Law school where you plan to practice?

shainabarber

I currently live in South Carolina and have been admitted to the University of South Carolina School of Law. I have also been admitted to the University of Mississippi School of law. I'm from Mississippi and plan to move back (either now, for law school, or when I graduate). However, I think USC's school is a better fit for me, mostly because it's in a urban area,which brings lots of opportunity that a tiny college town can't provide.

I'm worried about going to school in a state where I don't plan to practice long term, and how this will affect my job opportunities etc when I do move back to Mississippi. Is this a legitimate concern? Part of me says that people moveall the time and I shouldn't worry. The other part thinks that it's vital that I study where I plan to practice, for networking purposes etc.

Any thoughts shared would be greatly appreciated!

2RARE2CARE

Imo, the law job market is so competitive you need every advantage to get hired. Unless you're going t-14 or maybe other sub elite schools like UCLA outside of the t-14, your degree isn't gonna be very transferable. You might end up having a tough Time

bbutler

I'd like to hear some other people's opinions on this as well. My personal opinion is that I agree that its an advantage to study where you'd like to practice because of the network that you can build while in undergrad that can help you when you graduate. I'm from South Carolina and around where I live there is definitely a "bias" towards lawyers from South Carolina Law School. Not to mention that I would think that law schools might tailor certain aspects of courses or have specific resources towards passing their state's bar exam (but I'm not sure so don't quote me on that) which might also be beneficial. However, I think think something that gets overlooked is being some place where you're comfortable and enjoy living/studying for the next 3 years. People get wrapped up in prestige and job prospects and while I definitely agree that those are important factors, you being comfortable where you study helps with your overall enjoyment of law school and can contribute to you learning the material better and therefore being more prepared when you graduate. Also, I would also consider the type of law that you would like to go into as well. For example, if South Carolina Law has a better program in the field of law you would like to practice in that can be a huge reason to go there as well.

Overall my recommendation would be to look at some of the law firms in the area you would like to practice, most of them will include information on where their associates/partners went to law school and that might give you a better idea of how much it impacts to study in-state. Also the schools' website should have data on where alumni practice and who knows you might find that South Carolina Law is well represented in Mississippi. After that if I found that there were people who graduated from South Carolina Law School working in areas of Mississippi I wanted to, I'd go but I'd definitely do some research beforehand.

stepharizona

Hi @shainabarber

From my understanding, it all comes down to where (not location, per se) but type of firm you want to practice at.

If you're looking to go big law, then you need to go to the highest rank school you possibly can.

If you prefer regional work or smaller law firms, this is where going to a locally or regionally respected school could benefit you.

I also agree with @bbutler advice about looking at programs and then investigating firms you'd consider working at. Most websites will tell you where the attourneys graduated. Oddly, one of the larger firms in Phoenix hires a lot of people out of KU, which was surprising based upon their ranking. I learned the reason when I attended a newt working event.

Also in that, try to attend networking events if possible. Many firms host CLE credits that are open to professionals and/or the community (ie nonprofits). It's a way for them to allow other attourneys to earn CLE, and attract potential new clients.

runiggyrun

Just took a quick peak at the employment statistics for both schools - University of South Carolina seems to have better numbers overall, but they appear to place virtually nobody in Mississippi. University of Mississippi looks like worse numbers overall, but they do place about half of their graduates in Mississippi. My guess from this (and please take it with a grain of salt as I'm in the Northeast and know very little about the southern legal market) is that South Carolina's numbers benefit from a somewhat stronger local market (they place in So and No Carolina pretty heavily) but that advantage would be gone outside that market.
Something you might want to do to browse the websites of some of the Mississippi firms you're hoping to work for and see where their lawyers went to school. If you know the type of law you want to do, prioritize the lawyers that do that sort of work. Most firms (at least the larger ones) make it pretty easy to find that information. Some even allow you to search their staff by law school attended. A strong alumni network in the region where you want to practice is a pretty important tool to have for job hunting.
Along those lines, try to contact the two schools and ask if they can give you names of alumni that are practicing in Mississippi and see if they'd be willing to talk to you about their job hunting experiences.