Top Law Schools

Just overall prestige. If I had to guess I'd say 1) SDNY 2) EDVA 3) CDCA 4) EDNY 5) NDCA/NDIL?

What does overall prestige mean? Prestigious to whom? Why do you care?

To indulge you, I’d say that probably fairly ranks their competitiveness (how hard they are to get), though I’d put NDCA over NDIL and am not sure that there’s much to distinguish between the rest. SDNY would certainly agree with you.

lawhopeful210 wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 11, 2021 11:18 am

Just overall prestige. If I had to guess I'd say 1) SDNY 2) EDVA 3) CDCA 4) EDNY 5) NDCA/NDIL?

Just curious why the DC USAO isn't on this list? My impression was that they're prestigious, too.

Why EDVA and CDCA over EDNY? Also, to the extent that competitiveness is a factor, those offices seem to have a lot of turnover and spots available.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 11, 2021 3:51 pm

Just curious why the DC USAO isn't on this list? My impression was that they're prestigious, too.

The DC USAO is weird because it's a hybrid - part traditional USAO, part local prosecutor's office. Because DC is exclusively federal jurisdiction, the DC USAO handles all local crime as well as what's traditionally federal crime. So while it handles some very high profile stuff, there are also a ton of people in the office handling your average everyday street crime (theft, assault, DUI, etc) just like regular assistant county/district attorneys. While that's still important/necessary, it's not generally considered prestigious.

So I wouldn't say that the DC USAO is considered one of the most prestigious offices, but that if you work there, you might eventually end up doing some very high profile work.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 16, 2021 2:11 pm

Why EDVA and CDCA over EDNY? Also, to the extent that competitiveness is a factor, those offices seem to have a lot of turnover and spots available.

Personally I think they're all pretty much in the same tier. My impression is that historically EDNY has done a lot of organized crime rather than the more sophisticated white collar stuff in EDVA or CDCA, which maybe colors people's opinions, but I have no idea if that's still the case (nor do I think that matters much). As for turnover/spots, not sure whether you meant all those offices or what, but they're all really big, and turnover/openings still doesn't help that much when everyone getting hired still has stellar accomplishments.

But also, this is all arguing about how many angels dance on the head of a pin. Prestige is a dumb metric.