joexc07

I've heard that the demand for lawyers isn't keeping up with the amount of people going to law school. I've heard that a lot of people are ending up becoming the injury lawyers you always see on the cheap commercials on TV to be able to make a decent living. I have no idea if this is true or not, so I thought I'd see if anyone on here knows. If I don't go to a top law school, am I going to have trouble finding a decent job?

Milton Roark

When one says that the demand hasn't kept up with the supply, it is mostly true for lawyers (Although the "markets" are starting to respond with a recent downturn in law school admissions).
However, not everyone works as PI lawyers for the rest of their life. Many students do take temp work and have a hard time for the first few years. Some then leave the market, and others eventually find their way into firms. If you do go to a top school or are on the law review or in the top 10% of your class you can usually find placement at larger firms. To answer your question, at first you will have a hard time finding a lucrative job in law (assuming you do not meet the aforementioned criteria), however, that doesn't mean you will never find a good job in law; it simply means that you'll have to spend more time looking for a way into a firm.

Musil_the_Muse

Milton: Top 10% or law review to get a top job? By "good school" are you referring to top 10 schools?

s1185

Yes, considering how much ls costs:

Hard Case: Job Market Wanes for U.S. Lawyers - WSJ.com

Empirical Legal Studies: Distribution of 2006 Starting Salaries: Best Graphic Chart of the Year

Muffy333

Before going to law school, try to get a job at a law firm so you can see what it's all about before spending the tuition. It isn't for everyone.

bluedevilmike

1.) Depends on how you define "decent" jobs. If your standard is: "doesn't advertise on television," those are pretty easy to get.

2.) Depends on how you define "top." There do exist law schools which are almost certainly not worth attending.

QuixoticRick

I assume that everyone's talking about the T14s.

dg5052

To enhance your chances of getting the job you want, you should do your best to determine in what city or region you want to practice, and pick a law school in that area. With the exception of the top 10 or so law schools, most lawyers practice near where they went to school, which means there will be a lot of alums of your law school nearby. Law alumni networks are typically strong and lawyers like to hire from their alma maters.

Second, and this should be obvious, do as well academically as you can. If your grades are not going to put you at or near the top of the class, you must do something else to stand out--if you think you want to be a litigator, participate in moot court, or take advantage of the many clinical programs law schools now offer--and try to excel.

bluedevilmike

Sometimes people mean Tier 1. Sometimes people mean top 30. Sometimes people include the top of Tier 3, etc.

samonite16

It's idiotic to say that you can't get a biglaw job if you don't go to a T14. I don't claim to know where the 'cutoff' is, but I know it's way lower than that.

Americanski

Unless you're at the top of your class, the answer is probably yes. And there's no way to be sure that you'll be in the top of your class.

For quite a few people, it does mean that they'll never find a good job in law. Some of them will never get jobs with firms, or they'll get-low paying jobs with insurance defense firms.

futurenyustudent

If you go to top10, as long as you're in the top half of your class, biglaw will be banging down your door to get you to to work for them. Biglaw alone gave out ~7,000 offers from a pool of about ~42,000 JDs awarded, and most of the offers went to top10. Total number of top10 students can't be more than 5,000 (Harvard: 550, Yale, 175, Stanford: 175, Chicago: 190, Columbia:400ish, etc. etc.). By the way, that figure gets smaller as people choose to clerk, go into public interest, go to small law, go inhouse, go into IB/Consulting, pursue a LLM, you name it.

Milton Roark

"Milton: Top 10% or law review to get a top job?"
Yes, that is usually the path to get into the "lucrative" jobs I mentioned (for someone who doesn't go to a T14). There are exceptions of course.
Americanski, I admit that some people will never get jobs in firms; however, I was only saying that you can get into a firm even if you don't do it right after graduation (provided you are willing to work hard, are competent and that you can accept rejections throughout the process). I would not suggest it is easier or guaranteed by any means. I apologize for any confusion the statement may have caused.

futurenyustudent

Of course, if your last name is Wachtell, Rosen, Lipton, Katz, Cravath, Swaine, Moore, Sullivan or Cromwell, and your parents happen to be name partners at one of those biglaw firms, you can pretty much go to any law school.

bluedevilmike

The OP still hasn't clarified what he means by a decent job. He might not mean BIGLAW at all.