boston University School of Law University of Southern California Gould School of Law Boston College Law School University of California, Hastings College of the Law For schools 26-180 go to www.NJPLonline.com. Source: We tabulated the numbers at www.nalpdirectory.com in May. We searched by campus interviews, and then counted the number of law firms for each school. We counted each firm only once, even if they had multiple offices interviewing at that school. We did not include non-law firms in the final counts. NALP is the National Association for Law Placement, a non-profit organization that promotes the exchange of information between law schools and employers. NALP does not approve of the tabulation and ranking of law schools based on the number of its members that interview on campus. 32 THE NATIONAL JURIST September 2007 http://www.njplonline.com http://www.nalpdirectory.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of National Jurist - September 2007

National Jurist - September 2007 Contents Free Speech Disturbing the Peace For the Record Judge Approves $49 million BAR/BRI Settlement Law School Causes Emotional Stress, Study Finds New Textbook Breaks the Mold Southern Illinois Settles Lawsuit with Christian Legal Society Ave Maria Law Professors Protest School’s Move The Firm Report Student Hoax Shuts Down Hastings Law NCCU Grad Expands Her Program for Troubled Kids Hawaii Grad Finds Excitement in Saving Whales Diversity Hampering Whittier Accreditation? The Paper Chase Chronicles The Supreme Court: An Insider’s View Detroit Mercy’s Innovative Changes Pay Off Career Hotline The J.D. Files

National Jurist - September 2007

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