Law School Rankings by BigLaw Partners

I received a press release and  executive summary of a forthcoming article in the Buffalo Law Review by Edward Adams (Minnesota) & Samuel Engel, Does Law School Still Make Economic Sense?: An Empirical Analysis of “Big” Law Firm Partnership Prospects and the Relationship to Law School Attended:

This study is the first to comprehensively examine the relationship between law school attended and achieving partnership in the 100 largest American law firms. Seeking to address issues related to a previous study by Ted Seto [Where do Partners Come From, 62 J. Legal Educ. 242 (2012)], the extensive empirical analysis included in this paper is a critical and seminal addition to the increasingly visible debate regarding the value of a legal education, law school rankings, and the factors that should be considered by potential law students when choosing a law school to attend. ...

Table 1 ranks the top 100 law schools, according to an index score based on the number of partners from each school and their weighted class size as further described below.  The table also includes an indicator that states the difference between this ranking and the United States News and World Report ranking.  Although the celebrated T-14 nearly stayed intact, significant differences are seen immediately outside that range.  The index score is included to demonstrate the actual magnitude between different rankings, and the last four columns provide supplementary information helpful in properly analyzing the index score. ...

Table 1:  Index Scores Evaluation

Rank	USNWR-Index	School	Index	% Younger than Mean	2025 Score	Value per Partner	Value Added
1	+3.5	Chicago	437	53.8	425.67	2.22	9.70
2	=	Harvard	413	42.7	368.89	2.29	9.46
3	-2	Yale	341	38.9	267.74	2.36	8.05
4	+.5	Columbia	329	45.1	283.61	2.48	8.16
5	+7	Northwestern	315	54.0	322.14	1.93	6.08
6	+2	Virginia	310	47.7	287.68	1.91	5.92
7	=	Penn	293	48.7	265.17	2.08	6.09
8	-2	NYU	273	52.2	256.89	2.39	6.52
9	-6	Stanford	261	46.5	256.82	2.21	5.77
10	+.5	Michigan	235.79	48.5	224.94	1.97	4.65
11	-.5	Duke	235.71	53.5	234.06	1.99	4.70
12	+1.5	Cornell	233	48.8	201.78	2.15	5.01
13	+.5	Georgetown	231	53.6	241.16	2.04	4.71
14	+7	G. Washington	197.0	53.7	188.14	1.87	3.68
15	-6	UC-Berkeley	196.6	45.4	171.61	2.08	4.10
16	+.5	Vanderbilt	176	51.5	183.39	1.66	2.92
17	+23.5	Illinois	164.2	55.4	197.20	1.77	2.90
18	+9.5	Boston U.	164.0	50.1	157.28	2.01	3.30
19	+18.5	Boston College	161	51.7	167.28	1.95	3.14
20	+6	Notre Dame	160	56.0	168.64	1.73	2.77
21	-6	Texas	157	54.0	155.74	1.81	2.84
22	-3	Emory	156	60.7	175.97	1.75	2.73
23	-2	USC	139	62.9	144.28	1.90	2.64
24	+13.5	Fordham	138	58.2	137.31	2.20	3.04
25	-8.5	UCLA	136	54.1	125.8	1.99	2.71
26	+17.5	Wash. & Lee	128.5	57.2	141.09	1.70	2.19
27	+2.5	Indiana–Bloom.	127.6	52.8	121.86	1.52	1.95
28	+41.5	Loyola–Chicago	121	61.3	136.37	1.69	2.04
29	+67	Villanova	120	42.2	103.2	1.59	1.91
30	+3	North Carolina	114	53.8	123.35	1.64	1.87
31	-13	Washington U.	113	61.2	134.58	1.57	1.77
32	+77.5	Catholic	107	51.3	92.98	1.84	1.97
33	+9	SMU	104.2	56.2	113.99	1.71	1.78
34	+41	American	103.7	61.7	107.54	1.96	2.04
35	+14.5	Florida	100.3	50.6	95.69	1.60	1.60
36	+26	Temple	99.8	55.4	100.4	1.60	1.60
37	+18.5	UC-Hastings	97.1	49.9	87.2	1.81	1.81
38	-13.5	William & Mary	97.0	62.6	105.34	1.68	1.68
39	-6	Wake Forest	95	58.3	104.5	1.44	1.44
40	+61.5	SUNY	94	36.7	72.57	1.72	1.72
41	-20	Minnesota	93	68.2	105.74	1.64	1.64
42	+54	South Carolina	92	50.7	102.95	1.28	1.28
43	-13.5	Georgia	90	52.1	92.7	1.48	1.48
44	+37.5	Pittsburgh	89	56.5	85.53	1.44	1.44
45	-20.5	Washington	88	58.6	97.77	1.46	1.46
46	+19.5	Case Western	86	45.7	82.216	1.32	1.32
47	+18.5	Missouri	84	56.5	95.26	1.30	1.09
48	-10.5	UC-Davis	82	55.6	85.61	1.89	1.55
49	+13	Miami	79.1	56.3	88.04	1.62	1.28
50	-17	Wisconsin	79.0	50.0	69.52	1.74	1.38
51	-23.5	Iowa	78.3	55.6	86.21	1.62	1.26
52	+17.5	Kansas	78.0	60.9	88.61	1.34	1.05
53	-20	Ohio State	76.5	58.2	78.72	1.62	1.25
54	+71.5	DePaul	75	60.9	83.55	1.69	1.27
55	-8	Tulane	72.1	71.6	83.28	1.82	1.31
56	+53.5	St. John’s	71.4	55.3	64.76	1.93	1.37
57	-10	Maryland	70.8	56.0	67.76	1.81	1.29
58	+79	Hofstra	70.25	56.7	68.96	1.89	1.32
59	+30.5	Loyola-L.A.	70.24	60.2	72.14	1.76	1.23
60	-8	Baylor	70.1	55.4	69.05	1.56	1.09
61	-14	George Mason	69.8	76.1	85.57	1.68	1.18
62	-10	Richmond	68.9	49.1	62.42	1.73	1.19
63	+56	Albany	66.98	46.5	52.11	2.10	1.41
64	+11	Chicago–Kent	66.94	67.8	78.32	1.64	1.10
65	+24.5	Seattle	66	77.0	93.72	1.54	1.02
66	+43.5	Santa Clara	65.1	70.3	79.62	1.77	1.15
67	N/A	San Francisco	64.6	53.0	65.83	1.76	1.14
68	-18.5	Utah	64.5	37.3	50.76	1.69	1.10
69	-10	Houston	64.0	65.2	77.38	1.71	1.09
70	-18	Penn State	63.8	56.1	61.76	1.57	1.00
71	+8.5	San Diego	63.4	68.6	78.05	1.65	1.04
72	-28.5	Colorado	61.4	55.8	68.22	1.57	0.96
73	-17.5	Pepperdine	60.77	76.9	78.27	1.73	1.06
74	+31	UMKC	60.76	56.8	69.78	1.23	0.75
75	+6.5	Rutgers-Camden	60.71	59.1	70.12	1.56	0.95
76	+8.5	Brooklyn	60	52.4	55.32	1.97	1.18
77	+19	Saint Louis	59	55.9	65.02	1.32	0.78
78	+31.5	Syracuse	57	58.5	52.27	1.83	1.04
79	N/A	Widener	56.4	78.5	60.63	1.30	0.73
80	+4.5	Rutgers–Newark	55.8	57.7	52.56	1.96	1.10
81	-43.5	Brigham Young	54	64.0	82.89	1.75	0.95
82	-16.5	Yeshiva	53	73.5	68.16	1.99	1.05
83	-8	Tennessee	50	42.9	41.35	1.49	0.75
84	+12	Northeastern	48	67.9	64.99	1.74	0.84
85	-5.5	Cincinnati	47	46.0	40.42	1.59	0.75
86	-16.5	Denver	44.3	62.4	58.83	1.43	0.63
87	+55	NY Law School	43.8	52.7	40.47	1.87	0.82
88	-43	Florida State	43.669	56.4	49.87	1.54	0.68
89	+35.5	Duquesne	43.666	54.8	41.00	1.44	0.63
90	-24.5	Georgia State	42	89.1	53.72	1.59	0.67
91	+5	Franklin Pierce	40.2	75.6	52.38	1.59	0.64
92	-36.5	Nebraska	39.6	55.6	48.27	1.28	0.51
93	-70	Alabama	38	61.3	34.77	1.70	0.65
94	+22	Creighton	37.3	58.6	41.59	1.41	0.52
95	+47	Pace	37.2	65.8	38.20	1.59	0.59
96	-55.5	Arizona	36.2	62.5	43.04	1.52	0.55
97	-7.5	Indiana-Ind.	36.1	62.6	44.11	1.46	0.53
98	-65	Arizona State	36.0	58.6	38.02	1.53	0.55
99	+10.5	Texas Tech	35.3	59.0	41.8	1.75	0.61
100	+5	Mercer	35.2	65.3	39.67	1.58	0.55