When Rankings Lie

The rankings are lying to you. U.S. News and World Report publishes a ranking of the country’s top law schools every year, typically highlighting Yale Law School as America’s best and a slew of other institutions as other top-flight options. However, the problem with these rankings is that general prestige and nationwide reputation is valued over nuanced focus. As any student in the Tisch School of Film here at our own NYU can tell you, overall rankings (and not school-specific ones) can lie.

For many up-and-coming sports lawyers, antitrust law is a usual field of study. These lawyers-to-be aspire to practice at some of the nation’s top sports law firms (Proskauer Rose, Covington & Burling and Foley & Lardner to name a few). While a JD from Yale may give a lawyer the opportunity to work in any firm he or she wants, considering where the lawyers at the mentioned firms went to school should also be of importance.

At Proskauer Rose, the schools are Columbia, NYU and Harvard. As for Covington & Burling, the top three are Harvard, Georgetown and George Washington. At Foley & Lardner, the top three most represented law schools are the University of Florida, Harvard and Georgetown. None of the three listed firms include Yale as one of their three most represented schools, but Harvard is well represented at all of the firms. Georgetown also seems to be a common destination. All of the data in this paragraph is per the website “Above the Law”.

It makes sense, too. At Harvard Law School, students have access to Einer Elhauge and Louis Kaplow, both legends in the antitrust field. As for Georgetown, law students can interact with Bob Pitosfky and Steven Salop. Past rankings, evaluating the people that teach at a school is an important aspect when one knows his or her field of interest.

The point is that overall law school rankings, while important, may not paint the full picture. When attempting to study a certain aspect of law, make sure to note the schools out of which the top firms in the industry are hiring. It may be entirely possible to get a job at any of the three listed firms with a JD from Yale (to be fair, Yale is fourth on Covington & Burling’s headcount list), but don’t overlook established pipelines.

#ranking #lawschool #yale #nyu #sportslaw #antitrust #lawfirms #lawschooladmissions