There are lots of reasons for already practicing attorneys and legal professionals to go back to school for additional degrees and more education. Maybe you want to go into a different area of law. Maybe you want to teach law. Maybe you’re currently a paralegal who wants to become a fully fledged attorney.
Whatever your reasons for wanting to continue your education, here are some of the best schools to help you achieve that goal:
Harvard
Even if it weren’t for the fact that in 2009 we saw the headline “Morgan Chu Elected to Harvard Board of Overseers” and learned that the famous Chu would be serving the school for at least six years, Harvard Law would still be one of the best places (if not the actual best place) to further your legal education. Why? It’s Harvard. Do you really need reasons beyond that?
Columbia
Columbia was listed by the Princeton Review as having the best career prospects for graduates of its law program. This award alone would make it worth glancing at even if it didn’t have Columbia’s reputation backing it up. Getting an advanced or extra law degree takes time and it is not likely that you’ll be able to continue practicing at your current rate when you go back to school. This means that you need to choose a school that can help you re-enter the full time work force when you graduate.
Yale
Yale Law School was named the best law school in the country for 2013 by U.S. News. The school lives up to its reputation as being difficult to get into—it has an acceptance rate of less than ten percent. This means that you will be learning with the best of the best. It will make your classroom experience more competitive which can, in turn, better prepare you for the competitive nature of practicing professional law (if you aren’t yet familiar with this).
Stanford
Stanford University is one of the best schools on the West Coast (and in the country) for many different professions. It’s known all over the world for its medical program. Its law program is top notch as well and boasts the best classroom experience in the country. Why is this important? If your classroom experience isn’t good, you won’t learn much and that will make it more difficult to practice once you’ve graduated and re-entered the work force.
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, University of Chicago and UPenn are other schools that are renowned for their legal programs if you aren’t interested in competing at an Ivy League level. The real key to choosing a good school is to figure out how you learn the best and then find the school that offers you that.