Reply #5: Of those law schools, UC Davis and American University are notably [View All]

[Czolgosz]

progressive in their student bodies, faculties, and course offerings.

Here's a list of ways you can assess these issues for yourself:

1. See how active the Lawyer's Guild and University Civil Liberties Unions are (talk to members). If the Federalist Society is more active than the Lawyer's Guild and University Civil Liberties Union combined, you may be happier elsewhere.

2. Confirm there is actual diversity in the faculty and student body, and check the policies of the placement center (do they require potential employers to eschew discrimination as a prerequisite to interviewing on campus?).

3. See if there is a good death penalty litigation clinic or indigent care clinic and if there are law journal and law review opportunities for people interested in exploring progressive scholarship or do the journals and reviews all slant rightward.

4. Check the faculties' areas of publications and their legal practice areas (look for schools that encourage scholarship in a wide range of areas from commercial law to progressive legal theories and look for faculties where the professors work for consumers).

5. Check course offerings (I took socialist legal theory, feminist legal theory, law and philosophy, comparative legal philosophies - classes that would not have been offered at some conservative schools).

Good luck.