There are a lot of factors that go into choosing the right law school. When considering where to apply, we look at things like prestige, specialty areas, and affordability to help us guide our decisions. But according to a study done at the University of Minnesota, another thing that we should be considering is a law school’s proximity to major law firms.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota found that a law school’s proximity to major law firms can affect its students’ future employment prospects. They found that students who are earning their law degrees in areas with many major legal firms are entering communities with better retention for young lawyers. This longevity is something uniquely found in these areas, as many of the firms are looking to hire students from the nearby law schools.

The study explored 33,000 law partners from the biggest and top-earning 115 law firms across the country. They then determined what law school each of those partners attended, and ranked the law schools. The official report with all of the numerical findings and rankings is set to be published this May. So, if working for a big firm after graduation is your goal, it may be a good idea to check out that report and aim for a law school in one of those locations.

Maggie Gloyeske, the director of lawyer and consultant recruiting at Faegre Baker Daniels, has stressed that her firm likes to hire from local law schools in Minnesota. She said: “lawyers who come to work for us, who have a connection to our community, tend to stay longer and think of this as a career move versus just a job.”

While this finding isn’t anything new or shocking, it is often something that is overlooked by students when they are considering where to apply. Many students rely heavily on the rankings put out each year by the U.S. News and World Report or other outlets. While these rankings are certainly a useful tool when first starting the law school search, as they give a broad overview of the law schools on the list, they omit several important factors like the number of graduates that go on to work in local law firms.

This may be because those rankings put significant weight on surveys completed by lawyers, law professors, and judges. According to Samuel Engel, one of the co-authors of the study, these professionals are likely to give law schools the same ranking each year, regardless of any changes that the schools may make. Engel stated that “it’s hard for [USNWR] to get these trends because they’re asking people who haven’t been in law school for a generation to rank law schools.”

While the USNWR rankings focused on a school’s reputation, immediate employment placement, and LSAT scores, the study done by the University of Minnesota based its evaluations on the school sizes and the number of graduates who went on to work at major law firms in their area. As a result, that list looked quite different.

This is not the first time that someone has taken a different approach to ranking  law schools. This past summer, we at Law Street Media put out a set of law school rankings by speciality area. These rankings took into account things such as class offerings, alumni relations, and extracurricular programs. Additionally, like the University of Minnersota’s rankings, our rankings included law school proximity to major law firms. The goal of these rankings was to offer a qualitative and more comprehnsive approach to something that is often quantitative.

While each of these sets of rankings has something unique to offer, none of them are exhaustive. When considering what law schools to apply to, my advice would be to do as much research as possible while using the rankings as a starting point. While law school rankings are a useful tool, law schools have so much more to offer than just a place on a list.

Brittany Alzfan

Brittany Alzfan is a student at the George Washington University majoring in Criminal Justice. She was a member of Law Street’s founding Law School Rankings team during the summer of 2014. Contact Brittany at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Actions speak louder than words. For a few years now, we’ve all been wringing our hands about the law school crisis. Enrollment is plummeting–from 2004-2013, the amount of law school applicants have almost been cut in half. Even worse, the lawyers that are being produced are unable to find jobs, barely over half were in jobs that required passage of the bar last year. These issues are exacerbated by the fact that law school is incredibly expensive. Students who go to private law schools borrow an average of $91,000. The stats aren’t much better for slightly cheaper public law schools; loans there are around $76,000.

Legal education and the legal industry as a whole are changing rapidly. They’re presented with a catch-22, because a large part of the prestige for a law school is claimed from rankings, like those by US News & World Report. But those rankings can be thrown into jeopardy by taking drastic actions, such as downsizing.

Brooklyn Law School, located in Brooklyn, NY, usually ranks somewhere in the 60s-80s in law school rankings by various publications. Specifically in US News and World Report, they clock in at 83. But a couple days ago, they announced that they no longer care about those rankings, and are now taking comprehensive steps to make a legal education more affordable and efficient. For the class that will matriculate in 2015, tuition will be cut by 15%. There will also be more types of financial aid offered, while merit aid will lessen. And the school will introduce programs that will make it possible to complete a legal education in 2 years rather than the ubiquitous 3. This will come just a couple years after they downsized through a voluntary early retirement program, and sold a few dorms and other buildings, yielding revenue for the school. But what’s so interesting about the actions of Brooklyn Law School is that they’re refreshingly extreme. Other schools have taken baby steps, but Brooklyn Law School is leaping forward.

There are a few other schools cutting costs, but Brooklyn Law School is still joining an incredibly small group. Some public law schools, like Penn State, University of Iowa, and University Arizona, have dropped costs for in-state students. On the private school front, Roger Williams University School of Law, in Rhode Island is dropping their tuition by about $8000.

What Brooklyn Law School is doing seems almost laughably obvious–they’re offering cheaper tuition in the hopes that it will attract undergraduates who see the merit in spending less money for a law degree. It’s a pretty simple move, business-wise. But in a law school atmosphere dominated by an obsession with rankings, it seems a bit riskier than it is. Students from law schools that are viewed as prestigious by their peers and by the legal industry are more likely to get jobs and clerkships after graduation.

Brooklyn Law School Dean Nicholas Allard is fine with that. He stated, “we’re not going to throw money at some artificial rankings. As far as I’m concerned, the U.S. News rankings may be good for lining the cage of a parakeet, but as a road map for students, they’re not useful.”

I absolutely applaud the gutsy move taken by Brooklyn Law School, but it’s important to remember that they also have a unique status. As an independent law school–meaning it’s not connected to an undergraduate institution, it does have more flexibility and ability to make broad moves.

I also think the choice to get rid of merit scholarships is incredibly interesting. According to this Forbes probe into the subject, often students that receive merit scholarships are ones who don’t necessarily need them. Refocusing attention to need-based scholarships can solve that problem, and Brooklyn Law School, among others, seem to get that.

The biggest question that is left is whether this will actually be successful. It’s innovative for sure, and cool, and I hope it makes positive difference. But throwing the rankings manual out of the window is risky, and for a middle of the pack school like Brooklyn, it could prove costly.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

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