I am planning to attend law school in california and eventually practice what area in California would be good to look onto both for law school and life in general working etc. San Diego,Los Angeles,San Francisco,Orange County ?
Those are such different areas that your question is almost impossible to answer. If you like to surf, look south. If you like to ski, look north. Those aren’t absolutes – just a sense of what is easier to get to. If you go to a top rank law school, the location doesn’t matter. If you’re aiming at a notch below (e.g., USF/Hastings/Golden Gate – and I’m putting down any of those schools), it helps to be in the area. Those schools will have lost of alumni and draw lots of respect in the Bay Area. Not sure about the southland, and they have their own schools that don;t get a lot of love up north. Why do you ant to go to law school? What kind of law do you want to practice? Those are the more important questions.
Criminal law/enterteinmwnt law i currently live in Orange county in the suburbs its very dry and boring here i need a change
Before you set your sights on California:
Have you researched the job market in California for attorney employment?
My sister is with a very prestigious “national” law firm based within California (San Fran is main office). She says she receives hundreds of faxed resumes but cannot hire anyone. The market is saturated with lots of fresh law school graduates who are under pressure to find jobs, in order to pay off huge loans. They have law clerks who are hopeful, but know that the offices are not hiring because they don’t have the workload as in previous years.
Prospective clients access online resources that can be ten times cheaper, such that the client/attorney relationship has changed.
Check the CC posts to confirm what others are saying about future prospects.
My sympathies (Orange County, that is). Entertainment law puts you down south. Criminal law works anywhere. Look, there are only so many top rank law schools in the state: Stanford, Berkeley … uh, it sort of falls off after that in the national picture, but UCLA, USC, Davis, Irvine [a comer], etc., are very solid schools with lots of alumni all over the state. If your grades and LSAT scores are in the target zone for one of those, just pick where you’d like to spend three years (and keep your fingers crossed you can get in).
aunt bea speaks the truth [didn’t she always, Opie?] I actually don’t recommend law for anyone these days unless you can get into one of the top law schools and even then it can be a crap shoot. Then again, excellence can win out. My last hire was #1 at Golden Gate. Not a top tier school but #1 is #1 – and he has not disappointed me. You do need be aware of what you’re getting into.