"Yale's teaching is probably somewhat less oriented to legal doctrine than Harvard's; but the differences are not large," says Gordon. "Maybe YLS has a few more courses whose relationship to traditional legal subjects is oblique: courses with titles like 'Justice' or 'Capitalism'. It's often said that Yale students don't learn as much 'law' but that's only true if you define law narrowly as legal doctrine."

Some Harvard students say neither school is very practical in focus.

"As for Harvard teaching practical legal skills, certainly not," Isbell says. "None of the top tiered schools do. The mid-tier school are much better at 'black letter' law and the mechanics of writing a memo or conducting legal research."

The schools are also perceived to have student bodies with different interests. The typical Harvard student, many say, aspires to traditional corporate law firm practice. At Yale, students typically are oriented more toward fields such as public service, politics or other non-practicing legal fields.

"My theory is that it's true that Yale looks for students who evince some interest in government, politics, teaching, public service, etc," says Adam S. Hickey '99, a first year student at YLS who is also a Crimson editor. "On the other hand, a lot of people seem to come to Yale because it's a good place to come if you don't want to be a lawyer."

Gordon says each school's dean expresses a subtle difference in emphasis that may be responsible for the divergent paths of their schools.

" Harvard's dean believes the primary mission of his school is and ought to be its de facto mission--producing associate fodder for the big firms," Gordon says. "Yale's dean believes strongly that this is too narrow a conception of our school's mission and that we ought to be helping students find diverse careers. These beliefs influence the cultures of the places."