Okay, one more list to show you how this looks at 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)