Interesting article in today’s Wall Street Journal:  How Obscure Law School Places Grads at Top Firms, by Amir Efrati:

Law students starting summer jobs at the New York office of a prominent national law firm come largely from the usual places: Harvard, Yale, Columbia, New York University and some local schools. Then there’s Keith Marlowe of the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.

Last fall, Mr. Marlowe applied for summer work at 110 U.S. firms and got no offers. But the Calgary, Alberta, native had an ace in the hole: private interviews, arranged by his law school, with some of the country’s biggest firms, including Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP, which offered the 25-year-old a job paying about $3,000 a week.

In the stratified world of law, educational pedigree largely dictates where students will get a look. Firms want to signal to clients and colleagues that they only hire the best. As firms have grown and competition for junior lawyers has intensified, some firms have dipped below the Ivies and their equivalents. Nonetheless, a student from a school like Detroit Mercy — firmly in the cellar of U.S. News & World Report’s rankings of 184 accredited law schools — hasn’t stood a chance at the fancy firms.

But thanks to some masterful marketing by Detroit Mercy’s dean, Mark C. Gordon, top students at the school are now gaining entree to the big leagues.