The obsession at Above The Law with this whole Tier thing about law schools at first seems a bit funny, but as I’ve followed it, most notably the attitudes reflected in the comments by Tier ! law students and graduates, it’s become clear that this is a serious disease.

For the most part, the blawg is focused on what top law firms pay to their new associates, not to mention their bonuses and perks.  It also does its’ best to poke fun at the foibles of these same firms, including the drama inside the lives of the self-important.

Yesterday, David Lat (the primary enabler of this Tier elitism and former AUSA) posted Non-Top-Tier Lawyer of the Day. a New York criminal defense lawyer named Ben Bronfman.  This is part of Lat’s non-Top-Tier week (which has now gone on for two weeks).  The comments, by the same Tier 1 students who hungrily seek proof of their existence, was that Ben’s success proves the point: He’s the exception of being successful coming from a Tier 4 law school.

In the course of puffing their self-importance, these children actually post about how any student attending a Tier 3 or 4 law school is a blithering idiot, barely worthy of living no less practicing law.  They joke about how the “good” firms don’t interview at the law schools, and the only hope of employment is with the local sanitation company, assuming their back is stronger than their mind.

Are we breeding a group of banal pseudo-elitists who actually believe that their Tier 1 school makes them exceptional?  Are the schools feeding this delusion, or is it just goofy kids with low self-esteem who need to sound off at Lat’s website because they can’t find any other place where they feel important?  In the beginning, I thought (hoped?) that this phenomenon was a inside joke, thinking that these students couldn’t possibly be serious.  I’ve come to the conclusion that they are serious, as is Lat, that they believe they are some better breed by virtue of their law school.  And so, it’s time for a little chat about it.

Dear Tier 1 students, I am sure that your mothers and fathers are very proud of you, and that you worked hard to achieve admission and/or graduation from your law school.  But about a week after you graduate, no one will give a damn what school you went to.  Except perhaps you and your mommy.

Ben Bronfman is a great trial lawyer because he is a great trial lawyer, not because of his law school.  And he’s hardly the exception to the rule.  There is no trial lawyer that I know of who will stand up before the jury and announce, I went to a Tier 1 law school.  Wanna know why?  Because no one cares.

Once you’re past this juvenile absorption with school, you have a whole life and career ahead of you.  Either you produce or you don’t.  When you stand before a jury, you don’t get extra points because of your school tie.  Chances are the judge didn’t go to a Tier 1 school.  Chances are your adversary didn’t either.  And you can bet that the jury doesn’t even know what a Tier 1 law school is.  No one will care, and whatever comfort you take from your important law school will immediately fade when you mumble your first inept question on cross-examination.

When I gave testimony before a New York Congressional committee a few years ago about public confidence in judicial elections, one comment I made was the in consequences of candidate bios.  “Will people vote for a judge because he went to Harvard?” I asked.  The sitting judges on the committee laughed and laughed.  “He’d do better around here,” one responded, “if he went to Fordham.”  That was as true as it gets. 

To the Biglaw firms at your first interview, the Tier ranking may be all-important.  But that’s where it ends.  And the worst news is, chances are you, little Tier 1 law school children, will never make equity partner and will be out on the street in 5 years begging some Tier 3 to let you have some desk space in his office.  You see, after law school, the lower Tier law students go out and become lawyers, while you Tier 1 kids are busy playing clerks in the library or hiding behind the reflected glow of judicial clerkships.  They are honing the skills while you are pretending you have some.  They are grooming their clients while you are praying to meet one.

It actually happened to me at my first hearing, before an Administrative Law Judge in New York City.  My adversary announced at one point, referring to me, that “obviously my learned opponent did not have the benefit of being on Harvard Law Review…”  After I had my say, where I conceded that I didn’t attend Harvard, but nonetheless expected that the law that applied to the case was the same regardless of school attended, the ALJ proceeded to rip my adversary’s throat out.  After the hearing was over, the ALJ told me that he went to the same law school as me.  There’s a lesson here for the self-important.  Do you get it?

So while all you Tier 1 students should be very proud of yourselves, get over it.  You are not a superior clan, just a bunch of kids trying to parlay your moment in the sun into a desperate attempt to prove that you are entitled to a wonderful and fruitful life.  You are not necessarily going to be a better lawyer, nor even a happier lawyer.  And the Tier 3 and 4 students are not a step shy of drooling morons, hoping to land a position shining your shoes.  Nor is that insular Biglaw world going to prove to be your Mecca.  A few will survive there, and Biglaw is often the worse for its lack of great lawyers because of its focus on Tier 3 and 4 students.  But they go with the odds, knowing that they will miss many who they would be well-advised to consider.

Get over it.  Whether or not you ever become a real lawyer is up to you, no matter what law school you attend.  It’s a brief moment in time, and nothing more.  When you stand before that jury, and announce that you’re a Tier 1 law grad, there will be silence followed by a laugh in the room.  The Tier 1 ship will have left the port, and you’re now going to have to prove yourself as a lawyer.