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 10-20% that