A fixation on law school prestige has long pervaded the legal world. It’s taken for granted that attending a top school (think Harvard, Yale, Stanford) opens doors at big law firms and greases the path to partnership. But new research by Richard Sander of UCLA School of Law and Jane Yakowitz of Brooklyn Law School is challenging those assumptions.
In their draft paper, “The Secret of My Success: How Status, Prestige and School Performance Shape Legal Careers,” the authors report that law school performance, not status, matters most to one’s long-term financial success, whether a few years out of law school or across a career. Grades, the study found, are also the best predictor for hiring by big law firms and promotion to partner.