The National Law Journal’s annual ‘Go-To Law School’ league table ranks US law schools based on the percentage of their grads who take associate positions at one of the country’s 100 largest law firms each year. With over 50 per cent of its graduates heading into Biglaw after graduation, Columbia Law School has once again emerged at the top of the list, edging University of Pennsylvania Law School to second place and University of Chicago Law School to third.
Climbers in this year’s list include Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law, which ascended from seventh to fourth place, and University of California Berkeley, which climbed over Harvard Law School to claim tenth place. Big-name schools like Harvard, Yale and Stanford appear lower down on the list than might be expected, as many grads from these schools head directly into clerkships and are thus excluded from the ranking.
The list also provides insights into which law schools specific law firms prefer—handy for strategic planning if your heart is set on a particular firm, or for working out your best bet as a soon-to-be grad. Columbia grads found favour last year with Skadden Arps, Paul Weiss and Gibson Dunn, which took 21, 16 and 9 new recruits respectively from the school. Skaddens took an equal number of grads from Harvard, while Gibson Dunn took an equal number from Stanford. NYU was the school of choice for Jones Day, supplying 10 grads, while Kirkland & Ellis took 14 grads apiece from Chicago and Northwestern.
Overall, 23 per cent of recent graduates from the 2015 NLJ Top 50 ‘go-to’ schools landed an associate job in one of the nation’s 100 largest law firms—the same percentage recorded in last year’s count. Sources: National law Journal; Above the Law
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