Transferring...what to do what to say.

Emailed Question
I am currently enrolled at Cooley Law School. I finished very close to the top of my class after the first term. (3.67, prob top 4%) I am looking to transfer to a school closer to my girlfriend and family in NY and Western CT.

Cooley is infamous for making this process impossible. The professors keep you at arms length which makes recommendations very difficult. Do you have any suggestions or insight which could help me make this process a little easier?

I am also very concerned on what I will in write my personal statement. Sure, I want to be back near my family but the real reason is that I don’t want to graduate from this school. It sounds terrible, but I feel I work too hard and I’m too good to be associated with my classmates.


My Answer:
I want to put a disclaimer out there that I am making no guarantee that anything that worked for me will also work for you. I am just a second year law student trying to help out and if you disagree with something, then DO NOT take my advice. Since this is a law school site, feel free to post your angry rebuttal. Before I try my best to tackle this question, let me give you a little background about my transfer experience. I was enrolled at a tier 4 school down in Florida. There is nothing wrong with being at a tier 4 school and wanting to graduate from that school. I was never a "big firm" guy, and I am not a believer in the "don't go to law school unless you're in the top 30 philosophy." Don't ever regret staying at your current school especially if you've done well at that school.

I'm going to do my best to be very honest and real on this blog, and that probably won't always involve saying the proper things. I knew that I wanted out of my school. I loved the city, the people, and even the school but I knew wanted to move to a more prestigious school. I targeted seven schools ranging from top 20 down to tier three. I got into four out of the seven schools I applied to, and the information that I'm going to share is based on what worked for me. I got into two out of the thirteen schools I applied to before entering law school.

Concerning letters of recommendation, many law schools will make it hard on you to get them. I can only say from experience about my previous school, but I really don't think this is embedded in the school policy. Law professors are extremely busy people, and writing a transfer student a letter of recommendation is not on the top of their priority list. To make sure that you get yours on time and get the letter you want you have to develop an action plan. Develop relationships with the professors before you ever ask them for a letter. Something I employed in my first semester was to ask questions that I really didn't need to know the answers to. You can usually tell what a professor is interested in by listening in class. Bring this up, and remember that people love to talk about themselves. Ask them about an achievement or a research paper you are working on. If you can establish a relationship, they are going to care about helping you as a person and you won't just be another letter they have to write.

Next, remember these professors (no matter what school they teach at) have very distinguished backgrounds. They know about law school rankings and chances are if you are at a lower tiered law school and doing well they are going to understand why you want out. After the relationship has developed, approach them with your lsac submission form and a list of the schools to which you are applying (if they want the letters sent directly to them). Always ask more professors for letters than you need. If you need two ask four professors. This will ensure that if there is one you can't control, you have three other to back it up. As a side note, I really wouldn't recommend getting letters for transferring from anyone other than professors or law school faculty. I could be completely wrong, but I really don't think that law schools care anymore about what judge your dad knows or anything else. The power game used to work but there are just too many damn people that want to go to law school anymore.

Finally, as far as technical matters go, once you get letters into lsac make sure that you disable the letters you originally used for applying the first time around. The only letters you want them to get are your transfer letters. Also some schools (I know UCLA is one) that want you to use LSAT to submit reports but want the letters sent directly to them. I talked to the people at lsac and they told me that there is no way to disable letters from going to one school. So if a school like UCLA wants letters sent directly to them but also want your report from lsac, they are going to get letters through lsac as well.