Tis the season for students to consider transferring law schools. A few of my own opinions.

1. I don't think it makes sense to transfer if you aren't seriously changing your school profile. By that I mean moving way up the ranks.

2. Part of what you get in law school is a set of colleagues (classmates, professors, etc.) who will remain your colleagues post-graduation. Fostering those relationships will help you get jobs an other activities after graduation. When you transfer, you may stifle that a bit.

3. Cost, cost, cost. When you transfer, you often don't get the same sort of financial aid as you have at your home institution. Do not discount the change in debt profile as a result of transferring.

4. There is a good chance a top student at one school is going to do just as well as students at a higher ranked school on things like Big Law jobs, clerkships, and you have the benefit of relying on your 1L institution professors for letters of rec.

5. For those interested in BigLaw, at least some of those firms are going to treat you the way they would have treated you if interviewing you at your original institution. You aren't necessarily any better off in 2L interviewing by transferring.

By the above I mean, a firm may use the same sort of grade cut-off regardless of whether you interview at your 1L institution or your transferred institution. Your 1L grades are still from the original institution and transferring won't change that going into 2L interviewing.

For NDLS students, I almost never suggest transferring, because we are a great school with great resources and you can do whatever you want to do from here. My one caveat is if you think you want a career in legal academia.

The empirical research is pretty firm that the biggest predictor of becoming a legal academic is whether you went to HYS. That said, we have NDLS grads who are professors at many great law schools. But I might be persuaded transferring makes sense if legal academia is the goal.