<p>Lets say after getting your bachelor degree,you decided not to get 2-4 years of work experience and go straight to law school.And guess what?You made it into one of the top 50 law schools in the country.
After finishing law school will having not full time job experience really hurt your chances of getting a well paid a job(by really hurting i mean your chances will be very slim to none)(by well paid i mean 100k+)?</p>
<p>This depends on where you go to school. The only schools where you are more likely to make over a 100k than not are the t13 schools in the country. Every school below Cornell has more people getting paid 50k than 160k, and at most it’s significantly more. A Top50 school like American will only have 10-15% of their grads make 100k+ after graduation. But even at a top13 school, the consensus is work experience does definitely help with the big firm jobs but grades are still what matters the most. But you are likely to make 50k coming out of any school in the country that is outside of the top13.</p>
<p>do you know what it actually consists of being a lawyer? there are plenty of threads in the law school forum that should give you an indication of how oversatuated the industry is, and not going to a top14 school will be a disadvantage.
the last thing you want to do is go to law school, and then realize that you hate the job of being a lawyer, or that you end up sacrificing significant experiences because those student loans need to get repayed and you need a job.
have you considered working at a law firm and actually seeing first hand what being a lawyer consists of?
assuming you still like it enjoy it, perhaps you’d have a better shot at returning as a lawyer, once you finish your law school degree, to work for that law firm you worked at right after undergrad</p>
<p>When you say top 13 you mean in general or the type of law counts?Because harvard is in the top 10 of almost any law except for environmental and schools like Pace and Vermont are in the top 3 for environmental law.</p>
<p>Also a question completely different from the topic-Can someone please give me a website that shows all law programs that can be studies in usa?</p>
<p>Speciality rankings are useless and mean absolutely nothing. I mean Top 13 of overall rankings because that is all that will matter. Basically, the only schools that offer an equal too or better then 50% chance of a six figure job are Cornell, Northwestern, Duke, Michigan, Virginia, Berkeley, Penn, NYU, Chicago, Columbia, Stanford, Harvard, and Yale. </p>
<p>And all law programs? Basically everyone at these schools will get the same 1st year curriculum and then you can pick some classes your second and third year. But what you take won’t really matter in getting hired. You can make sure to take a certain set of classes to get a concentration at some schools but you’ll have to look at schools websites. But these concentrations don’t mean anything in terms of hiring.</p>
<p>Patriot not to discourage your answers-I am very greatful for them but i just did some research and even in law schools that are ranked 50 and below,85%+ students find law related jobs after 9 month of graduation.Plus i honestly cant believe that a person lets say with environmental law degree from Vermont law school and 3.5+ GPA wont be able to find a job that pays at least 80k a year from start.People that finish law school have 2 degrees(bachelors and law)and had to go through 7 Years of schooling.The situation must be better than you described.</p>
<p>There have been plenty articles about law schools lying about employment rate after graduation. Lots of schools include anyone with ANY job in this. There have been cases where schools count someone working part-time at Starbucks in that figure.</p>
<p>Future, unfortunately that is just not the case. What you need to do is read through the threads on this site and others which offer the real story. You may not want to believe it but it is the reality of the legal industry. The VAST majority of legal jobs pay between 40-60k starting out. A few pay between 60-135, but not many. And then the next biggest subset is between 135-175. Unfortunately, to have a change at those high paying jobs it is almost a prerequisite that you go to one of the top 13 schools in the country. To get a job like that at Vermont you will have to be one of the top 10 students in the class. I know that this is surprising for a lot of people to first find out but it is the truth.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>No. Indeed, it is worse. Less than half the 2Ls at Georgetown, Cornell, Northwestern, and Michigan secured $160K jobs this year at OCI (on-campus interviewing). Even at Boalt and UChicago–both unquestionably top 10 schools–OCI was a bloodbath compared to previous years. </p>
<p>Because of the bimodal distribution of salaries in law, not getting a $160K job means you’re stuck making a little over $50K. And that is assuming you’re lucky enough to find a job (hardly a guarantee). Keep in mind too that the distribution posted in this thread is from 2007–before the recession.</p>
<p>See, e.g., [Scamblogs</a> Get Some Mainstream Media Attention](<a href=“Scamblogs Get Some Mainstream Media Attention - Above the Law”>Scamblogs Get Some Mainstream Media Attention - Above the Law)</p>
<p>Indeed, see this post describing employment prospects at Emory–a top 25 school. [Emory</a> Law Student Lament: We don’t need donuts, we need jobs.](<a href=“Emory Law Student Lament: 'We don’t need donuts, we need jobs.' - Above the Law”>Emory Law Student Lament: 'We don’t need donuts, we need jobs.' - Above the Law)</p>
<p>Whoa. Amazing article here.</p>
<p><a href=“http://abovethelaw.com/2010/09/magical-thinking/#more-36697[/url]”>http://abovethelaw.com/2010/09/magical-thinking/#more-36697</a></p>
<p>I agree with Patriot1208. Specialty rankings are close to meaningless. Law school trains you to reason; it doesn’t aim to fill you up with facts. If you have an analytical framework polished at Yale, Harvard, Stanford, or another top law school, you can succeed in any area of law that you decides to go into after law school.</p>
<p>“The situation must be better than you described.”</p>
<p>Why must it be better?</p>
<p>“i honestly cant believe that a person lets say with environmental law degree from Vermont law school and 3.5+ GPA wont be able to find a job that pays at least 80k a year from start.”</p>
<p>You don’t have to believe it, but I promise you that it is true. Go call up somebody at Vermont Law and see whether they will tell you we’re wrong.</p>
<p>I just was on website for Pace law school(4th environmental law school in the country)and on their website there is a list of firms and government agencies that recruit there.Even though pace is 3rd tier law school and is not even in best 100 law school ranking list overall,some major big companies and government agencies recruit there.
Now everybody said that specialty rankings dont count.How do you explain those big firms recruiting.Not all,but a lot of them focus on environmental law and someone has to get those jobs,otherwise whats the point of companies coming on campus?</p>
<p>Future. </p>
<p><a href=“http://pdfserver.amlaw.com/nlj/20080414employment_trends.pdf[/url]”>http://pdfserver.amlaw.com/nlj/20080414employment_trends.pdf</a></p>
<p>The red represents firms that pay six figures. Those are the top fifty schools in terms of placement at a time when the economy was better than it is now. Any school not on there has less than 10% of it’s class making six figures. And again, those statistics were from when hiring was better than it is now.</p>
<p>You really need to understand a bit more about Pace. Read this:<a href=“Search for Law Schools – LSAC Official Guide | The Law School Admission Council”>Search for Law Schools – LSAC Official Guide | The Law School Admission Council;
<p>You will note that the majority of Pace students attend its part time JD program, which takes 4 years. So, when these grads are “employed” at graduation, it often means that they are still in the same job they had while going to school. </p>
<p>You will note that fewer than half of Pace’s grads end up working for a law firm–any law firm.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is not discussing a bad school. This is discussing EMORY LAW.
[Emory</a> Law Student Lament: ‘We don?t need donuts, we need jobs.’ Above the Law: A Legal Tabloid - News, Gossip, and Colorful Commentary on Law Firms and the Legal Profession](<a href=“http://abovethelaw.com/2010/07/emory-law-student-lament-we-don’t-need-donuts-we-need-jobs/]Emory”>Emory Law Student Lament: 'We don’t need donuts, we need jobs.' - Above the Law)</p>
<p>I wouldn’t look at employment before part time law school as a bad thing.People study law not only to become lawyers,but to move through promotions at their current companies.I bet with law degree at companies like Morgan Stanely,Goldman Sachs,Banks and accounting firms.
My doctor personally knows a person who majored in accouting and then studied taxation law for 2 years and got promoted straight to Vice President in a bank and now makes something between 150-250k which in my opinion equally good if not even better as scoring a well paid job in a law firm.</p>
<p>Future, are you being willfully dense? First, you don’t study law for 2 years, it’s a 3 year degree. Second, the quite obvious meaning of jonri’s post was that the employment statistics on the Pace website are clearly misleading. Listen, if you want to go to Pace or Vermont go right ahead. But it is a FACT that you will have to be one of the top 5 people in your class to make the type of money you are talking about.</p>
<p>Also, most people who are working jobs at places like Goldman Sachs are generally very intelligent, and when those people decide to go to law school, they go to the top schools like we talked about before.</p>
<p>SIGH. Patriot is right in explaining WHY I pointed out the majority of Pace students are night law students. We are not talking about “part time” jobs “before” law school. We are talking about jobs DURING law school, MOST of which are full time. In many cases, the students involved kept the jobs after getting a JD. So, they count as “employed.” </p>
<p>If the person your doctor talked about studied tax for 2 years, it’s probable that he got a LLM–a master’s of law. That requires 2 years of specialized study in tax law AFTER the JD. 5 years all together. </p>
<p>The real point is that there is no way to tell how many of the folks who were employed got the job because of the JD. You’re right-- at least in years past, a JD could help people get a promotion. But they already HAD the job. You’re talking about going to Pace law and then trying to GET a job. It’s two different animals. </p>
<p>If you asked me this question : " I am working in human resources (or compliance at a brokerage firm), and the company has a tuition reimbursement program. My boss has encouraged me to get a JD. The firm will pay for half of it as long as I get a 3.0 and give me time off during exams which won’t count as vacation days. Should I do this? "I just might give a different answer than I would if someone said “I’m a college senior. I’d like to go to law school. Pace is the best school I’m likely to get into. I’m interested in environmental law and Pace is highly ranked for that. I’ll be paying $40,000 a year, plus the cost of living in White Plains. Should I go?” </p>
<p>BTW, I took a look at the job site you talked about. It is NOT a list of firms which interview at Pace. It includes those who use Pace’s “resume referral” service. It’s just what it sounds like-you submit your resume to Pace’s career services–or whatever it’s called–and it forwards it to employers who might be interested who have agreed to participate. There may be some screening involved, but heck, any law student anywhere can send an unsolicited resume to a law firm. Pace also has a career fair. That’s like a job fair. You go in and walk around, dropping off your resume. It’s not the same as getting a 1 on 1 interview during OCI. </p>
<p>Again, do what you want.</p>