Stanford Law School, Patent Law Schools
Q: Hi, I'm trying to decide on law schools; if there's someone (an
alumni or student) at Stanford law who can answer a few questions
about the atmosphere of the school and the strength of its specialties,
please drop me a line.
A:Of course, both ranks are deeply old guard in skew. Think about it:
academics and judges tend overwhelmingly to come from a few schools
(Yale, Harvard, Columbia).
Personally, I tend to think some of the highest schools deserve their
ranking. (My co-clerk went to Yale, though, which he regards as the
least intellectually demanding of the top several schools; go figure.)
On the other hand, there's Columbia, perennially ranked in the top
five for reasons that must be apparent only to people who can hear dog
whistles and see IR waves. I can think offhand of good things to say
about most of the schools at the top of USNWR's list; on the other
hand, absolutely nobody I know has a rational explanation (aside from
the persistence of past glory) for Columbia's cachet.
Personally, I think avg salary is a useless stat. All it says is that
an unusually high proportion of my classmates was sucked into the Big
Law Firms in NYC, where they now repent at such leisure as they may
happen upon when not billing 70-hour weeks.
My own entirely subjective eval of NYU Law: Excellent resources (law
library undoubtedly in the top 2 or 3), especially for clinical
programs. Faculty generally solid, with some Deep Thinkers (Dworkin,
Sager) and a few with Star Quality (Steve Gillers; Tony Amsterdam and
Sylvia Law, both Macarthur Prize recipients). Some truly great (as
well as awful) visiting faculty; the best course I took was a seminar
taught by a DC Circuit judge. Curriculum strong on clinical
instruction (both civil and criminal), and in tax/business areas (for
those who like that sort of thing).
Obscenely high tuition (read: highest in country).
IMHO, the students aren't the best and the brightest. There's a core
of about