Indiana Tech Law School, my favorite moribund – no, dead on arrival – law school, recently announced a $25,000 gift from a local law firm to endow a scholarship for the student who finishes the 2L year ranked first in the class. I’ll put aside for now the issue of whether this school will have any rising 3Ls to take advantage of this scholarship in 2015, because this scholarship brings up a rather more pressing problem. Jobs.
The firm donating the $25,000 to ITLS is Shambaugh, Kast, Beck and Williams, LLP, a local outfit in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Looking at its website, SKBW seems fairly typical of a mid-sized law firm; about twelve lawyers (so perhaps on the smaller side of midlaw), regional market, the usual local litigation and transactional practices etc. This is probably a good target firm for successful grads of respectable law schools. The firm might hire one associate per year depending on its needs, but most cities have a few firms like this. And students at Indiana Tech Law School may well be rubbing their hands with glee: “Look, this firm is backing our school, so there will be jobs for us after all.”
But let’s take a look at the composition of the attorneys in the firm to examine why this firm will never, ever hire from ITLS. It’s all about connections.
Let’s start with the obvious – family connections. It’s commonly accepted that one of the only ways a graduate of a lower-ranked law school can get a foot in the door of a law firm is to have a family member who is high up in the firm’s management. Looking at SKBW’s current lineup of lawyers, there’s one Steve Williams, a name partner. Importantly, his last name is shared by two of the more junior lawyers (I’m assuming they are his sons), Benjamin and Nathan Williams. While I’m not going to speculate about their abilities as lawyers, I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that the fact that their father is a name partner at the firm had something to do with why they were hired. A quarter of the entire firm is essentially a family business, and it's also not unreasonable to assume that should any children of any of the other lawyers at SKBW be looking for legal employment, SKBW will be very receptive to hiring them.
And this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s just how the game is played. Father develops a strong legal practice, wants to pass that on to his kids. Nothing wrong with that. Nepotism isn’t always bad. If I built up a business or a strong client base, I too would want to be able to pass that on to my children. What’s bad is that law school applicants often don’t see that this is how the game is played. They think that if they do well in law school, if they graduate near the top of the class, then they’ll shine in the hiring process because of their superior performance. After all, doesn’t the firm want the best lawyer for the job? Er, no. The firm wants the new lawyer who has family connections, regardless of ability.
Looking again at the composition of SKBW, we also see that the overwhelming majority of the lawyers there attended Indiana University for law school. This is another type of connection – education. At the midlaw firm I once worked at, many of the lawyers attended the same niche college for undergrad. Applicants who graduated from that same college were a step ahead in the hiring process. Alumni connections can be very strong.
Nobody at SKBW attended Indiana Tech Law School, and this illustrates why attending ITLS is an extremely risky proposition: there is no existing alumni network to rely upon, anywhere. There are no grads from ITLS working as lawyers, managing law firms, or in any other positions to help ITLS students get their foot in the door. How on earth are they going to get their resumes in front of the people who matter at law firms, corporate legal offices, or government departments? Those kinds of alumni networks take decades to build.
How should this influence law school applicants? Well, if you’re applying for entry later in 2014, take a look at your background. Got any lawyers – any powerful lawyers – in the family tree? If so, great – you probably already know that you have a job lined up for you when you graduate. If not, take a look at where you’re thinking of attending law school. Are you planning on attending a school out of state, then moving back once you graduate? If so, your chances of finding a job are greatly diminished because you won’t have the local connections that might get your foot in the door.
Take a look at some small and medium-sized law firms in your own region. The connections will look remarkably similar - family, education, or connections which aren't immediately apparent (e.g. relative is a major client of the firm). You need far more than the magic top 10% grades to get a job.
Don’t think for one second that law school is a level playing field where everyone starts at the same point. Not even close. It’s stacked. If you don’t have connections going into law school, you’re already well behind and you’ll most likely never catch up. Your performance in law school will never outweigh connections. The kid who graduates in the bottom 10% of the class will be hired through preexisting connections long before your “top 10% and law review” resume gets crumpled up by the hiring partner.
Which brings me to my second point: networking. The charlatans who inhabit the average law school career services office love to tell students to network. Network, network, network - how I wish I could get paid a law school administrator salary for spending a couple of hours a week telling kids that they need to network. That’s how jobs are found. In a sense, they’re absolutely correct – jobs are found through networking. But it’s more complicated than that. Jobs are found through networks that already exist prior to attending law school. Family networks, like having parents or aunts and uncles employed by a law firm. Having a family member who is a major client of a law firm. Attending the same undergrad as the lawyers in the firm. Those are the kinds of connections that matter, not the feeble connections made by awkwardly sipping a glass of wine while talking to a senile old judge with a pee stain on his trousers at a law school event, and not the connections made by setting up “informational interviews” (a/k/a "begging for a job") with lawyers who really don't want to talk to you.
You should know, going into law school, what your connections look like. If you’ve got them, by all means attend law school (abiding by the usual rules – don’t pay full price ever, don’t attend lower-tier law schools, never attend an unaccredited law school etc.) But if you’re applying to law school now and you can’t think of the connections that will get you your first job, then think long and hard about whether you should attend at all. Because even if you’re in the top 10%, you don’t stand a chance against the dumbest student at the school who happens to have connections. You’ve lost the game before the dice have even been rolled.
The firm donating the $25,000 to ITLS is Shambaugh, Kast, Beck and Williams, LLP, a local outfit in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Looking at its website, SKBW seems fairly typical of a mid-sized law firm; about twelve lawyers (so perhaps on the smaller side of midlaw), regional market, the usual local litigation and transactional practices etc. This is probably a good target firm for successful grads of respectable law schools. The firm might hire one associate per year depending on its needs, but most cities have a few firms like this. And students at Indiana Tech Law School may well be rubbing their hands with glee: “Look, this firm is backing our school, so there will be jobs for us after all.”
But let’s take a look at the composition of the attorneys in the firm to examine why this firm will never, ever hire from ITLS. It’s all about connections.
Let’s start with the obvious – family connections. It’s commonly accepted that one of the only ways a graduate of a lower-ranked law school can get a foot in the door of a law firm is to have a family member who is high up in the firm’s management. Looking at SKBW’s current lineup of lawyers, there’s one Steve Williams, a name partner. Importantly, his last name is shared by two of the more junior lawyers (I’m assuming they are his sons), Benjamin and Nathan Williams. While I’m not going to speculate about their abilities as lawyers, I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that the fact that their father is a name partner at the firm had something to do with why they were hired. A quarter of the entire firm is essentially a family business, and it's also not unreasonable to assume that should any children of any of the other lawyers at SKBW be looking for legal employment, SKBW will be very receptive to hiring them.
And this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s just how the game is played. Father develops a strong legal practice, wants to pass that on to his kids. Nothing wrong with that. Nepotism isn’t always bad. If I built up a business or a strong client base, I too would want to be able to pass that on to my children. What’s bad is that law school applicants often don’t see that this is how the game is played. They think that if they do well in law school, if they graduate near the top of the class, then they’ll shine in the hiring process because of their superior performance. After all, doesn’t the firm want the best lawyer for the job? Er, no. The firm wants the new lawyer who has family connections, regardless of ability.
Looking again at the composition of SKBW, we also see that the overwhelming majority of the lawyers there attended Indiana University for law school. This is another type of connection – education. At the midlaw firm I once worked at, many of the lawyers attended the same niche college for undergrad. Applicants who graduated from that same college were a step ahead in the hiring process. Alumni connections can be very strong.
Nobody at SKBW attended Indiana Tech Law School, and this illustrates why attending ITLS is an extremely risky proposition: there is no existing alumni network to rely upon, anywhere. There are no grads from ITLS working as lawyers, managing law firms, or in any other positions to help ITLS students get their foot in the door. How on earth are they going to get their resumes in front of the people who matter at law firms, corporate legal offices, or government departments? Those kinds of alumni networks take decades to build.
How should this influence law school applicants? Well, if you’re applying for entry later in 2014, take a look at your background. Got any lawyers – any powerful lawyers – in the family tree? If so, great – you probably already know that you have a job lined up for you when you graduate. If not, take a look at where you’re thinking of attending law school. Are you planning on attending a school out of state, then moving back once you graduate? If so, your chances of finding a job are greatly diminished because you won’t have the local connections that might get your foot in the door.
Take a look at some small and medium-sized law firms in your own region. The connections will look remarkably similar - family, education, or connections which aren't immediately apparent (e.g. relative is a major client of the firm). You need far more than the magic top 10% grades to get a job.
Don’t think for one second that law school is a level playing field where everyone starts at the same point. Not even close. It’s stacked. If you don’t have connections going into law school, you’re already well behind and you’ll most likely never catch up. Your performance in law school will never outweigh connections. The kid who graduates in the bottom 10% of the class will be hired through preexisting connections long before your “top 10% and law review” resume gets crumpled up by the hiring partner.
Which brings me to my second point: networking. The charlatans who inhabit the average law school career services office love to tell students to network. Network, network, network - how I wish I could get paid a law school administrator salary for spending a couple of hours a week telling kids that they need to network. That’s how jobs are found. In a sense, they’re absolutely correct – jobs are found through networking. But it’s more complicated than that. Jobs are found through networks that already exist prior to attending law school. Family networks, like having parents or aunts and uncles employed by a law firm. Having a family member who is a major client of a law firm. Attending the same undergrad as the lawyers in the firm. Those are the kinds of connections that matter, not the feeble connections made by awkwardly sipping a glass of wine while talking to a senile old judge with a pee stain on his trousers at a law school event, and not the connections made by setting up “informational interviews” (a/k/a "begging for a job") with lawyers who really don't want to talk to you.
You should know, going into law school, what your connections look like. If you’ve got them, by all means attend law school (abiding by the usual rules – don’t pay full price ever, don’t attend lower-tier law schools, never attend an unaccredited law school etc.) But if you’re applying to law school now and you can’t think of the connections that will get you your first job, then think long and hard about whether you should attend at all. Because even if you’re in the top 10%, you don’t stand a chance against the dumbest student at the school who happens to have connections. You’ve lost the game before the dice have even been rolled.
