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Where Are The Top 50 Go-To Law Schools For BigLaw?

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If your dream is to move to a major city, join a BigLaw firm and collect a fat paycheck, then you may want to check out the Top 50 Go-To Law Schools. 

The Top 50 Go-To Law Schools list ranks law schools based on the percentage of recent graduates who secure associate level positions at the country’s 100 largest law firms. Schools located in large legal markets where these BigLaw firms are located topped the list, but there was a strong showing of law schools from around the U.S.

On the national level, the top 100 law firms in the United States hired 4,199 law graduates in 2017.  The top 50 law schools sent 29 percent of their graduates to BigLaw associate positions.

Columbia Law School ranked topped the list with a BigLaw placement eight percentage points higher than the University of Chicago Law School, which ranked second.

Also in the Top 50 were eight law schools from California, six law schools from New York City, five law schools from the D.C.-area.

Although most law schools on the Top 50 Go-To list were located in or nearby these major legal markets such as New York and D.C., there was also a presence of law schools from around the country. For example, Ohio State University Moritz College of Law (32nd), University of Illinois College of Law (33rd) and University of Kansas School of Law (50th) made the list.

Other states had a presence on the Top 50 list as well. Texas saw three of its law schools land on the list, as did North Carolina.

 

Here are the top ten law schools with the highest percentage of students graduating to BigLaw jobs:

 

1. Columbia Law: 68 percent

2. U. Chicago Law: 60 percent

3. NYU Law: 57 percent

4. UVA Law: 56 percent

5. Penn Law: 52 percent

6. Northwestern Law: 52 percent

7. Duke Law: 51 percent

8. Harvard Law: 50 percent

9. Cornell Law: 48 percent

10. Berkeley Law: 46 percent

 

Texas Law Schools on the Go-To Law School list:

 

1. University of Texas School of Law, Austin

2. Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law

3. University of Houston Law Center

 

California Law Schools on the Go-To Law School list:

 

1. UC Berkeley School of Law

2. Stanford Law

3. UCLA Law

4. USC Gould School of Law

5. UC Irvine Law

6. UC Hastings Law

7. Santa Clara Law

8. UC Davis Law

 

New York Law Schools on the Go-To Law School list:

 

1. Columbia Law

2. NYU Law

3. Cornell Law

4. Fordham Law

5. St. John’s Law

6. Cardozo Law

7. Brooklyn Law School

8. Seton Hall Law

 

North Carolina Law Schools on the Go-To Law School list:

 

1. Duke Law

2. UNC School of Law

3. Wake Forest Law

 

You might also like: Law Schools With The Most Improved Employment Rates

 

Don Macaulay

Don Macaulay

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