Okay, one more list to show you how this looks at Skadden Arps, a law firm ranked very highly in numerous specialties by US News.

Some of you may have been thinking while looking at the previous three lists that most of these employees have been out of college for a decade or more, and that it’s probably gotten more competitive in recent years with all the focus on rankings and such. So let’s go one step further with this list and include only students who finished their undergraduate studies in the year 2017–which is the most recent year to have a significant number due to also having had to complete law school–in order to show that the most recent graduates are also being hired from a wide variety of colleges. Here’s where all of the associates with undergraduate degrees received in 2017 at Skadden Arps (link to Skadden Arps)–one of the most highly ranked law firms in the country on numerous measures by US News–did their undergraduate work. Numbers in parentheses are for those colleges that have more than one associate on the list.

Skadden Arps Associates (graduated 2017)

George Washington U (2)

Loyola U of Chicago

Lehigh U

Virginia Tech

U Mississippi

U Miami

Hope College

Franklin and Marshall College

U Texas Austin

U Michigan

Miami U of Ohio

Tufts (2)

U Central Florida

U North Carolina Wilmington

Drexel

U Chicago

Arizona State

Northwestern

Indiana U

U California Berkeley

U Florida

Harvard

Because there were fewer hires in 2020 than most years, I also looked at 2016. The representation of MC25 schools is higher here, but 64% are still from non-MC25 colleges. If we combine the two years, 69% are from non-MC25 schools, which is comparable to the percentage in other professions.

U Pennsylvania (4)

Harvard (3)

Cornell (2)

Towson U (2)

U Maryland College Park (2)

St. John’s U

U Alabama

U Missouri

Boston College

Washington U in St. Louis

Wake Forest U

Lebanon Valley College

James Madison U

Stanford

U Dayton

City College of New York

Missouri State

Notre Dame

Penn State

New York U

Syracuse

The College of New Jersey

Purdue

U Michigan

Emory U

Georgetown (3)

Dartmouth (2)

U Illinois (2)

U Southern California (2)

Duke (2)

U Central Florida

U Delaware

U Connecticut

Indiana State

U Rochester

U Nebraska

San Diego State

Princeton

U Virginia

Tufts

U California Los Angeles

Williams College

Brigham Young U

U Texas Austin

George Washington U

U Vermont

Brown

Carnegie Mellon U

U Iowa

U Florida

Source: skadden.com

(last updated 4/12/2021)