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The Top 15 Schools From Which the Most "Prestigious" Law Firms Hire New Lawyers
(or where to go to law school to work at super-elite firms on the two coasts)
October 13, 2008
Where do the most elite law firms in the United States go to hire new lawyers? We started with the most recent Vault list of the most prestigious law firms in the U.S. We had to go to #24 on that list to identify fifteen super elite law firms that had the right kinds of search engines to permit efficient identification of where associates at these law firms went to law school. The firms studied were: Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; Cravath, Swaine & Moore; Sullivan & Cromwell; Skadden Arps; Davis Polk & Wardwell; Simpson Thacher; Clearly Gottlieb; Kirkland & Ellis; Covington & Burling; Paul, Weiss; Williams & Connolly; Sidley Austin; Arnold & Porter; Jones Day; and Morrison & Foerster.
LLM and other degrees beyond the JD were excluded; we searched in August 2008 for associates from 27 law schools in order to rank “the top 15.” Note that this is not a study of national placement power of law schools, since the super elite firms are overwhelmingly clustered in the Northeast corridor and in California; earlier studies are a better measure of the ‘national’ reach of a degree. Even though most of these firms have multiple offices nationally and internationally, the following chart makes clear how dramatic the clustering is among the 15 firms we studied:
City |
Firms Headquartered |
Other Firm Offices |
Total Offices |
New York |
8 |
6 |
14 |
Washington DC |
4 |
8 |
12 |
San Francisco or Palo Alto |
1 |
8 |
9 |
Los Angeles |
0 |
8 |
8 |
Chicago |
2 |
2 |
4 |
Houston |
0 |
2 |
2 |
Houston is one of the five biggest cities in the United States, but one has to get into the 40s on the Vault listing before Houston-based firms turn up. (This also, I'm sure, explains the results for the University of Texas in the current study, compared to the earlier studies of national placement: until recently, the student body was 80% Texas residents, who overwhelmingly prefer to enter the major legal markets in Houston and Dallas, which UT dominates. Contrast that with schools like Michigan, Virginia, and Vanderbilt, which do not have many high-powered law firms in their local markets as a draw for students.)
One thing the results indicate is how little impact U.S. News rankings are having on where the firms choose to hire. That is clearest when schools share a regional market. Boston College was, for quite some time, ranked ahead of Boston University in U.S. News, but it is quite clear that BU dominates BC at the best firms in the Northeast corridor. Although Columbia and NYU have been basically deadlocked in U.S. News for a decade now, the elite New York law firms continue to hire more from Columbia than NYU. Chicago, which has been ranked behind NYU and Stanford, and even tied with Penn some years in U.S. News, dominates all three of them when it comes to elite firm hiring, and notwithstanding the enormous coast-bias in the sample pool of firms studied.
The other striking fact about the results is how much geography matters once you get outside the ranks of elite law schools. Fordham, long a favorite with New York firms (essentially third behind Columbia and NYU in the local market), comes in 15th entirely because of the huge clustering of the most elite firms in New York (either with headquarters or major 'branch' offices). Similar observations apply to the striking results for Brooklyn, Cardozo, and George Washington, among others. With 26 "elite" firm offices in New York and Washington, D.C., graduates of schools with strong regional presences in those markets do very well. (Conversely, with 17 "elite" firm offices in California, I was actually surprised that UCLA and USC did not fare better, but this may just be a fluke of the sample size.)
Geography matters in another way too: where students choose to go to law school often says a lot about where they would prefer to work. That probably has much to do with the results for, e.g., Berkeley.
The chart below reports the results. In order to account for the fact that schools differ greatly in size, we divided the total number of graduates in associate positions at elite firms by the recent average class size (rounded to the nearest 25) in order to come up with the number on the basis of which the schools are ranked. Following the chart is a list of where the firms in the study have offices, and then detailed charts showing the number of graduates of each school in associate positions at the firms.
Rank |
School |
# of Graduates at Elite Firms
/Avg. Graduating Class Size |
Total # of Graduates at Elite Firms |
1 |
Columbia University |
1.53 |
613 |
2 |
University of Chicago |
1.33 |
265 |
3 |
Harvard University |
1.13 |
622 |
4 |
New York University |
1.11 |
501 |
5 |
Stanford University |
0.95 |
167 |
6 |
Yale University |
0.94 |
187 |
7 |
Cornell University |
0.87 |
174 |
|
University of Pennsylvania |
0.87 |
239 |
9 |
Northwestern University |
0.74 |
185 |
10 |
Duke University |
0.71 |
142 |
|
University of Michigan |
0.71 |
249 |
12 |
Georgetown University |
0.67 |
404 |
13 |
University of Virginia |
0.62 |
217 |
14 |
University of California, Berkeley |
0.59 |
148 |
15 |
Fordham University |
0.48 |
183 |
|
Other schools studied (not ranked) |
|
Boston College |
0.16 |
49 |
|
Boston University |
0.29 |
87 |
|
Brooklyn Law School |
0.18 |
91 |
|
Cardozo Law School/Yeshiva University |
0.25 |
63 |
|
George Washington University |
0.32 |
161 |
|
Howard University |
0.26 |
39 |
|
University of California, Los Angeles |
0.39 |
116 |
|
University of Notre Dame |
0.39 |
58 |
|
University of Southern California |
0.27 |
53 |
|
University of Texas, Austin |
0.22 |
101 |
|
Vanderbilt University |
0.32 |
64 |
|
Washington & Lee University |
0.07 |
10 |
Office locations of the firms studied:
| Wachtell: |
New York |
| Cravath: |
New York |
| Skadden Arps: |
New York, Beijing, Boston, Brussels, Chicago, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Munich, Palo Alto, Paris, San Francisco, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Vienna, Washington DC, Wilmington |
| Sullivan & Cromwell: |
New York, Beijing, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Palo Alto, Paris, Sydney, Tokyo, Washington DC
|
| Davis Polk: |
New York, Menlo Park, Washington DC, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Madrid, Tokyo, Beijing, Hong Kong
|
| Simpson Thacher: |
New York, Los Angeles, Palo Alto, Washington DC, Beijing, Hong Kong, London, Tokyo
|
| Cleary Gottlieb: |
New York, Washington DC, Paris, Brussels, London, Moscow, Frankfurt, Cologne, Rome, Milan, Hong Kong, Beijing
|
| Kirkland & Ellis: |
Chicago, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Munich, New York, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Washington DC |
| Covington & Burling: |
Washington DC, Beijing, Brussels, London, New York, San Francisco |
| Paul, Weiss: |
New York, Washington DC, London, Tokyo, Beijing, Hong Kong |
| Williams & Connolly: |
Washington DC |
| Sidley Austin: |
Chicago, Beijing, Brussels, Dallas, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, Washington DC |
| Arnold & Porter: |
Washington DC, New York, London, Brussels, Los Angeles, Northern Virginia, Denver, San Francisco
|
| Jones Day: |
Washington DC, Atlanta, Beijing, Brussels, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Houston, Irvine, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Milan, Moscow, Munich, New York, Paris, Pittsburgh, San Diego, San Francisco, Shanghai, Silicon Valley, Singapore, Sydney, Taipei, Tokyo
|
| Morrison & Foerster |
San Francisco, Beijing, Brussels, Denver, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York, Northern Virginia, Palo Alto, Sacramento, San Diego, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo
|
Breakdown by Firm
School (avg. class size)/Firm |
Wachtell |
Cravath |
Skadden Arps |
Sullivan & Cromwell |
Davis Polk |
Simpson Thacher |
Cleary Gottlieb |
Kirkland & Ellis |
Totals |
Harvard (550) |
26 |
42 |
87 |
42 |
69 |
48 |
47 |
66 |
427 |
Yale (200) |
12 |
10 |
20 |
18 |
13 |
17 |
26 |
9 |
125 |
Chicago (200) |
7 |
8 |
42 |
14 |
5 |
9 |
9 |
56 |
150 |
Stanford (175) |
4 |
10 |
15 |
9 |
11 |
18 |
14 |
11 |
92 |
Columbia (400) |
17 |
52 |
94 |
64 |
68 |
70 |
56 |
34 |
455 |
NYU (450) |
14 |
24 |
51 |
36 |
47 |
53 |
63 |
39 |
327 |
Berkeley (250) |
0 |
2 |
25 |
7 |
8 |
13 |
3 |
6 |
64 |
Michigan (350) |
1 |
4 |
41 |
6 |
10 |
24 |
17 |
44 |
151 |
Virginia (350) |
1 |
5 |
32 |
16 |
11 |
26 |
4 |
19 |
114 |
Penn (250) |
11 |
14 |
42 |
20 |
14 |
39 |
19 |
18 |
177 |
Georgetown (600) |
0 |
8 |
80 |
3 |
24 |
22 |
28 |
51 |
216 |
Duke (200) |
3 |
4 |
19 |
5 |
10 |
22 |
4 |
13 |
80 |
Northwestern (250) |
1 |
7 |
38 |
5 |
13 |
11 |
10 |
44 |
128 |
Cornell (200) |
2 |
10 |
20 |
8 |
11 |
24 |
15 |
20 |
110 |
Texas (450) |
0 |
2 |
22 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
2 |
4 |
35 |
Vanderbilt (200) |
0 |
0 |
10 |
0 |
2 |
3 |
0 |
14 |
29 |
UCLA (300) |
0 |
0 |
27 |
4 |
0 |
7 |
1 |
13 |
52 |
Fordham (400) |
0 |
21 |
26 |
6 |
11 |
21 |
5 |
14 |
104 |
Howard (150) |
1 |
3 |
5 |
6 |
0 |
4 |
2 |
4 |
25 |
George Washington (500) |
0 |
1 |
25 |
1 |
7 |
9 |
6 |
24 |
73 |
Boston University (300) |
1 |
3 |
15 |
9 |
1 |
2 |
7 |
14 |
52 |
Boston College (300) |
0 |
1 |
10 |
4 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
22 |
Notre Dame (150) |
1 |
0 |
9 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
13 |
25 |
Southern California (200) |
0 |
0 |
8 |
3 |
1 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
17 |
Brooklyn (500) |
0 |
2 |
14 |
12 |
11 |
12 |
6 |
6 |
63 |
Cardozo (250) |
0 |
3 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
8 |
3 |
24 |
Washington & Lee (150) |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
Breakdown by Firm, continued
School (avg. class size)/Firm |
Covington & Burling |
Paul, Weiss |
Williams & Connolly |
Sidley Austin |
Arnold & Porter |
Jones Day |
Morrison & Foerster |
Totals |
Harvard (550) |
32 |
26 |
18 |
46 |
18 |
27 |
28 |
195 |
Yale (200) |
9 |
7 |
8 |
10 |
7 |
8 |
13 |
62 |
Chicago (200) |
11 |
5 |
6 |
72 |
1 |
14 |
6 |
115 |
Stanford (175) |
7 |
11 |
5 |
10 |
5 |
12 |
25 |
75 |
Columbia (400) |
12 |
57 |
6 |
24 |
16 |
13 |
30 |
158 |
NYU (450) |
17 |
52 |
1 |
34 |
11 |
24 |
35 |
174 |
Berkeley (250) |
9 |
5 |
1 |
14 |
0 |
12 |
43 |
84 |
Michigan (350) |
15 |
13 |
3 |
26 |
8 |
26 |
7 |
98 |
Virginia (350) |
15 |
7 |
9 |
30 |
7 |
30 |
5 |
103 |
Penn (250) |
8 |
14 |
4 |
10 |
4 |
10 |
12 |
62 |
Georgetown (600) |
18 |
16 |
18 |
42 |
24 |
42 |
28 |
188 |
Duke (200) |
3 |
10 |
11 |
17 |
2 |
17 |
2 |
62 |
Northwestern (250) |
1 |
6 |
2 |
21 |
2 |
21 |
4 |
57 |
Cornell (200) |
2 |
9 |
1 |
16 |
6 |
16 |
14 |
64 |
Texas (450) |
0 |
4 |
4 |
8 |
3 |
41 |
6 |
66 |
Vanderbilt (200) |
2 |
0 |
1 |
7 |
8 |
17 |
0 |
35 |
UCLA (300) |
0 |
4 |
0 |
8 |
3 |
25 |
24 |
64 |
Fordham (400) |
2 |
8 |
0 |
29 |
4 |
19 |
17 |
79 |
Howard (150) |
1 |
1 |
0 |
5 |
5 |
1 |
1 |
14 |
George Washington (500) |
19 |
8 |
3 |
19 |
14 |
12 |
13 |
88 |
Boston University (300) |
5 |
5 |
0 |
10 |
1 |
10 |
4 |
35 |
Boston College (300) |
0 |
6 |
1 |
14 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
27 |
Notre Dame (150) |
0 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
27 |
1 |
33 |
Southern California (200) |
0 |
0 |
0 |
17 |
5 |
9 |
5 |
36 |
Brooklyn (500) |
1 |
5 |
0 |
13 |
3 |
6 |
0 |
28 |
Cardozo (250) |
1 |
6 |
0 |
7 |
1 |
19 |
5 |
39 |
Washington & Lee (150) |
2 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
10 |
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