How Important are Rankings to Employers in the Legal Industry Anyway?

How Important are Rankings to Employers in the Legal Industry Anyway?

Four California law schools have withdrawn from US News & World Report’s ranking system this year: Stanford, Cal, UCLA, and UCI. It seems like a big deal because the legal industry is conservative and values top-ranked law schools and firms. But really how important are rankings to employers looking for in-house lawyers? In my job as a recruiter, I’ve seen managers respond to candidates’ backgrounds as follows:

• Yes, the Ivies plus Stanford, Chicago, NYU, etc. are all considered elite, and yes they are most valued. But even if you went to one of these schools, you are not guaranteed an interview, e.g., if your level of experience is not what an employer is looking for, if your resume is hard to evaluate (no one knows who your employers are or why you took the path you did by looking at your resume), or if you change jobs more frequently than average.
• No one actually checks US News & World Report to see if the law school on a candidate’s resume is in that year’s top 10 or 20. If you went to a nationally recognized school or a locally prominent one (especially with many alums employed at leading employers), then you can be in the running for a job. Your odds increase the better you did, the more metrics of success you can point to, or the more trusted a recommender is.
• Training at AmLaw firms in relevant markets/practice groups is important too. The most requested profile I get is good school + AmLaw training in right practice group + prior in-house experience. There rarely are enough people with this exact profile, so employers often will consider other permutations, e.g., good school and AmLaw training in a different practice group with in-house experience, or just AmLaw training in the right practice group, or training by managers themselves with AmLaw training.
• Startups can be more flexible about backgrounds. Often they need lawyers with a proven record managing chaos, and top firm lawyers, who often come from the leading schools, aren’t exactly known for this skill (they are known for zeroing out risk).
• Hiring managers with nontraditional backgrounds are also more flexible. Since they made it, they have faith others can do the job too.

From my vantage point, lawyers can come from different backgrounds to be successful. While you can’t change what law school you went to or what firm or practice group you trained at early in your career, you can always rise to the top if you gain on-point experience, show a record of success, and have clients and colleagues singing your praise.