Is Lawyer’s Ivy Plus Society ‘a Meet Market for the Pedigreed’?

Los Angeles real estate lawyer Jennifer Wilde Anderson’s idea for a networking group catering to those from Ivy League and other elite schools is gaining some traction.

Already there are two chapters of Anderson’s Ivy Plus Society in California and one in New York, the New York Times reports. A Washington, D.C., chapter is opening later this month.

“To the cynically inclined, Ivy Plus is a meet market for the pedigreed,” the New York Times writes. “It’s only nominally a society; there are no meetings, dues or other obligations save attending parties, the most recent of which was on Sept. 29 at the Gates lounge in Chelsea in Manhattan. A sedate crowd sipped wine at the mahogany bar, the men in suits or sports coats, the women in cocktail attire. At least one woman’s outfit, a demure jacket over a low-cut dress, seemed to scream, ‘I’m smart and sexy!’ ”

Want to join up? Membership is open to those aged 21 to 42 who have graduated from 21 elite colleges, including their law and other graduate schools, according to the group’s website.

Those without such credentials may still have a chance at membership if they obtained advanced degrees from other select schools, including law degrees from these three schools: New York University, the University of Michigan and the University of Virginia. An MBA from Northwestern or UCLA is enough, but not a law degree from those schools.