| Topic Name: |
Yet another which school - Texas style |
| Message Name: |
Three good choices |
| Date Posted: |
05/02/2001 |
| In Reply To: |
I'm still keeping my fingers crossed on UT. Anyone know when we will hear anything? But if that doesn't work out I am choosing between SMU, UH, Baylor. Tuition cost isn't really an issue because the scholarships I have been offered at SMU/Baylor make them both on par with UH. (They are still a little more expensive - but not enough to matter). Anyone care to comment?
And please - none of that don't bother to go if you're not top 15. My ego doesn't have to be fed by 250k salaries. I'm content to have a life, family, house.
Thanks in advance for all your help and advice! |
| Message: |
I don't think that location of the law school
per se is important, except insofar as hiring is concerned--thus, I will omit the "dull Waco" or "Houston smog, old facility and freeways" or "SMU is in an elitist neighborhood" discussion.
The truism goes like this:
SMU for commercial law areas and good networking opportunities;
Houston for intellectual property; and
Baylor for litigation.
There's more to the story than that. Lawyers from each school have gotten placed doing all kinds of things.
There are some real differences, as I see them.
a. It is true that Baylor aims to give one a
practice skills oriented
education. Baylor would be an excellent place to go if you want to end up in a small or mid-sized firm in a small or midsize TX city. It's a fine place to go for Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, etc., but it's real drawing card is that you can leave Baylor and know a lot of the nuts and bolts of practice from day one--a relative rarity in some law schools.
I have heard a recruiter-type or two sniff "they only teach to the test",meaning that "practice skills" translates into "three years of bar preparation" (the insinuation being that the student's legal experience is insufficiently broad). But let me tell you a secret--ignore recruiters.
b. SMU was for years a place with a national business school, a national seminary, and a second-tier law school.
SMU has worked really hard to make its law school a strong regional law school, and its efforts seem to be paying off.
Alum loyalty makes the Dallas market a good place indeed for well-credentialed SMU grads. SMU median salaries have climbed pretty high in recent years.
The "knock" about SMU--other than the expense which is not a factor for you--is that it is too Dallascentric. This is not literally true, but it is true that SMU's local pull in north TX is much stronger than it is in the rest of the state. The second "knock" was traditionally that SMU fostered a sort of elitism among its students--not
an intellectual elitism nor an "old money" thing, but a kind of "new money" thing where some classmates drive much nicer cars than law students have any right to have, etc. I really think this stereotype (even in my mother's generation, SMU alumnae were reputed to wear cashmere sweaters when others wore cotton) is a by-product of another era, but the
vague sense that SMU is Highland Park's captive
institution still lingers a bit. I don't buy it. The truism about
SMU being good for business stems from its faculty including scholars whose names have been made in the
"corporate" disciplines.
I don't really buy into all that "good for business" or "you'll meet the kids from the B school who'll be your clients someday" stuff so much.
But in real world TX practice,
getting your basic corporate/Uniform Commercial Code/transactional backing is to my mind more likely to be of use to you than, say,
public international alternative dispute resolution.
c. Houston's approach to
seeking prominence has been grounded in promoting specialty programs, and its IP program is a big success reputation-wise. IP, like commercial law, is something we all will live and breathe, so a good foundation in this will be worthwhile whether you work in SV or in Bugtussle.
Houston has much stronger placement in Houston and its suburbs than in the rest of the state. SMU's name recognition outside TX is a bit stronger as well.
Look at Baylor. The smaller the firm, the more likely you are to want a practice skills oriented
background to let you "hit the ground running". You can get that at any law school with decent clinical programs--and I believe that SMU has a very good one--but Baylor is darn
skills oriented.
I guess when it all washes out, all your choices work.
TX is generally a boom and bust legal economy now in boom, so be sure and take practical down to earth skills courses no matter where you go.
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