Of course!  I am happy to offer my two cents.  I’d love to see the article when you are through as well.

I would definitely transfer again.  I am also entirely confident that I would be just as secure in my decision not to transfer if I had decided otherwise.  Transferring from [SCHOOL] was a difficult decision for me.  I felt like I gained a lot my first year, educationally and personally, and it felt a bit like abandoning my people when I left (especially my peers).  Ultimately, my decision was based on my desire to open more doors for myself.  I did not know exactly what I wanted to do as a lawyer and I wanted to pursue whatever avenues would increase my opportunities to explore my options.  Also, I knew I wanted to try to clerk for a federal judge and unfortunately, school rank matters to some degree just to get them to look at you.  I got a federal clerkship.  But in retrospect, I am not sure that I could not have gotten it if I graduated from [SCHOOL].  My school name did not get my foot in the door with the judges and I had to be incredibly persistent to get this one.  It is entirely possible that I got this clerkship because of my experiences (previous externship), persistence (bordering on pestering), background (commonality with the judge), and recommendations (from my externship).  I’m not sure the judge even knows where I went to school.

All that said, I would recommend transferring but only for the right reasons. I tend to think (in retrospect) that if you know exactly what you want to do then the thing to focus your efforts on is getting an internship/externship in that area.  (See above; that externship is what got me what I wanted.)  That is hands down the most useful bullet point on your resume and in your interviews.  It also helps you meet the right people (See above; recommendation from externship definitely got me what I wanted) which seems to be far more important than your GPA or where you went to school.

The reasons, to my mind, to transfer are: (a) a particular school has a specialty/certificate/clinical program in an area of law that you want to focus your legal career on; (b) you get into a top 10 school; or (c) there is some specific opportunity that you are seeking and you believe that graduating from a higher ranked school will get you closer to achieving that goal.

The first reason is kind of self-explanatory.  If you have a vision, pursue it.  Do everything you can to get experience in it.  The second reason (the “top 10″ reason) is generally very contrary to my way of thinking. I really don’t think rank matters that much, generally.  (“That much”: it matters some, but it is not enough, alone.)  However, I don’t think you can go wrong with a top 10.  From what I understand (from other transfer students and law students generally) those schools are less cut-throat w/in the student body (b/c their grading curves do not require the weeding out of the bottom portion of the classes), they tend to have fabulous clinics for hands-on experience, and they have great career services with enormous connections and resources.  So, top 10, no decision really.  Go.  But if you get into a mediocre-ranked school then rank is only a minor factor in the decision.  Ultimately, I don’t think the legal education you receive at a higher ranked school is necessarily better.  You study the same subjects no matter where you go.  And, in all honesty, the quality of the professors was virtually indistinguishable to me (minus a few bigger egos and a few more SCOTUS clerkships at the school I transferred to).  In fact, I may have received a better education during my first year at [SCHOOL] because of the small student body and more personal attention.

Reasons not to transfer are: (1) money; if you are in a position to transfer then you are probably receiving a fairly large scholarship to stay at your current school (less debt equals more options and less stress; a nice equation; plus, that “full-tuition merit-based scholarship” looks good on your resume); (2) there is a chance you will go from top of your class at your current school to more average at your new school; employers love high GPAs; maybe graduating from a lesser known school #5 in your class is better than graduating from a “top tier” school in the top 50%?; (3) leaving your connections (peers and profs) behind is a disadvantage; you make a lot of great connections and friendships your first year.  There’s a level of closeness first year that does not get replicated second year.  You will be dropped into a sea of new faces without the security of a “section” and everyone else already has their own section-buddies, etc. and you leave behind all the profs you got to know; it’s really like starting over; and (4) I’m not positive about this but I think some schools make it difficult or impossible for transfers to get on journals/moot courts, so that’s worth considering since a lot of entry-level attorney jobs LOVE that experience.

I don’t think anyone can tell someone the right thing to do.  But I would advise any person thinking of transferring to consider all of the above.  Also, talk to everyone you can to get their advice/thoughts/etc.  No matter what decision they make, it will be the right one.  OOoh, and find out about the reputation of the school you are thinking of transferring to.  I was friends with a fellow transfer student who actually transferred for geographic reasons (wanted to be in SF).  He too loved his first year and was surprised that the school we had transferred to was very unfriendly, overly competetive, and just generally not collegial.  I think his perspective was partly a result of the “starting over” aspect of transferring but the school was also fairly well known for being an unpleasant environment.  He went back to his old school after one semester.

Finally, to anyone who IS transferring, I would advise at least two things I wish I had done:

(1) Try to talk to other students about which classes to take and how classes are graded.  Different schools have different grading policies.  For example, at my new school, some classes affected your GPA and some did not.  If you know this then you can plan accordingly to maximize your chances of getting a great GPA.

(2) Take a clinic or skills-based class immediately.  Not only because they are the most useful classes you can take but because they tend to be small and group-work oriented.  As a transfer student, it was one of the best ways to get to know my classmates and actually make ties to my new school.

Alright, and I’m spent!  I wrote more than I thought I would.  I guess I have some strong feelings on that one:)  Let me know if I left anything out!