The Changing Social Role of Urban Law Schools

Abstract

This article, based on the first wave of the After the J.D. data, explores the history of urban law schools and asks whether they play the same role today as in the past. In particular, it asks whether the urban, Catholic, and independent categories of law schools located in major urban centers play a distinctive role today or whether law school ratings are more important in allocating students to particular schools and determining what role they will play in the legal profession. The analysis shows some continuities but also some interesting changes - for example, in terms of where immigrants are likely to attend law school and also the current significance of the social networking and location of urban schools today.

Keywords: law schools, lawyers, law students