Do you want to work in your home state? Or anywhere but your home state? Do you aspire to big-city practice, or would you be happy to settle in a small community where virtually every member of the county bar knows each other? Or do you want to have the most options possible? Do you mind attending a Top Five school that just happens to be in a high-crime zone? Answering these questions will take you well along the way to narrowing your search for the right law school.
"Local" law schools, as the name implies, are those whose best placement successes are in the immediate city or area, or sometimes the state, in which they’re located. In a way, "local" is a euphemism for "not-so-well-known" (or worse), but this in itself shouldn’t daunt you. One reason is that most law schools are, frankly, "local." A second reason is that, while there are no doors a local degree can open which a national or regional degree can’t, local can be quite a sufficient little place.
A "regional" school is one whose placement influence extends beyond an immediate power base, such as a city or state. Its name is well-known and, to some extent or another, respected in a whole geographical market. Almost inevitably a regional school pretends to "national" status, since, by virtue of its regional cachet, it is nationally "known." But regional schools are distinguishable from the "true" national schools in that you find few of their graduates practicing outside the region.
A national school is one that rings a bell almost anywhere in the country. It is, of course, one of which virtually everyone in the profession, no matter where, has heard. It follows from this that the schools regarded as national schools are often the most difficult to get into--which, in turn, makes them even more desirable. In other words, the discussion here is about "renown," or well-known-ness--not even reputation, with its implication of substantive merit out there somewhere.
Though there are many different versions of the "Top 10" (or 15 or 20), the other law schools most commonly deemed "national schools" include all the Ivy League law schools; Big Ten standouts such as Michigan (Ann Arbor), Illinois (Champagne-Urbana), Minnesota (Twin Cities), Iowa, and Northwestern; other great state or state-affiliated schools such as Texas, the University of Virginia, California (Berkeley; some say UCLA, some say USC, and some say both); as well as New York University, Georgetown, Duke, and Vanderbilt.
As you can imagine, personal and regional prejudice often inform these characterizations--and that’s the whole point. For purposes of placement, you’ve got to know where you want to take even a national school, or if, given other options, you want to swim in a little bit smaller pond instead. As for choosing a "national school" other purposes--whether your ego or your long-term career plans--we continue below...