Aspiring lawyers who dream of working for one of the largest law firms in the U.S. should understand that they will be more likely to achieve this goal shortly after earning their J.D. degree if they attend a highly ranked law school.
Big law firms, or firms that employ at least 50 lawyers (and may employ hundreds or even thousands of lawyers), tend to be particular about which lawyers they hire. Experts argue about how many attorneys need to work at a law firm in order for it to qualify as a big law firm, with some saying that only the nation’s largest law firms — those which have 500 attorneys or more — are truly big law firms. Big Law jobs are enticing to many young attorneys, partly because of the six-figure salaries commonly paid to first-year associates at large law firms.
Thomas J. Simeone, a managing partner at the personal injury law firm Simeone & Miller in the District of Columbia, who spent many years working at big law firms, says these firms typically prefer to hire alumni of elite law schools that place in the top 15 in national law school rankings. Some particularly exclusive big law firms primarily employ graduates of J.D. programs that place in the top five or top 10, and in general, grads from higher-ranked J.D. programs have better chances of finding a job at a big law firm, Simeone says.
Talented attorneys who graduate from lower-ranked law schools often need to either achieve extraordinary law school grades or gain several years of impressive legal work experience to convince a big law firm to hire them. In contrast, it is common for alumni of top law schools to get jobs at big law firms straight out of law school without having to work their way up from a smaller firm, experts say.
[See: A Law School Resume That Made the Cut.]
Michael Leddin, executive director of the firm Segal McCambridge Singer & Mahoney, says many of the nation’s largest law firms recruit most of their first-year associates from elite J.D. programs because they receive an abundance of competitive applicants. As a result, prestigious firms have the luxury of being highly selective.
“Big Law has the pick of the crop for recruiting, and they need to place certain restrictions on the process so that they are not buried in resumes and applicants,” Leddin wrote in an email. “I started with a large law firm before its significant expansion, and after it joined the ranks of Big Law, they too started recruiting from premier schools. Of course, the irony is that the top lawyers at the firm that made the decision to focus on these schools did not attend those schools themselves.”
Leddin says another reason why large law firms hire alumni of renowned law schools and undergraduate institutions with outstanding credentials is to distinguish themselves from their competitors. He adds that some alumni of selective law schools and colleges have personal connections with influential business executives who are seeking legal representation, so hiring these well-connected people helps big law firms expand their client list.
[See: 10 Law Schools That Lead to Full-Time Jobs at Big Law Firms.]
Nevertheless, Leddin suggests that someone who cannot gain admission to or afford to attend an elite law school should know that it is possible to eventually work for a big law firm even if they’re unable to get hired as an associate immediately after earning a J.D. “The law school that you go to is going to be the important thing for the first job that you get, and then it’s what you do after that that’s going to set the stage for the rest of your career,” he says.
Talented business attorneys without prestigious J.D. degrees frequently spend a few years after law school gaining corporate litigation experience, which helps them become marketable for jobs at big law firms, Leddin says. He also notes that big law firms that have a strong preference for hiring alumni of selective law schools for entry-level associate positions will sometimes make exceptions for recent law graduates who graduated at the top of their class from less selective institutions.
Tina Willis, an Orlando-based personal injury attorney who graduated second in her class from the Florida State University College of Law in 1995, says her stellar grades allowed her to secure job interviews and offers from big law firms, despite not having attended an Ivy League law school.
Law students who have not graduated from a top-tier law school can optimize their chances of landing interviews at big law firms by prioritizing “getting the absolute highest grades possible,” Willis wrote in an email. “They should put grade-earning above working, or any other pursuit during law school. After grades, participating in their law review would also be helpful, and is generally a given for most top-tier law firm new hires.”
Simeone says that though it is possible to get a job at these firms without having attended a premier law school, such as Harvard, Yale or Stanford, someone is more likely to get hired at one of these firms if they have this credential on their resume.
“While top students may go to other schools — and therefore be missed by large firms who focus primarily on graduates from top-tier schools — generally speaking, graduates from top-tier schools have a lot of indicators of success at a large firm,” Simeone wrote in an email. “They obviously did well enough as an undergrad to be accepted into a highly competitive school. They also must have done well on the LSAT, which indicates not just intelligence, but a willingness to prepare and to perform under pressure. Finally, the experience of going to a top law school shows that they were exposed to highly rated professors and competed and associated with other highly accomplished students.”
Simeone, who earned his J.D. from Columbia Law School, says that having a law degree from an Ivy League university was a major advantage when he was starting out as a young lawyer. He says that the degree helped him get noticed by big law recruiters during his early career. Plus, the degree continues to help him attract potential clients, he adds.
“It helped me tremendously,” he says. “That’s why I tell people to do it. I went to Columbia, and it was a good law school, and then when I graduated there, I was able to interview at all the best firms, and you know, it just gave me a certain confidence when I walked in.”
[Read: Choose the Right Law School for a Corporate Law Career.]
Leddin suggests that aspiring attorneys who don’t plan to attend famous law schools but who want to establish a big law career should focus on sharpening their trial advocacy skills. Big law firms appreciate job candidates who have significant litigation experience, he adds.
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Why Big Law Firms Care About Which Law School You Attend originally appeared on usnews.com
