The four tiers: T13, Trap, No-Name, and Joke.

It is customary to divide the 200 or so law schools into four tiers, fifty per tier, based on where they placed in US News and World Report’s annual ranking. Beware of classifying law schools in this manner because it gives undeserved status and dignity to some extremely scammy law schools. For instance, US News deemed American University to be a first tier law school until this year, and even now American is situated near the top of the second tier, in 56^th place. But look at its calamitous placement results--only 38.4% of the Class of 2012 and 35.3% in the Class of 2011 obtained full-time lawyer jobs within nine months of graduation! [1] One can only hope that American University JDs, however jobless and impoverished, take pride in their semi-elite pedigree, like minor aristocrats after the Russian Revolution.

 

Here are the tiers as I see them: 1) The T-13.  2) The Traps. 3) The No-Names. 4) Joke Schools. The purpose of this blog post is to encourage those who cannot be dissuaded from law school, and are in the process of choosing where to enroll, to opt for a big scholarship at a No-Name over paying full or nearly full freight at a Trap. But do NOT go to a Joke School, even for free.
 

A Trap is any school that is not a T13, but that is ranked in the first or upper-second tier of US News, and markets itself as prestigious. [2] Disturbingly, many law school bound college seniors and 1Ls will be able to tell you each Trap’s precise US News rank. By contrast, big law firms and federal judges recognize the Trap School, if at all, as a moderately selective also-ran, and will hire only from the top 10-15 percent. Those Trap JDs who do not graduate in the top 10%-15% will face job prospects as dismal as graduates of a No-Name school, and often much higher student debt.

Take 26^th ranked Washington and Lee. It placed 15 grads from its Class of 2012 in NLJ 250 firms, and a half dozen more in federal judicial clerkships, an okay but not outstanding performance relative to other schools. [3] But its overall placement rate is horrible: only 49.2% obtained full-time law jobs within nine months of graduation, well below the national average of 53.1%. And please do not plan your future around being in the top 15% at a Trap such as Washington and Lee. Law school grading is way too capricious.

No-Name schools are those that have no particular prestige, but are not (yet) considered notorious jokes. Students who are intent on going to law school and who didn’t get into a T13, ought to go to a No-Name, if they can get a big scholarship or discount-- which they probably can in light of the dropoff in law school applications and the consequent desperation of many law schools to fill seats. If a student has multiple No-Name acceptances (and he or she probably does), the student can bargain an even larger scholarship than the initial offer. [4] So, even though your law school adventure is likely to come to grief, at least you will not be buried under life-ruining debt.

As you consider No-Name schools, I would strongly advise you to choose a school in a location where you went to undergrad or where you grew up or where you have numerous family members. In these places, you have a true network-- people who care about you, and will make an effort to use their contacts to connect you with a potential employer or mentor. The people you meet at law school networking events-- never. Well, not unless you are very attractive and they see romantic potential in your gratitude for a job opportunity. Ick, but that's how it goes.

A Joke School is a school that has a reputation as a punchline. Do not attend a Joke School even with a full-tuition ride, for its very name is job repellent. And give serious thought as to whether your No-Name is actually a Joke School, or is reasonably likely to become a Joke School. Whatever accomplishments you list on your resume will be offset by the name of that ridiculous joke of a law school, which will adorn your resume like a red rubber clown's nose.  

Which schools are jokes? Look at the bottom 50 or 60 US News schools, the ones that the magazine does not even bother to assign a numerical rank. Look at the schools where the bottom quartile of the class scored 150 or below on the LSAT. The recently opened schools. The least selective school in your state or big city. Tom Cooley (Hang down your head and cry). LaVerne (even after it is fully accredited, everybody will ask you when Lenny and Squiggy are going to open up a law school). Whittier (Shittier). Thomas Jefferson. Appalachian. New England. Barry.

Unfortunately, some schools that are currently No-Names will sink to Joke status, as  law school applications decline, and deans have to choose between maintaining admissions standards on the one hand and ensuring their continuing receipt of sufficient tuition dollars to support the elegant lifestyles of the faculty on the other. For instance, John Marshall of Chicago. Once upon a boomer time, this was a low-cost No-Name school that performed the honorable role of funneling ambitious working class kids into public sector law jobs. But now its main function is providing law students at the many other schools in the same city and state with something to look down upon. Nobody likes to be looked down upon. Paying $250,000 [5] for the experience is a rare category of humiliation.

Oh, a few words about the T13-- i.e. the 14 schools that have traditionally been regarded as elite, minus Georgetown, whose placement stats establish that it does not belong. These schools, and only these, boast full-time law job placement rates above 75%. These schools, and only five others, placed 25% or more of their 2012 graduating class in NLJ 250 firms. Yet, even here, caution is warranted. Yes, you will probably land a prestigious clerkship, or a big firm job. Thus, your law school investment won't be a total wipeout. But the investment is often so huge-- indebtedness to the tune of a couple hundred thousand interest-accruing dollars-- that a well-paying entry-level associateship in a big law firm may not be enough. In order to pay for that T13 law degree, you will have to hang on to that job for a long time, or more likely transition into something almost as lucrative when they give you the boot. [6]

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notes and links.

[1] Bar-required, full-time, long-term (including one year long judicial clerkships) jobs that are non school-funded and non-solo. Use this calculator, and plug in the formula.  

 

[2] Paul Campos is credited with the concept of a "trap school," of course. His definition: "A trap school. . .is the kind of place that attracts the kind of highly-qualified, reasonably prudent 0Ls who would never consider attending the vast majority of law schools at anything like sticker price, and yet still ends up generating a very high risk of financial and personal disaster for its students."

[3]  http://www.lawschooltransparency.com/tag/explanations/;http://www.lstscorereports.com/?school=wl&show=ABA

[4] Law schools often employ the evil trick of eliminating the scholarships of students who fail to obtain a certain GPA at the end of their first semester or their first year. Therefore, due diligence includes finding out precisely what percentage of scholarship students retain their scholarship throughout their entire three years of law school.

[5] Law School Transparency's estimate of the non-discounted cost of three years at John Marshall.

[6] See Steven J. Harper, The Lawyer Bubble (Basic Books 2013), 60 ("[T]he prevailing big-firm model survives on staggering associate turnover rates").