Best Law Schools

• Smart Choices: Corporate and securities, litigation, intellectual property, international law, and environmental
  For its 2009 Salary Guide, Robert Half Legal asked 300 lawyers which areas of practice offer the most opportunities over the next 10 years and those five led the way.
• Insider Tip: Specialization isn't the only way to gain practical know-how in law school. Participating in legal clinics will give you the experience to impress potential employers. Nearly every school of law now offers its students a chance to gain courtroom experience. Among the newest: an immigration law clinic at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles, a project in social enterprise and economic development aimed at small businesses at the University of Tulsa College of Law, and a national security and human-rights clinic at the University of Texas.
• Getting In: Know your audience. Find out where past graduates have landed. If the strengths of the school are aligned with your own ambitions, your application has a better chance.
• Reality Check: Increase in doctoral degrees awarded, past year: 8.5 percent.
  Increase in doctoral degrees awarded, past five years: 57 percent
• Reality Check: Average compensation for first-year associates at small law firms: $50,250-$73,000
  Legal specialty most likely to see a salary increase: contract administrator (forecast for four-plus years' experience: $57,750-$93,000).

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