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What did you put off doing while you wrote this? And how do you expect people giving it even a cursory glance to get the time they've wasted back?

For anyone reading this, FIU is not the best choice for practicing in Florida. Not even close.

Which one of these Florida institutions lets its students get away with this level of writing (yes, even for a post on an internet forum)?

cavalier1138 wrote:Which one of these Florida institutions lets its students get away with this level of writing (yes, even for a post on an internet forum)?

Couldn't get past the first sentence.

If someone could comment on how society is at Miami Law, I think we deserve to know.

this was like reading the side of the dr. bronner soap bottle

grand inquisitor wrote:this was like reading the side of the dr. bronner soap bottle

Winner.

As someone who wants to practice in Miami eventually, I'd actually be interested in reading a serious take on this.

I've heard basically UF > UM > FIU if we're limiting this purely to Florida schools. FSU decent but not ideal for south Florida I think?

That said, UM's bar passage rate last year was scary bad (like 70%).

fonzeee wrote:As someone who wants to practice in Miami eventually, I'd actually be interested in reading a serious take on this.

I've heard basically T14/UF/FSU > UM > FIU if we're limiting this purely to Florida schools. FSU decent but not ideal for south Florida I think?

That said, UM's bar passage rate last year was scary bad (like 70%).

Bolded seems much more plausible. UF/FSU are peers throughout the state of Florida, although UF does place more in private practice year over year than FSU. And obviously going to a T14 with ties to Florida is arguably the best way to get in to Miami/South Florida.

this is super anecdotal, but check out the bios of the summer associate classes at bilzin to get an idea for the various constituencies feeding the miami market. i chose bilzin bc its easy to get info on its summer class composition rather than bc i am certain their classes are representative of the market. i'm sure some asshole is going to come in and note that w&c miami draws on a very different pool, which is likely true to an extent.

UVA2B wrote:

fonzeee wrote:As someone who wants to practice in Miami eventually, I'd actually be interested in reading a serious take on this.

I've heard basically T14/UF/FSU > UM > FIU if we're limiting this purely to Florida schools. FSU decent but not ideal for south Florida I think?

That said, UM's bar passage rate last year was scary bad (like 70%).

Bolded seems much more plausible. UF/FSU are peers throughout the state of Florida, although UF does place more in private practice year over year than FSU. And obviously going to a T14 with ties to Florida is arguably the best way to get in to Miami/South Florida.

Any truth to the idea I've heard from some that there's advantages to going UM over UF/FSU for getting into Miami? Not necessarily biglaw, just any private practice aside from going solo.

Also would it be right to say that lateralling from, say NYC, is best anyway?

grand inquisitor wrote:this is super anecdotal, but check out the bios of the summer associate classes at bilzin to get an idea for the various constituencies feeding the miami market. i chose bilzin bc its easy to get info on its summer class composition rather than bc i am certain their classes are representative of the market. i'm sure some asshole is going to come in and note that w&c miami draws on a very different pool, which is likely true to an extent.

Very interesting. UF and even UM surprisingly well-represented.

fonzeee wrote:

UVA2B wrote:

fonzeee wrote:As someone who wants to practice in Miami eventually, I'd actually be interested in reading a serious take on this.

I've heard basically T14/UF/FSU > UM > FIU if we're limiting this purely to Florida schools. FSU decent but not ideal for south Florida I think?

That said, UM's bar passage rate last year was scary bad (like 70%).

Bolded seems much more plausible. UF/FSU are peers throughout the state of Florida, although UF does place more in private practice year over year than FSU. And obviously going to a T14 with ties to Florida is arguably the best way to get in to Miami/South Florida.

Any truth to the idea I've heard from some that there's advantages to going UM over UF/FSU for getting into Miami? Not necessarily biglaw, just any private practice aside from going solo.

Also would it be right to say that lateralling from, say NYC, is best anyway?

If you're getting outside of Biglaw, the importance of networking goes up pretty substantially, so there is definitely some truth to an advantage UM grads have in getting non-Biglaw jobs in Miami over a UF/FSU grad (note: this is not necessarily an endorsement of going to UM over UF/FSU, and should not be read as such). That's not to say a UF/FSU student couldn't network during summers, via email and remote contact, etc., but smaller firms might value a UM student who can do some work for them during the school year, see them regularly, and really get to know them better where they would be more inclined to hire them right out of school.

grand inquisitor wrote:this is super anecdotal, but check out the bios of the summer associate classes at bilzin to get an idea for the various constituencies feeding the miami market. i chose bilzin bc its easy to get info on its summer class composition rather than bc i am certain their classes are representative of the market. i'm sure some asshole is going to come in and note that w&c miami draws on a very different pool, which is likely true to an extent.

Interesting, seems like they take a relatively large amount of 1L SAs, most of which go to T13/T20 schools and have Florida ties. As someone who will hopefully be attending a T13/T20 with strong Florida ties this is encouraging.

fonzeee wrote:As someone who wants to practice in Miami eventually, I'd actually be interested in reading a serious take on this.

I've heard basically UF > UM > FIU if we're limiting this purely to Florida schools. FSU decent but not ideal for south Florida I think?

That said, UM's bar passage rate last year was scary bad (like 70%).

Bar passage shouldn't be your concern, those UM kids who failed did so from their own wrongdoing, nothing to do with the school.

If your goal is Small/Mid Law in Miami --> UM > everywhere else.

Big Law in Miami is more complex and really depends on the firm; some firms view UF / T13 as a plus others are totally keen on hiring LR qualifying UM grads. I really don't think you could go wrong with UM, UF or T13.

The bigger plus of UF / T13 is they open more options if BL Miami doesn't work out, but don't expect either option to offer you significantly more Miami BL opportunities than UM. I didn't do a head count, but every year all the Miami SAs meet at the federal courthouse and my year it appeared that there were as many UM students as UFs.

As for T13, I wouldn't do it full sticker. Sure, it may give you a small boost over the local schools, but Miami firms really aren't very prestige centric. Even CCN students with average grades struggle to break into Miami BL.

Good luck!

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Appreciate the responses guys, very informative!

I attended the University of Miami for 2 years as an undergrad and enjoyed my time there but was forced to transfer due to health and money issues. I now attend school in Texas but would like to return to South Florida to work for a year before I apply to law schools. I know ties are very important to break into the Miami market and I'm wondering if my circumstances are good enough for consideration for a government or big law job in Miami?

Southend97 wrote:I attended the University of Miami for 2 years as an undergrad and enjoyed my time there but was forced to transfer due to health and money issues. I now attend school in Texas but would like to return to South Florida to work for a year before I apply to law schools. I know ties are very important to break into the Miami market and I'm wondering if my circumstances are good enough for consideration for a government or big law job in Miami?

The circumstance that matters most is going to be where you get your JD. You can work in Miami for a decade, but if you go to FIU, biglaw probably isn't happening.

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mrcfa1995 wrote:

Southend97 wrote:I'm wondering if my circumstances are good enough for consideration for a government or big law job in Miami?

If you want miami biglaw and you don't have strong ties to the region, go to UM law or Levin at UF and graduate near the top of your class. Easiest way to get into the miami firms. Look on the websites of biglaw firms in miami and see how many associates are UM or UF grads that graduated cum laude or better.

Just wanted to say that this is dangerous advice coming from someone who hasn't been through law school classes yet. There is no such thing as planning to be the top of your class from pretty much anywhere. Ask anyone who has been through law school classes (at a minimum, a semester of 1L at an ABA accredited school), and they'll tell you just how unpredictable performance can be before it gets started. So while Miami Biglaw might be peppered with UF and UM grads, that doesn't mean going to UF or UM means you'll be in a position from those schools to get Miami Biglaw necessarily. You're likely to be practicing law in Florida more generally if you go to UF or UM, but there is no reasonable assurance that you'll be in the portion of the class at either to be in Biglaw, much less specifically Miami Biglaw.

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mrcfa1995 wrote:

UVA2B wrote:this is dangerous advice coming from someone who hasn't been through law school classes yet

Yeah I agree my previous post was an over-simplification and you have to expect the median outcome wherever you go; but Miami is definitely a tough market to crack without regional ties

Which is why you shouldn't specifically target it when choosing a school unless you have ties, which allows you to attend a T13 while still having a shot at Miami. Doing so is just too risky.

Outside BigLaw, networking is what counts most in Florida. Many "locally-prestigious" law firms and PD and SAO offices hire tons of people from small, unheard of law schools in the state. I don't even know if Stetson is a ranked law school. Yet, it's the top trial school in the state, and they nab a lot of the trial attorney jobs in Central Florida. Surprisingly, in South Florida, St. Thomas, which may also not even be ranked, has alumni in pretty influential local law firms that hire almost exclusively alumni. Same case with UMiami. If you're aiming for SAO/PD in Miami, FIU effectively has a pipeline to those jobs that will be more advantageous than a prestigious law degree. Outside BigLaw, a degree from Harvard won't meet squat unless you know someone who knows someone in the firm.

In re: biglaw, the lion share of attorneys are definitely T13, but I know UF grads who are in big law, so it's not impossible. If biglaw if your goal and you're limited to Florida schools, go UF and be top of your class (hah!).

Any thoughts on how Vandy places in Florida?