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Summary: New study shows that law school geographical proximity is important to future law firm success.
It is indisputable that attending law school at a top ten ranked law school goes a long way in predicting your likelihood of landing work at a big firm. But that’s not everything. A recent study, co-authored by Edward S. Adams, a law professor at the University of Minnesota, has found that there is a second factor to consider in choice of law schools: geographical proximity.
Studying 33,000 lawyers at the largest 115 law firms, he indeed discovered that the top 12 ranked law schools – Harvard, Yale, Northwestern – corresponded to law firm status. But other schools, such as the Suffolk University Law School in Boston, which is not ranked nationally, had 167 graduates in top firms – and this, they believe, on the sheer proximity of the school to the major legal market.
Therefore, in New York, the school to firm correspondance favored, in descending order, Columbia, Harvard, Fordham, Georgetown, Brooklyn, Yale and University of Pennsylvania.
Likewise, Washington chose partners from Georgetown, Harvard, George Washington, University of Virginia, and Catholic University.
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This study “highlights the power of geographical proximity,” said Adams. “It generally validates that the law school attended matters for ‘big law’ partnership prospects.”
The last is old news, but that proximity holds significant sway, and not simply school ranking, in a way gives more options to aspiring lawyers.
News Source: NYTimes
