When you’re choosing a law school — just like when you’re buying a home or starting a business — there’s a refrain you’ll hear over and over again: “Location, location, location.”
And it’s true, location matters. For law students, it can be easier to start their career near where they went to school. Through classes, clinics, and externships, law students tend to make connections with professors, students, and business owners who live and work near where they went to law school.
But it’s possible to be too short-sighted when it comes to geography. Local connections help early in your career, but after you’ve been practicing for a few years, your resume will open doors nationwide.
This blog post examines the importance of location when choosing a law school. (And don’t forget to check out our accompanying podcast about going to law school out of state!)
This is one of the first questions prospective students ask during the admissions process: Does it matter where I get my law degree? For most students, the short answer is yes — but not in the way you might think.
Many people focus heavily on law school rankings, worrying whether choosing a higher-ranked school or a lower-ranked school will affect their career paths long-term. Others worry that employers only look at top-tier or top-ranked law school options. And while prestige can be one important factor, it’s far from the only one.
A strong law degree gives you the foundation you need to build a legal career anywhere in the country. Your undergraduate GPA, LSAT score, extracurricular involvement, and internships will all shape your law school application. But once you begin your legal education, your experiences, faculty relationships, clerkships, and work experience will matter just as much as any ranking.
Many students hear advice that they should attend law school in-state, near where they hope to work. And there’s some truth to that, especially for students who want to build early connections in a particular legal market, join a local law firm, or seek their first job through regional networks (more on that below).
But students also move a lot. Whether it’s to seek a distinguished clerkship, pursue a public interest work fellowship across the country, explore a new practice area, or join a big law firm in another major city, graduates often find opportunities far from where they started. The average person moves more than 11 times in their lifetime, so it’s not unusual to attend law school in one state, take the bar exam in another, and eventually practice in a third.
The state where you attend law school can shape some parts of your legal education, especially when it comes to the bar exam. Some states test heavily on areas of law that are especially relevant to their region. For instance, California’s known for having one of the most challenging bar exams in the country; Louisiana’s bar exam, unlike every other state, is rooted in the civil law tradition, not common law; and in Texas, oil and gas law appears frequently enough on the bar exam that many students encounter it during their coursework, even if they never plan to practice in that field.
That said, the bar exam is designed to test broad legal fundamentals, and many states now use the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE). So while the state you study in can expose you to certain legal nuances, what matters just as much is choosing a law school that invests in bar readiness overall. Schools that provide high-quality bar prep resources, practice exams, and individualized support can help you pass no matter where you ultimately choose to sit for the bar, while a weak bar prep program can leave students scrambling regardless of where they studied.
Employers care about your abilities: how well you write, think, advocate, and collaborate. A law school’s reputation matters, but so does the substance of your work.
If you gained experience through high-quality clinics, clerkships, or externships; worked alongside respected faculty members; or developed strong writing and advocacy skills, employers will take notice whether you studied full-time, part-time, in-state, or out of state.
Most employers look at the whole candidate: your legal education, your work experience, your specialty interests, and the way you present yourself as a future colleague. They care that you chose a school where you were supported, challenged, and prepared — not just the state listed on the diploma.
Here are some factors to consider when choosing where to go to law school.
It might seem obvious, but make sure you visit campus before you decide where to go. When you’re applying to law school(s), it’s easy to think about each school as an abstraction, but the school you choose is going to determine where you spend the next three years of your life.
That’s why you should ask yourself: do you like the weather? Is the school in a city or out in the middle of nowhere? How nice is the campus? Is it a place you’d want to spend time, or is it a cluster of gray buildings on a city block that you’d otherwise never look at twice? These questions are about more than just aesthetic preferences: they’ll play an important role in motivating you for the next three years.
Some students prefer the energy of a major city, especially those interested in high-volume legal fields such as corporate work, public interest work, or big law. Major cities offer a wide range of internships, clerkships, and practice areas all in close proximity.
But attending school in a major metropolitan area isn’t the only way to access those opportunities. Strong regional schools with national reputations can offer tight-knit communities, better work-life balance, and direct access to faculty mentorship: advantages that can be harder to find in large, crowded school environments.
You might not know yet what area you want to specialize in, but it’s never too early to start thinking about what kind of law you’ll want to practice once you graduate. Focus on schools with stand-out programs in the areas that interest you. For instance, Stetson Law’s trial advocacy program is ranked #1 in the country by U.S. News and World Report, and we’re #3 for legal writing. These programs are nationally renowned and have consistently been ranked among the finest in the nation.
Every region has its own economic identity, and that shapes the local legal market. Choosing a law school near that industry can offer early exposure and hands-on experience.
For instance, Tampa Bay, where Stetson Law is located, offers a diverse legal market shaped by the region’s major industries, including financial services and FinTech, healthcare and biomedical research, a fast-growing technology and innovation sector, international trade and logistics through Port Tampa Bay, and robust real estate and hospitality industries.
For law students, that mix creates access to a wide range of internships, clerkships, and externships — from corporate and compliance work to healthcare regulation, national security, intellectual property, maritime law, and land use.
State capitals also provide consistent opportunities in policy, administrative law, and government contracting. Cities like Sacramento, Raleigh, Albany, Austin, and Denver offer rich environments for students interested in legislation, government agencies, or public policy work.
Local job markets vary in size, competitiveness, and specialization. As you compare schools, consider:
What types of law firms and agencies are nearby
A rich job market during law school can help you discover which practice areas excite you the most, even if you plan to practice somewhere else later.
In the same way, law students should be more selective about programs; they should also be more selective about faculty. Research the faculty you’ll be working with in law school. Find out about them, their careers, their interests, and the areas in which they’ve published. Finding compatible faculty members who can help you along your way is critical for your success. Moreover, showing the admissions committee that you’ve done research and that you have particular faculty members you’d like to work with could help demonstrate your initiative and prove you’re a good fit for the school.
A law degree opens doors far beyond traditional courtroom practice. Graduates can pursue careers in government, policy, compliance, nonprofit leadership, business, education, and countless other sectors.
Many students arrive at law school after undergrad with a narrow idea of what a lawyer does, but exposure to different practice areas expands your perspective. Whether you dream of joining big law, working in public interest work, becoming a prosecutor, or advising a startup, your legal education can take you anywhere.
No matter where you begin, the skills you build in law school travel with you.
Stetson Law attracts a diverse student body from all over the country and from countless different walks of life. Our entering J.D. class of 2022 came from 29 different states and 6 foreign countries. Twenty-nine percent were people of color, 78% of them received scholarships, and 18% were studying part-time. New students ranged in age from 20 to 59 years old.
Founded in 1900, Stetson is Florida’s oldest law school. With a distinctive Mediterranean Revival-style campus located on 21 acres of tropical landscape just minutes away from the west coast of Florida, Stetson Law is a unique and beautiful place to earn a law degree.
Working closely in courses with our dedicated faculty and with outside legal professionals through off-campus clinics and externships, our students cultivate the knowledge, skills, and practical experience they need to launch legal careers anywhere in the country. Stetson professors are experts in their fields who shape national perspectives on the law.
In this episode of Real Cases, we sit down with Sara Fultz from Virginia and Lamine Gueye from New York, two Stetson Law students who shared their experiences moving to the Tampa Bay area for law school. As students who both pursued other careers after college before they decided to study the law, they share a unique perspective on what prospective students should look for as they plan their legal education.