BigLaw Democraticizing, Lower-Ranked Schools Looking Better Every Day

It's 1973 and you want to go to law school with the aim of sliding into the driver's seat of your BigLaw Mercedes.  Do you dare go to a school like the Shepard Broad Law Center at Nova Southeastern?  Oh, no, it wasn't open yet.

It's 1993 and you want to go to law school with the aim of sliding into the driver's seat of your BigLaw Mercedes.  Do you dare go to a school like the Shepard Broad Law Center at Nova Southeastern?  Oh, no, the doors to BigLaw were closed.  Shut.  No steak and wine for you.

It's 2013 and you want to go to law school with the aim of sliding into the driver's seat of your BigLaw Mercedes.  Do you dare go to a school like the Shepard Broad Law Center at Nova Southeastern?  Oh, yes.  Door is open.  

From...some newspaper in a state that needs more law schools:

Greenberg Traurig, the state's top law firm in 2012 revenues and No. 2 with its more than 300 lawyers, once only recruited graduates from the top-tier law schools. But in October, the firm launched a residency program to hire new graduates for non-partnership track employment. They bill at a lower rate and earn a lower paycheck.
...
The firm reportedly bumped its pay this year for first-year associates from $125,000 to $145,000. 

Resident attorneys earn a salary below that — Kaufman won't say how much. The program typically lasts a year, with an option for a second-year extension. 

"Our hope is that after a successful year they will convert to associates with the ultimate goal of becoming a shareholder," Kaufman said.
...
[Nova's head of career development] said while participants may be paid a bit less than traditional hires, "they're still getting the same pedigree."

Viva la revolution!

With a full 3.7% of its alumni finding their way into large (>100 attorneys) firms, and with an undetermined number of those gaining the second-year option and possibly converting into a normal associate (just like their "peers" at better schools!), with an undetermined number of those associates becoming shareholders, with an undetermined number of those shareholders becoming shareholders that matter, there's simply no way you could possibly lose by going to Nova Southeastern.  It's math.

And even if they don't, they're obviously getting the same pedigree.  The same pedigree.

When people criticize the fact that the Shepard Broad Law Center and Nova Southeastern now costs $34,740.00 a year in tuition plus whatever living expenses a student needs (what, maybe $5k a year?), they obviously aren't factoring in the wealth of new opportunity that has cracked open now that BigLaw is accepting the unwashed masses with its warm, welcoming embrace.