<p>I have an honest question. I know that top law schools have a workload that borders on cruel and unusual punishment, but I was wondering if tier 4 schools have a lesser workload? I know it will still be huge, of course, but I’m just wondering if the difference is significant.</p>
<p>I know that for undergradate programs the variation is great; I go to a top 30 university for undergrad so I’m no stranger to heavy work, but my friends at low tier schools seem to just party all the time. I’m sure the workload variation in law schools isn’t as great as in undergraduate programs, but I was just wondering.</p>
<p>If anything, a fourth-tier school is worse, if not for the workload then for the competition. When the curve essentially guarantees that an appreciable percentage of the class will fail out after a year and being in the bottom of the class means that you’ll end up in the public defender’s office, there tends to be more competition and stress.</p>
<p>Before one believes that starting out in the Public Defender’s office, or District Attorney’s office, is reserved for the bottom-of-the-barrel law school graduates, do a little research. Many, if not most, of the high profile lawyers you see on TV had their start in those offices. And look at the schools they attended: I have worked with PD’s from Harvard, Yale, UCB, Notre Dame, just to name a few.</p>
<p>The reason most new attorneys go into the PD or DA’s office is because they want to do more than hold a brief case when they enter the courtroom for the first time. For a new lawyer who wants to learn to be a TRIAL attorney, there is no better place to start than in one of those two offices.</p>
<p>Most trial lawyers don’t come from the top 14. Robert Shapiro went to Loyola, F. Lee Bailey went to BU, Johnny Cochran went to Loyola Marymount, Mesereau (Michael Jackson’s attorney) went to Hastings, Petrocelli went to Southwestern, Jamail went to UT, etc. Contrary to the impression you might get from TV, this is not what most elite law graduates want to do.</p>
<p>There’s also a big difference (in terms of prestige) between working for the DA (which is much tougher to do) and working for the PD (which will usually take what they can get). Something like the Manhattan DA’s office is extremely difficult to get, but being a public defender in Tampa or something doesn’t take much doing at all. There might be a handful of elite law students who actually WANT to work for the PD, but it’s typically the last resort for subpar students.</p>
<p>“Workload” doesn’t have the same meaning in law school that it has in undergrad. In law school, you will rarely have response papers, problem sets, midterms, etc. – all the things that determine workload in college. What you’ll have is a huge amount of assigned reading, which you can study with care, study carelessly, or ignore completely.</p>
<p>There is a very strong inverse correlation between a law school’s ranking and how hard the students work. At Harvard and Yale, there’s a substantial portion of the class that will do basically nothing academically 2L and 3L years. A still larger portion put in some effort, but don’t break a sweat. </p>
<p>In the 2d-4th tiers, you often encounter entire classes of students busting their butts because only a certain percentage of the class has a shot at the good jobs. If you need to be top 10% to get a big firm job, students will do whatever it takes to get into that top 10%.</p>
<p>Lower-tiered schools also grade their students on a strict curve, so you’re busting your butt to not get a C. </p>
<p>The reason that many top-tier law students can slack during their upper years is that they are on the fast track to good employment. Interview for 2L summer starts during 1L summer. If you get good grades 1L year, you can secure your 2L job - and that leads to post-graduation employment. I imagine that the situation is very different for the bulk of students at lower-ranked schools.</p>
<p>When you go to a lower-ranked school, they will still assign the same work - I remember my pre-law advisor telling me that anyone could go to a 4th tier school and still be challenged. I have heard that you can’t assume that you’ll get better grades at a lower-ranked school (because there are smart people at every school, because you aren’t going to understand the law any better at a lower-ranked school, and so much depends on your work ethic), but you need to get better grades to look more attractive to employers!</p>
<p>Consider that during 2L and 3L years, “workload” often includes moot court, journals, and independent studies (and if you’re me, all three in one semester - gah). Again, that doesn’t vary by school, but it’s entirely possible that students at lower-ranked schools want those opportunities more so they can stand out to employers.</p>
<p>You cannot mix apples and oranges. The L.A. D.A’s office, and the L.A. P.D.'s office draw from exactly the same pool, with exactly the same pay scale. Comparing New York with Florida is a bit disingenuous.</p>
<p>The kind and amount of material that you will cover in your core law school courses is generally the same among law schools. Regardless of where you go you will have long hours of study outside the classroom. Moreover, it is not just that you may have to read a lot of material in a short period of time. In fact, during many times the opposite is true; you may have to go through only about 10 to 15 pages in a casebook for a course from one class to the next. The problem is, particularly freshman year, is trying to understand what those 10 to 15 pages are trying to teach you and that can lead to reading, rereading and thinking about the cases for many hours.</p>
<p>If I recall, you spend a lot of time during the first part of 1L year doing things like running to Black’s Law Dictionary every other second to figure out what the cases are saying… you also have writing assignments for legal writing courses… and, if you’re a complete nerd, you’ll spend a lot of time reading legal commentary or treatises to try to get the big picture. Each individual case is easy. Putting them together isn’t.</p>
<p>I understand that law schools (outside the top 14) are very regional. So my question is if I want to practice Corporate Law (M&A) for a major NY law firm (such as Skadden, Sul&Cromwell etc.) what schools should I apply to? I see they recruit out of BU/BC, but what are the chances of getting a NY law job from an outside NY school. Would I be better off attending St.Johns, Brooklyn Law or Fordham?</p>