Stanford University - School of Law

“People are happy” at Stanford Law School, and why wouldn’t they be? There are “tons of programs,” an array of specialized centers, and a couple dozen joint-degree options. The eleven clinics here include a Supreme Court litigation clinic and an IP Innovation clinic, just to list a couple. “The resources available to us at Stanford are fantastic, and sometimes unbelievable,” gushes a 2L. The “amazingly brilliant” and “diverse” faculty is “a great mix of practically minded and experienced—professors and wild-minded theorists.” Professors are “incredible lecturers and easy to approach outside of the classroom.” “I have yet to meet a professor who is not only doing something amazing but is completely approachable and dying to help us get jobs and do research,” gloats a 2L. Moreover, Stanford is “so small that everything is very easy to do.” “All of my seminars have had fewer than ten people,” gloats a 2L. “The university as a whole has a lot of red tape,” but the law school’s administration is “very receptive” and accessible at almost every level. “It’s the opposite of the ‘factory’ feeling at large professional schools,” explains a 3L. “If you want to do something new or nontraditional, just ask. Usually you can work something out.”
The Stanford campus is “sprawling” and “beautiful,” with “acres of rolling green hills for hiking, and palm trees everywhere.” “The law school is hideous from the outside but, inside, it’s quite nice.” The library is a world-class research facility “and all law students have twenty-four-hour access to study there.” “I can’t study in any other university library,” admits a comfortable 1L, “because I have become too accustomed to the law school’s Aeron chairs.”
A few students call Career Services “underwhelming,” but “pretty much everyone can get a firm job if they want one.” They can get that job anywhere in the country, too. Less than 50 percent of all newly minted Stanford Law grads take jobs in California. Stanford is also “seriously committed to public interest law,” and the “great loan repayment program” here is arguably the best in the country. Also worth noting is the impressive historical fact that more than 100 Stanford law graduates have clerked for one of the Supreme Court Justices.
Of course, nothing is perfect, even at Stanford. Some students love the pass/fail grading system while others say it provides little incentive to work hard. Despite these complaints, though, students call Stanford “the best law school west of the Appalachians,” and they “have a hard time seeing why anyone would choose to go to law school anywhere else.”

“Small size makes for a more personal experience” at Stanford. Here, “you really get to know your classmates, and there is consequently no competitive behavior.” The academic atmosphere is “very collaborative.” There are “study groups galore.” Students describe themselves as “ridiculously smart people” who are “highly ambitious” and “work extremely hard.” “It easy to feel like you must have been admitted by mistake,” confesses an awed 1L. There is “lots of diversity” in terms of age, background, ethnicity, and pretty much every other attribute. Some students call the political environment “overwhelmingly liberal.” Other students say “there’s a critical mass of right-of-center students,” and they point out that you definitely won’t see too many protests among law students. “Perhaps that’s because everyone harbors secret Supreme Court ambitions and wouldn’t want to pigeonhole their position on an issue somewhere the Senate Confirmation Committee could find it,” suggests a 1L.
THE SCHOOLS 233 Certainly, “you won’t have to contend with snow or gloomy weather” at this school. “The weather is perfect 90 percent of the time.” Some students call Palo Alto “a cultural wonderland” that has everything you need including “incredibly nice” graduate student housing located right next to the law school. Other students gripe, “Living in Palo Alto is like living in a suburb, which to anyone who is coming from an urban area will be a shock.” “A big percentage of Stanford students are married, or commute from San Francisco, so they have their own lives away from the school.” Extracurricular activity is constant for everyone, though. “Having the law school right in the middle of Silicon Valley allows for many practitioners, general counsels, venture capitalists,” and the like to drop by. Student organizations are profuse. “Everyone at Stanford is president of a club, editor of a journal, director of a pro bono, and a board member of a society,” claims a 2L. “Social events are plentiful,” and they are “always a hoot.” There is something of a fraternity-like culture if that’s what you are looking for, but it’s “not [an] overwhelming scene,” and we aren’t talking about people doing multiple keg stands. “You have to remember that everyone had to be pretty studious and dorky in order to get in here,” says a 1L.