Top law schools tighten hold on US elite

Fifty-five percent of 2007 law graduates from the 20 top-ranked law schools took jobs with firms in the NLJ 250 - up from 51.6% in 2006.

In 2007, the top 20 schools sent 3,511 of their graduates to work as first-year associates at NLJ 250 law firms. Total graduates among those schools in 2007 equaled 6,395. In 2006, the 20 go-to law schools sent 3,561 to NLJ 250 law firms out of 6,902 graduates.

Columbia Law School charted the highest proportion of graduates joining top 250 firms, with almost 75% moving to leading firms in 2007, up from 69.6% the year before.

Northwestern University School of Law was the biggest climber, moving from 11th spot to second as 73.5% of its 2007 graduates went to NLJ 250 firms. Last year 54% moved to top firms.

Two schools dropped four spots compared with the ranking for 2006 graduates. Stanford Law School had 51.4% of its 2007 graduates go to NLJ 250 law firms, down from 54.9% and dipping from eighth spot to 12th. Boston College Law School dropped from 16 to 20th, sending 36.8% of its 2007 graduates to NLJ 250 firms.

This year's list of go-to schools was compiled using information from the National Law Journal's annual survey of the largest 250 US law firms.

The school providing the most first-year associates to the top 20 NLJ 250 law firms was New York University School of Law (NYU), which sent 51 of its 2007 graduates to those firms.

The law school with the highest concentration of graduates going to one firm was Harvard Law School (pictured above), which sent 21 of its students to 1,316-attorney Kirkland & Ellis. The Chicago-based firm recruited from 38 law schools in total.

DLA Piper - the nation's largest law firm, with 3,623 lawyers - hired more graduates from 13th-placed Georgetown University Law Center than any other law school. DLA Piper recruited from 51 law schools total in 2007.

Jones Day brought aboard graduates from the most schools with 58, while Baker & McKenzie recruited from the fewest schools - just 13 - for its US offices. The firm hired more of its new attorneys from NYU than from any other school.

For more information on the survey of the NLJ 250 law schools, click here.

Legal Week Student