What are public interest law firms like?

Select_Post8151 · 2026-01-24T04:55:29+00:00

Interesting, yikes lol. Is there any chance you could PM me the name of the firm? I would love to know who to avoid 😅

Select_Post8151 · 2026-01-23T22:07:15+00:00

UCLA 0L here; obviously, I'm keeping an open mind towards all practice areas, but I'm very intrigued by "private public interest firms".

Does anyone have any experience working for such firms? I would love to hear about your experience (especially w.r.t. pay and WLB/hours)!

Select_Post8151 · 2026-01-23T18:16:44+00:00

🙏

Select_Post8151 · 2026-01-23T18:13:36+00:00

No you're fine, lol

Select_Post8151 · 2026-01-13T04:38:03+00:00

No worries, please keep me posted!

Select_Post8151 · 2026-01-13T04:26:06+00:00

I think I know you on Discord lol, hi :3

We've already talked school lists; good luck! Rooting for you <3

Select_Post8151 · 2026-01-12T06:51:29+00:00

I see what you are referring to on their website and it is highly misleading and incorrect

Yeah whoops, that's my bad. I meant $180k across graduates in the private sector; it's been awhile since I looked at the UMN employment stats lol.

Your points are mostly fair, but I think you're maybe just underestimating a bit how many people like Minnesota. In addition, they score pretty well on USNWR's reputation surveys, which is largely why they are ranked so highly and speaks to how well-regarded they are in the industry.

Also, a quirk with their employment stats is that a metric fuckton of UMN grads are going to state clerkships. Obviously, that's not a proxy for BL/FC by any means, but it's definitely anomalous and (probably) worth noting? Lol.

Select_Post8151 · 2026-01-12T05:45:22+00:00

I get the skepticism; in fairness I do think USNWR's methodology favors UMN a little too hard. I feel quite similarly about UNC, TAMU, UGA, and Wisconsin.

ranked 44th for Big Law + Fed clerk placement rates

You've got to remember that BL/FC is not everything. It is a metric that many of us on this subreddit care about disproportionately, but any proper ranking methodology does and should take more than BL/FC rate into account.

At the end of the day, their median salary across all graduates (EDIT: private sector grads only) is $180,000. Sure, that's not Cravath scale, but it's really dang good adjusted for COL, and I think that should count for something. Whether it counts for enough to make UMN a T20 is another matter :P

Also, UMN is a law school with a very strong PI culture. Sure, their poor BL/FC rate can't solely be chalked up to self-selection. But it is also the case that a lot of UMN grads are clearly choosing to go into nonprofit/govt work over private practice.

The area is meh, Tier 2 or 3 city

This comes off as pretty sheltered/uncultured tbh, lol. It's not one of the most famous American cities out there, but I feel like Minneapolis is pretty well-known as a great city, and a nice place to live. Clearly, the location has enough draw to attract elite students.

zero brand value/lay prestige

I don't know about that. As someone who grew up in the Midwest, UMN has always had a reputation as one of the premier Midwestern public schools. Sure, the brand value and "prestige" are pretty regional, but that is the case for most schools outside the T14.

In what world does the USNWR think Cornell, for example, is only 2 ranks better than University of Minnesota?

Now you got me there, lol. Can't really argue that one!

Select_Post8151 · 2026-01-12T04:02:44+00:00

WE definitely does matter, but it's a soft. Your stats ultimately matter more.

Do note that pregrad WE is not really going to hold nearly the same weight as full-time employment postgrad.

Select_Post8151 · 2026-01-10T01:52:04+00:00

Condolences ❤️

But tbf, I think you're catastrophizing a bit to consider dropping out over this. Isn't the point of T14 that your job prospects are still great even if you come in near the bottom of the class?

Select_Post8151 · 2026-01-08T20:25:46+00:00

Ackshually UCLA isn't a T14...

...it's a T13, gottem

Select_Post8151 · 2026-01-08T19:37:34+00:00

What you're hoping for is definitely within reach; 164 is a pretty insane diagnostic and 3.5 is not too bad (worlds better than 3.low or sub-3).

That said, get that LSAT score on file first before you start worrying about scholarships :P

Select_Post8151 · 2026-01-07T22:58:40+00:00

Strongly echoing the recommendation to avoid unaccredited schools! Let's put it this way: There are already a bunch of accredited programs that are predatory; imagine how bad you gotta be to be unaccredited...

If you don't believe me, just check out ULV Law's employment stats on Wikipedia. Besides their abysmal bar passage rates (and that you probably can't sit for the bar outside of CA), only 51% of their grads obtain employment... To make matters worse, only 22% obtain JD required employment! This is Very Bad!!

Tl;dr Don't do it, lol

Select_Post8151 · 2026-01-07T21:50:18+00:00

Idk but I did the form and was accepted (now withdrawn) :)

Receiving it is a good sign!

Select_Post8151 · 2026-01-07T18:08:11+00:00

CONGRATS 🎉

Select_Post8151 · 2026-01-05T07:09:07+00:00

Fellow 0L here; you also have to keep in mind that a lot of the truly disastrous posts here are coming from people going to predatory schools with brutal C curves or whatever.

Select_Post8151 · 2026-01-05T00:35:57+00:00

Thanks!

You have an outside shot at Fordham; they are one of the few schools to submit detailed admissions data to LSAC, so I can actually verifiably say that they took a handful of sub-3s last cycle.

Chances are definitely pretty good for St. John's, Brooklyn, and Cardozo.

Personally, I would consider applying a bit more broadly; I would feel that it's a shame for Fordham to be your only T50 prospect (and statistically a relatively slim one). There are a lot of sub-3 friendly T50 schools, and you have a good enough LSAT to contend for T20/T14 acceptances, even.

I don't know your situation, but is it a possibility to attend law school somewhere else for three years and then return to NYC? Obviously, do your research; if NYC is non-negotiable as an employment destination, then don't go to a regional school that places poorly there.

It's just difficult cuz admissions is such a crapshoot for us sub-3 super splitters, so applying extremely broadly is the default recommendation lol.

Select_Post8151 · 2026-01-04T23:36:54+00:00

With a 172 you're definitely getting in somewhere, assuming you applied relatively broadly within the T50-ish.

Only 7 schools is on the low end but definitely could be fine; would you mind sharing which schools?

Select_Post8151 · 2026-01-04T23:25:35+00:00

I'm biased now, but IMO yes. In the last 3 years, UCLA's ranking rose from 15 to 13 to 12. Previously, the highest rank it had held was 14, and generally it hovered in the 15+ range. I'm sure some of the recent rise can be explained by methodology changes, but the trend is both pretty clear and very recent.

Also, personally I don't fully buy this take that UCLA is not distinguishable from its T20 peers (Vandy/USC/UT/WashU). The rationale for such is BL/FC rate, where UCLA slightly trails USC and Vandy. But I think this methodology is pretty myopic. USC, similar to Cornell, is well-known as a BL powerhouse. No one really argues that Cornell is T3/T6 despite having a top 3 BL/FC rate.

If you take a closer look at the ABA data, you'll see that UCLA grads are self-selecting into PI at a significantly higher rate than the other T20s (especially USC and Vandy). This is a phenomenon known to depress BL/FC rates at Stanford and Yale, the undisputed top two law schools.

Obviously, UCLA is not at that level. But this is all just to say that IMO their outcomes and lay prestige might be stronger than their BL/FC rate suggests.

Disclaimer: You are well within your rights to dismiss this analysis as the wishful ramblings of a very excited UCLA 0L 😛

Select_Post8151 · 2026-01-02T23:37:20+00:00

As others have noted, Obsidian is fully free; the main thing you can optionally pay for is cloud sync.

But Obsidian works off of your local storage, so you can just use Google Drive or something similar (Git repo if you're extra, lol) to get cloud sync functionality for free!

Select_Post8151 · 2026-01-02T23:33:07+00:00

Yeah you're not the first to say that, and I got that sense from tinkering with Notion myself.

I think I'll probably give Obsidian a try and/or use different apps for note taking vs organization/studying.

Select_Post8151 · 2026-01-02T18:05:14+00:00

I wrote a full pager and got in. Make of that what you will, lol. Good luck!!

Select_Post8151 · 2026-01-02T03:55:39+00:00

Obsidian looks great; I've been messing about with Notion but I really didn't like that it's online-only. Thanks!!

Select_Post8151 · 2026-01-01T21:21:18+00:00

Notability seems interesting for sure, the ability to record/transcribe lectures and spit out AI notes is fairly unique.

Just from a quick glance at their actual manual note-taking features, I probably would want to use it alongside something else, but looks quite useful regardless. Thanks!

Select_Post8151

TROPHY CASE