That might work for a solo practitioner, but when you start getting up into the higher tier of law firms, your resume gets thrown into the trash if you don’t have a good law school listed at the top.
No question that when one is dealing with the a**h*** brigade that school matters more than ability or ethics. But who wants to work with them, instead the small pracices are the way to lots of monies when niched appropriately. And less (vulgar explitive)s.
Most of the shysters you see chasing ambulances went to crappy law schools, so I wouldn't be too quick to conclude that going to a less prestigious law school leads to a more ethical lawyer. As for ability, firms tend to play the odds- the Harvard lawyer is usually a safer bet to be a good attorney than someone who went to a fourth-tier law school.
But who wants to work with them, instead the small pracices are the way to lots of monies when niched appropriately
I got lucky when I lateraled a few years back to my current firm. I'm working at a large DC law firm with nearly a zero asshole quotient.
Small practices have lots of middle class lawyers. Nothing wrong with that, but certainly not "lots of money." These firms do things like insurance defense work and pay their lawyers $50k for lots of work on repetitive and mundane cases. A decent living, but nothing special.
If you mean plaintiff's firms, then it would have to be a very unique situation, since you're never going to make equity partner in a plaintiff's firm unless you're bringing in lots of clients, and if that were the case, why are you partners with someone else in the first place?