Is it like, a real school? Or more of a diploma mill or Davenport for lawyers?

A former pupil of mine is planning on going there, and I am curious as to whether she's on the right track or not.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Well, it is a Tier 4 (the lowest rank) in the US News rankings. That means that it is not sending people to the top firms in NY, Chicago, LA, etc.

However, it is ABA accredited, which means something, since the ABA actually has fairly strict standards for law schools. It is likely that your pupil will be able to learn about the US Legal system and the substantive law there as well as anywhere else, it just may be harder because the instructiors are not as good, and since the place does not have a stellar pedigree, there will not be as many private practice opportunities upon graduation as if he/she went to Harvard Law School, but such is life.

I am not familair with Marshall, but I do know people who went to other Tier 4 Schools, and they are mostly all working as attorneys and seem to have enjoyed their law school experience.

It is a real school. It should be able to teach the basics. To be a lawyer, you still have to pass the Bar Exam, and then you really start learning stuff once you get a job.

I have a relative who has just enrolled there. He has shown me a recent research paper of his. WOW. I could never do anything as ambitious, & I pride myself on being able to tackle damn near every challenge I encounter. It doesn't seem like they're fucking around over there. According to him, they count among their alumni several Illinois State Supreme Court Justices.

So, to me, Marshall seems to be of some worth.

The US News rankings are based in part upon how selective a school is in terms of admission rates and percentage of admitted students attending. I suspect its lack of selectivity plays a big part in John Marshall being 4th tier. I have also seen statistics indicating that they had the worst bar passage rate among the law schools in the city, and maybe in the state. This was a few years ago, so maybe things are changing.
Regardless, the top law schools aren't anything close to perfect at picking only the people who will make "good lawyers," however you might define the phrase. So there are still many people coming out of John Marshall who become skilled and successful lawyers.

The LLM program in intellectual property law is absolutely top notch. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

I have no idea about the JD program, but my snooty old big tall building law firm didn't really recruit from there, for whatever that's worth.

Cool building.

cwiko wrote:According to him, they count among their alumni several Illinois State Supreme Court Justices .

This is true. A friend of mine's dad is on the Illinois State Supreme Court and he went there. My friend went there too and he works for the state as a law dude.

The school can't be all bad.

Thanks for the responses, people. It's great to hear that Marshall isn't bullshittin', even if it's a 4th tier school. Somehow I became wary that it was either a scam or a half-assed outfit.

I also like that you can refer to the school as Marshall Law. Go ahead! Try saying it out loud. It's kinda funny.

The Kid wrote:The US News rankings are based in part upon how selective a school is in terms of admission rates and percentage of admitted students attending.

True. Somehow the US News ranking on institutes of secondary education have become the gold standard, and the reason for this is as simple as the fact that alot of people read US News! It's criteria for ranking do not give one a good idea of most of the schools in question.

Marshall is totally legit. However, it is considered the worst law school in Chicago to graduate from. Poor job placement options unless you do the specialty thing that Brad mentioned. That being said, if you are a good lawyer, it rarely matters much where you went to school after 5 years. There are many outstanding attorneys in this city that graduated from Marshall Law. And now my 2 cents - don't go to Law School (especially Marshall) unless you want to be a lawyer. It does not open doors to other areas of business like you may think it might. (exit left of soapbox).