Charlotte Biglaw associate said "not hard" to get CLT Biglaw from UNC? Forum

[LegalBiology]

So I will be applying to law schools this coming fall and looked at UNC chapel hill for the tuition and the fact that with my LSAT/gpa I likely would get a scholarship (i'm In state)

I am set on biglaw - i'm after the money, and want my school choice to reflect that. I also will have a STEM degree from Notre Dame and am planning on taking the patent bar exam to get into IP law

This associate actually went to Vanderbilt, but said that if you want charlotte biglaw you can "pretty much get it" from UNC or Wake. Is this true? Did he mean like, if you are top 1/3 or top 25% from UNC?

[cavalier1138]

How many big law firms are in Charlotte?

Regardless of what the answer is, that associate was out of his tiny little mind. You need to be in the top 20-25% of your class at UNC or Wake to stand a chance at any big firm, much less one in a secondary market. So no, you can't "pretty much get it" just by attending one of those schools. You seem to be aware that UNC will not lead you to the promised land of biglaw. So instead of trying to find justifications for going there; focus on getting in to a school where biglaw is a more realistic goal.

I'm also not going to address your motivations for biglaw except to say that there are easier ways to make money and that you're likely to be absolutely miserable if the promise of a lucrative career is your only reason for attending law school.

[miskellyjohnson]

CLT is such a small market, and then patent prosecution is such a small subfield of the overall legal market, that it is probably hard to give any generalized statement. It might be that there are less than 5-10 patent prosecutors a year hired in the Charlotte area to BigLaw firms, in which case-- regardless of your grades/school (which will have to be sufficient)-- it will still come down to connections and luck (that a firm is looking for someone with your background at the right time).

What is your STEM degree in? If it is EE or CS then you are positioned much differently than if it is Chemistry or Biology. How many big law firms have Charlotte offices that do patent prosecution? I believe Alston & Bird has a Charlotte office. I would check to see if they do patent prosecution, and then see where the recent associates are from and how many they hire per year. Repeat for other big law firms. Get an idea of how many firms there are with patent prosecution in the area, and how many associates there are in each firm, and how many associates are hired per year. This will give you an idea of how realistic it is to get a job in patent prosecution in Charlotte at all, then you can look at bio's to get an idea of how many come from UNC or peer schools.

[Npret]

So I will be applying to law schools this coming fall and looked at UNC chapel hill for the tuition and the fact that with my LSAT/gpa I likely would get a scholarship (i'm In state)

I am set on biglaw - i'm after the money, and want my school choice to reflect that. I also will have a STEM degree from Notre Dame and am planning on taking the patent bar exam to get into IP law

This associate actually went to Vanderbilt, but said that if you want charlotte biglaw you can "pretty much get it" from UNC or Wake. Is this true? Did he mean like, if you are top 1/3 or top 25% from UNC?

If you want big law for money, you’re making a mistake.
If your undergrad degree is biology, you will not be in good shape for IP. You will need an advanced degree.

What are your numbers? If you want a fair chance at biglaw you need to go to a school to places well into big law. You will most likely need to retake if these are the schools you want.

If you just want to be a lawyer - which you didn’t say but just said you want money- making whatever starting salary and in your area of Charlotte, then possibly that school makes sense. From what you’ve stated you want, you aren’t on a path to lead you to biglaw IP.

For General biglaw from UNC I’m guessing closer to at least top 10% for biglaw anywhere. But you can look it up on law school transparency.
Edit - cavalier says top 20 to 25% and he knows more about the south than I do.

[devilblue]

So I will be applying to law schools this coming fall and looked at UNC chapel hill for the tuition and the fact that with my LSAT/gpa I likely would get a scholarship (i'm In state)

I am set on biglaw - i'm after the money, and want my school choice to reflect that. I also will have a STEM degree from Notre Dame and am planning on taking the patent bar exam to get into IP law

This associate actually went to Vanderbilt, but said that if you want charlotte biglaw you can "pretty much get it" from UNC or Wake. Is this true? Did he mean like, if you are top 1/3 or top 25% from UNC?

This person was incorrect, and I really hope the one giving you advice was not the one Vanderbilt associate I know working in Biglaw in Charlotte. I am happy to speak with you personally if you want advice about the charlotte market and law school, but you have been woefully misled. Consider the following:

1. there are very few IP job opportunities in Charlotte at large law firms. There are almost surely more in the RTP/Raleigh market than in Charlotte, and even then its only a few.

2. there are very few biglaw associate positions available in charlotte each year. there are probably twenty or thirty total. eight-ish at Robinson Bradshaw, eight-ish at Moore and Van Allen, and fifteen-ish combined at the rest of the six to eight biglaw firms in the market. Robinson Bradshaw is notoriously difficult to get a job at -- from UNC you'd probably have to be in the top 5% of your class; Moore and Van Allen is only slightly less selective, probably top 10% required. And those two make up half the hiring in the market each year.

3. We're about to have a recession.