The 64 Most-Cited Law Faculties

Gregory C. Sisk (St. Thomas-MN; Google Scholar), Adam Bent (Florida), et al., Scholarly Impact of Law School Faculties in 2024: Updating the Leiter Score Ranking for the Top Third:

This updated 2024 study explores the scholarly impact of law faculties, ranking the top third of ABA-accredited law schools. Refined by Brian Leiter, the “Scholarly Impact Ranking” for a law faculty is calculated from the mean and the median of total law journal citations over the past five years to the work of tenured faculty members. In addition to a school-by-school ranking, we report the mean, median, and weighted score, along with a list of the tenured law faculty members at each school with the ten highest individual citation counts.

The law faculty at Yale continues to hold the top ranked position in the 2024 Scholarly Impact Ranking, with the University of Chicago at second, Harvard at third, New York University at fourth, and Columbia at fifth. The University of California-Berkeley remains in the sixth position with Pennsylvania moving up one spot to seventh. Stanford is at eight, and Vanderbilt remains at nine. Virginia, which had climbed from sixteenth in 2018 to ninth in 2021, remains in the top 10. ... 

Rank	School	Most Cited Scholars (* indicates 70 or older in 2024)	U.S. News Peer Rank	U.S. News Overall Rank
1	Yale	*Ackerman, Bruce A.; Amar, Akhil R.; Ayres, Ian; Balkin, Jack M.; *Eskridge, William, Jr.; Gluck, Abbe R.; Macey, Jonathan R.; *Post, Robert C.; *Resnik, Judith; Siegel, Reva B.	3	1
2	Chicago	Baude, William; BenShahar, Omri; Bradley, Curtis A.; Ginsburg, Tom; Huq, Aziz; *Nussbaum, Martha; Posner, Eric; *Stone, Geoffrey R.; Strahilevitz, Lior; *Strauss, David A.	3	3
3	Harvard	Bebchuk, Lucian A.; *Fallon, Richard H.; Goldsmith, Jack Landman; Kaplow, Louis; Klarman, Michael; Lessig, Lawrence; Manning, John F.; *Shavell, Steven M.; *Sunstein, Cass R.; Vermeule, Adrian	1	4
4	NYU	Barkow, Rachel E.; Choi, Stephen; *Epstein, Richard; Friedman, Barry; Hemel, Daniel; *Issacharoff, Samuel; Kahan, Marcel; *Miller, Arthur R.; *Miller, Geoffrey Parsons; Pildes, Richard H.; *Waldron, Jeremy	3	9
5	Columbia	*Coffee, John C., Jr.; Crenshaw, Kimberlé Williams; *Fagan, Jeffrey A.; *Gordon, Jeffrey N.; Greene, Jamal; Hamburger, Philip; *Merrill, Thomas W.; Metzger, Gillian E.; Pozen, David; Wu, Timothy	3	8
6	UC-Berkeley	Bridges, Khiara M.; *Chemerinsky, Erwin; *Farber, Daniel A; Haney Lopez, Ian F.; Kerr, Orin; Menell, Peter S.; Merges, Robert P.; *Samuelson, Pamela; Solomon, Steven Davidoff; Yoo, John Choon	7	12
7	Penn	Coglianese, Cary; Fisch, Jill E.; Hoffman, David; *Hovenkamp, Herbert; Mayson, Sandra G.; Parchomovsky, Gideon; Pollman, Elizabeth; Roberts, Dorothy E.; *Robinson, Paul H.; Skeel, David Arthur	10	4
8	Stanford	Engstrom, David Freeman; Karlan, Pamela S.; Lemley, Mark A.; McConnell, Michael W.; O’Connell, Anne Joseph; Ouellette, Lisa Larrimore; Persily, Nathaniel; *Polinsky, A. Mitchell; *Rabin, Robert L.; Sklansky, David Alan	1	1
9	Vanderbilt	Bressman, Lisa S.; Guthrie, Chris; King, Nancy J.; Rossi, Jim; *Rubin, Edward L.; Ruhl, J.B.; Sitaraman, Ganesh; *Slobogin, Christopher; Stack, Kevin; Thomas, Randall S.	17	19
10	Virginia	Cahn, Naomi R.; Citron, Danielle K.; Duffy, John F.; Gulati, G. Mitu; Nelson, Caleb E.; Prakash, Saikrishna; Re, Richard M.; *Schauer, Frederick; *Solum, Lawrence B.; *White, G. Edward	8	4
11	Duke	Adler, Matthew; Blocher, Joseph; *Cox, James D.; Garrett, Brandon; Lemos, Margaret H.; Purdy, Jedediah; Rai, Arti K.; *Schwarcz, Steven L.; Siegel, Neil S.; Young, Ernest A.	10	4
11	UCLA	Bainbridge, Stephen M.; Carbado, Devon Wayne; Crenshaw, Kimberle W.; Cummings, Scott L.; Eagly, Ingrid V.; Harris, Cheryl I.; Hasen, Richard L.; Kang, Jerry; Schwartz, Joanna; Winkler, Adam	13	13
13	Cornell	*Clermont, Kevin M.; Dorf, Michael C.; Grimmelmann, James; Heise, Michael; *Johnson, Sheri Lynn; Lahav, Alexandra D.; Omarova, Saule; Pasquale, Frank; Rachlinski, Jeffrey J.; Rahman, K. Sabeel; Tebbe, Nelson	13	14
14	Michigan	Avi-Yonah, Reuven S.; Bagley, Nicholas; Crane, Daniel; Fletcher, Matthew L.M.; Litman, Leah; *MacKinnon, Catharine A.; Mortenson, Julian Davis; Price, Nicholson; Primus, Richard; Schlanger, Margo; Walker, Christopher J.	8	9
15	Georgetown	*Barnett, Randy E.; Butler, Paul; Cohen, Julie E.; Cole, David D.; Goodwin, Michele; *Gostin, Lawrence O.; *Langevoort, Donald C.; Ohm, Paul; *Thompson, Robert B.; Vladeck, Stephen	13	14
16	Northwestern	*Black, Bernard; Calabresi, Steven G.; Clopton, Zachary; *Diamond, Shari; Koppelman, Andrew M.; McGinnis, John O. ; Pfander, James E.; *Redish, Martin H.; Schanzenbach, Max M.; Schwartz, David L.; Tuerkheimer, Deborah	10	9
17	George Washington	Abramowicz, Michael; Dodge, William; Franks, Mary Anne; *Glicksman, Robert L.; *Kovacic, William E.; Lee, Cynthia; Murphy, Sean D.; *Pierce, Richard J., Jr; Rosen, Jeffrey; Solove, Daniel J.	27	41
18	Emory	Ajunwa, Ifeoma; *Fineman, Martha Albertson; Hutchinson, Darren; Jacobi, Tonja; Nash, Jonathan; Quinn, Kevin M.; Roberts, Jessica L.; Sag, Matthew; Shepherd, Joanna M.; Smith, Fred, Jr.; Witte, John, Jr.	19	42
18	UC-Davis	Amar, Vikram D.; Bhagwat, Ashutosh; Chin, Gabriel (Jack); Horton, David; Joh, Elizabeth E.; Johnson, Kevin R.; Joslin, Courtney G.; Lee, Peter; Shanske, Darien; Ziegler, Mary	24	55
20	Fordham	*Brudney, James J.; Capers, Bennett; Davidson, Nestor M.; Green, Bruce A.; Griffith, Sean J.; Kent, Andrew; Leib, Ethan J.; Pearce, Russell G.; Pfaff, John F.; Squire, Richard; Teachout, Zephyr; Zipursky, Benjamin C.	32	33
20	Texas	Chesney, Robert M. (Bob); *Forbath, William E.; Golden, John M.; Grove, Tara; *Levinson, Sanford; *McGarity, Thomas O.; *Sager, Lawrence G.; Silver, Charles M.; Spence, David B.; Wagner, Wendy E.	16	16
22	UC-Irvine	Baradaran, Mehrsa; Barnes, Mario; Fleischer, Victor; Gold, Andrew; Jiménez, Dalié; Lee, Stephen; Leslie, Christopher; *MenkelMeadow, Carrie; Reese, R. Anthony; Richardson, L. Song; Waldman, Ari Ezra; Whytock, Christopher	24	42
23	Minnesota	Bodie, Matthew; *Carbone, June; Cotter, Thomas F.; Hickman, Kristin E.; Hill, Claire A.; McDonnell, Brett; McGeveran, William; Parisi, Francesco; Schwarcz, Daniel; Wurman, Ilan	19	16
23	St. Thomas-MN	Berg, Thomas C.; Grenardo, David; *Hamilton, Neil W.; Kaal, Wulf; Kelly, Daniel; Organ, Jerome M.; Osler, Mark; Paulsen, Michael S.; *Reid, Charles J., Jr.; Sisk, Gregory C.	126	98
23	William & Mary	Bellin, Jeffrey; Bruhl, Aaron; Criddle, Evan J.; Devins, Neal E.; Gershowitz, Adam; Hu, Margaret; Larsen, Allison Orr; Porter, Nicole Buonocore; Spencer, A. Benjamin; Zick, Timothy	27	36
26	USC	Barnett, Jonathan; Clarke, Jessica; Epstein, Lee; Gruber, Aya; Guzman, Andrew T.; Keating, Gregory; Klerman, Daniel M.; Rasmussen, Robert K.; Sokol, D. Daniel; Tolson, Franita	19	20
27	Boston University	Beermann, Jack M.; *Fleming, James E.; Hartzog, Woodrow; Hylton, Keith N.; McClain, Linda C.; Onwuachi-Willig, Angela; Shugerman, Jed; Van Loo, Rory; Webber, David H.; Meurer, Michael J.	19	24
28	Washington University	Boyd, Christina; Epps, Daniel; *Joy, Peter A.; Kim, Pauline T.; *Kuehn, Robert R.; *Levin, Benjamin; Levin, Ronald M.; Richards, Neil M.; *Seligman, Joel; Tamanaha, Brian Z.	18	16
29	Brooklyn	Araiza, William D.; Baer, Miriam H.; Bernstein, Anita; Godsoe, Cynthia; Janger, Edward J.; Kim, Catherine Y.; Ristroph, Alice; Roberts, Anna; *Schneider, Elizabeth M.; Simonson, Jocelyn	74	114
30	Florida	Bambauer, Derek; Bambauer, Jane; Lawson, Gary; Lidsky, Lyrissa Barnett; *LoPucki, Lynn M.; Maclin, Tracey; Noah, Lars; Rhee, Robert J.; Stinneford, John F.; *Wolf, Michael Allan	32	28
30	George Mason	Bernstein, David; Butler, Henry; Garoupa, Nuno; *Ginsburg, Douglas; Greve, Michael; Kleinfeld, Joshua; *Lund, Nelson; Mossoff, Adam; *Muris, Timothy; Somin, Ilya; Zywicki, Todd	64	28
30	North Carolina	Ardia, David; *Conley, John M.; Coyle, John F.; Gerhardt, Michael J.; *Hazen, Thomas L.; Hessick, Carissa Byrne; Hessick, F. Andrew; Jacoby, Melissa B.; Jain, Eisha; *Marshall, William P.; Su, Rick; Wilson, Erika	24	20
30	Utah	Anderson, Jonas; Anghie, Antony T.; Brown, Teneille Ruth; Cassell, Paul G.; Contreras, Jorge; *Francis, Leslie; Jones, RonNell Andersen; Peterson, Christopher L.; Tokson, Matthew; Warner, Elizabeth Kronk	44	28
34	Cardozo	Gilles, Myriam; Herz, Michael Eric; Levine, Kate; Markowitz, Peter; Reinert, Alexander A.; *Rosenfeld, Michel; Schneider, Andrea Kupfer; Sebok, Anthony; *Sterk, Stewart E.; *Zelinsky, Edward	51	61
34	Florida State	Bayern, Shawn J.; *Johnson, Steve R.; Landau, David E.; Logan, Wayne A.; Morley, Michael T.; O’Hara O’Connor, Erin A.; Ryan, Erin; *Seidenfeld, Mark B.; Slocum, Brian G.; Tsesis, Alexander	47	48
34	Ohio State	Akbar, Amna; Barnett, Kent; Berman, Douglas A.; Colker, Ruth; Foley, Edward B.; Garcia Hernández, César; Schmitz, Amy J.; Simmons, Ric L.; Strang, Lee; Yearby, Ruqaiijah A.	27	26
34	San Diego	*Alexander, Lawrence A.; Bell, Abraham; Dripps, Donald A.; Fox, Dov; *Hirsch, Adam; Lobel, Orly; McGowan, David; Ramsey, Michael D.; Rappaport, Michael B.; Schapiro, Robert; Sichelman, Ted; *Smith, Steven D.	51	68
38	Illinois	*Finkin, Matthew W.; Hurd, Heidi M.; Lawless, Robert M.; Mazzone, Jason; *Moore, Michael S.; Robbennolt, Jennifer K.; Sherkow, Jacob S.; Thomas, Suja A.; Wilson, Robin Fretwell	38	36
38	Notre Dame	Alford, Roger P.; Bellia, Anthony J., Jr.; Bray, Samuel; Garnett, Nicole S.; Garnett, Richard W.; Kozel, Randy; Miller, Paul; Muller, Derek T.; Pojanowski, Jeffrey; Tidmarsh, Jay	19	20
38	University of Arizona	Coan, Andrew; Engel, Kirsten H.; Miller, Marc L.; Orbach, Barak Y.; Puig, Sergio; Sepe, Simone M.; Tsosie, Rebecca; Williams, Robert A., Jr.; Woods, Andrew Keane; Woods, Jordan Blair	38	55
41	Colorado	Anaya, S. James; Carpenter, Kristen A.; Gulasekaram, Pratheepan; Kaminski, Margot; Krakoff, Sarah; Norton, Helen; Roithmayr, Daria; Schlag, Pierre; SkinnerThompson, Scott; Surden, Harry	38	48
42	BYU	Asay, Clark D.; Baradaran Baughman, Shima; *Fleming, J. Clifton, Jr.; Grow Sun, Lisa; Jennejohn, Matt; Jensen, Eric Talbot; Lee, Thomas R.; Plamondon, Stephanie Bair; Shobe, Jarrod; Smith, D. Gordon	51	28
43	Arizona State	Beydoun, Khaled; Bodansky, Daniel M.; Bublick, Ellen M.; Hodge, James G., Jr.; Luna, Erik; Marchant, Gary E.; Miller, Robert J.; *Saks, Michael J.; Selmi, Michael L.; *Weinstein, James	32	36
43	Case Western	Adler, Jonathan H.; Chaffee, Eric C.; Hill, B. Jessie; Hoffman, Sharona; Korsmo, Charles R.; Nard, Craig A.; Robertson, Cassandra Burke; Rose, Paul; Rosenblatt, Betsy; Scharf, Michael P.	64	89
43	Kansas	Bhala, Raj; Craig, Robin Kundis; Drahozal, Christopher R.; *Hoeflich, Michael H.; Jefferson-Jones, Jamila; Levy, Richard E.; Outka, Uma; Velte, Kyle; Ware, Stephen J.; Yung, Corey Rayburn	64	46
43	UC-San Francisco	Depoorter, Ben; Dodson, Scott; Faigman, David L.; Feldman, Robin; *Marcus, Richard; Ming H. Chen; Owen, Dave; Price, Zachary; Reiss, Dorit Rubinstein; Short, Jodi	64	82
47	Chicago-Kent	Baker, Katharine K.; Dinwoodie, Graeme B.; Heyman, Steven J.; Katz, Daniel; Kim, Nancy; Krent, Harold J.; Marder, Nancy S.; Reilly, Greg; Rosen, Mark D.; Schmidt, Christopher W.	90	108
47	Georgia	Bruner, Christopher M.; Burch, Elizabeth Chamblee; Cade, Jason A.; Chapman, Nathan S.; *Coenen, Dan T.; Foohey, Pamela; Levin, Hillel Y.; Rodrigues, Usha; Rutledge, Peter B.; *Wells, Michael L.; West, Sonja R.	27	20
47	San Francisco	Bazelon, Lara; Dibadj, Reza R.; Freiwald, Susan A.; Harris, Lindsay M.; *Hing, Bill Ong; Kalb, Johanna; Kaswan, Alice; Leo, Richard A.; Nice, Julie A.; *Rosenberg, Joshua D.	138	165
47	Temple	Burris, Scott C.; Dunoff, Jeffrey L.; Gugliuzza, Paul R.; Hollis, Duncan B.; Lin, Tom C.W.; Lipson, Jonathan; RamjiNogales, Jaya; Rebouche, Rachel; Spiro, Peter J.; Wells, Harwell	51	54
47	Washington & Lee	Drumbl, Mark A.; Fairfield, Joshua A.T.; Haan, Sarah; Hasbrouck, Brandon; Malveaux, Suzette; Miller, Russell A.; Seaman, Christopher B.; Smith, Catherine E.; Trammell, Alan; Woody, Karen	38	33

Rank	School	Most Cited Scholars (* indicates 70 or older in 2024)	U.S. News Peer Rank	U.S. News Overall Rank
52	Seattle	Ahrens, Deborah; Bender, Steven; Chon, Margaret; Coleman, Brooke D.; *Delgado, Richard; *Kirkwood, John; *O’Kelley, Charles R.T.; Rankin, Sara; Siegel, Andrew M.; Spade, Dean; *Stefancic, Jean	90	114
53	Indiana-Maurer	Cate, Fred H.; DauSchmidt, Kenneth G.; Fuentes-Rohwer, Luis; Geyh, Charles G.; Henderson, William D.; Janis, Mark; Nagy, Donna M.; Quintanilla, Victor D.; Widiss, Deborah; Williams, Cynthia	38	42
53	Maryland	*Colbert, Douglas; *Gifford, Donald G.; Goodmark, Leigh; Graber, Mark A.; Gray, David C.; *Percival, Robert V.; Pinard, Michael; Ram, Natalie; Sovern, Jeff; Stearns, Maxwell L.; *Steinzor, Rena I.	44	55
53	Richmond	Collins, Erin R.; Cotropia, Christopher A.; Crootof, Rebecca; Eisen, Joel B.; Erickson, Jessica; Gibson, James; Lain, Corinna Barrett; Lash, Kurt T.; Tait, Allison Anna; *Tobias, Carl	64	66
56	American	Abrams, Jamie ; Allen, Hilary; Carle, Susan D.; Davis, Angela J.; Farley, Christine Haight; Ferguson, Andrew Guthrie; Franck, Susan D.; Hamilton, Rebecca; *Robbins, Ira P.; Rosser, Ezra	51	98
56	Boston College	Bilder, Mary Sarah; Greenfield, Kent; Hafiz, Hiba; Kanstroom, Daniel; *McCoy, Patricia A.; Mitchell, Thomas W.; Rana, Aziz; Ring, Diane M.; Shah, Bijal; Williams, Ryan	27	28
56	Iowa	Berger, Bethany; Diamantis, Mihailis; Lens, Jill Wieber; Miller, Robert T.; Pettys, Todd E.; Prince, Anya; Rantanen, Jason; Roesler, Shannon; Shill, Gregory H.; Sullivan, Sean; *VanderVelde, Lea; Washburn, Kevin; Wing, Adrien	32	36
56	Texas A&M	Carroll, Jenny; Lunney, Joseph Glynn S., Jr.; Magnuson, William J.; Marouf, Fatma E.; Moran, Rachel F.; Morriss, Andrew P.; Odinet, Christopher; Sage, William; Steinman, Adam; Welsh, Nancy A.; Yu, Peter K.	47	26
60	Pittsburgh	*Ashley, Kevin D.; Brake, Deborah L.; *Brand, Ronald A.; Carter, William M., Jr.; Crossley, Mary A.; Donley, Greer; Harris, David A.; Infanti, Anthony C.; *Lobel, Jules L.; Madison, Michael J.; Sundquist, Christian B.	74	91
60	Rutgers	Ball, Carlos A.; Carrier, Michael A.; CuisonVillazor, Rose; Eyer, Katie; Godsil, Rachel D.; Goodman, Ellen P.; Green, Stuart P.; *Maltz, Earl M.; Noll, David; *Thomas, George C, III.; Weisbord, Reid Kress	74	103
60	Santa Clara	Ball, W. David; *Cain, Patricia A.; Goldman, Eric; Lee, Edward S.; Love, Brian; Oberman, Michelle; Ochoa, Tyler T.; Said, Zahr; Sloss, David L.; Spitko, E. Gary; Yang, Tseming; Yosifon, David G.	84	158
60	SMU	Carpenter, Dale; Grossman, Joanna L.; Hayden, Grant M.; Mohapatra, Seema; Nance, Jason P.; Reyes, Carla L.; Ruben, Eric; Ryan, Meghan J.; *Steinberg, Marc I.; Taylor, David O.; Turner, Jenia I.	64	42
60	UNLV	Cooper, Frank Rudy; Edwards, Benjamin; Griffin, Leslie; Kagan, Michael; Main, Thomas; *McGinley, Ann C.; Orentlicher, David; Rolnick, Addie C.; Stanchi, Kathryn M.; *Stempel, Jeffrey; Sternlight, Jean R.	64	78

The law schools with the highest rises in the 2024 Scholarly Impact Ranking are Florida, which has risen by 22 ordinal levels to #30; Emory, which has climbed by 18 ordinal levels to #18; Florida State up by 12 positions to #34; and San Francisco rising by 10 positions to #47. Seattle and Texas A&M debut in the rankings at #52 and #56 respectively, with Washington & Lee and Rutgers rejoining the rankings at #47 and #60 respectively.

Many law faculties achieve a Scholarly Impact Ranking in 2024 well above the law school rankings reported by U.S. News for 2024.

NYU ranks at #4 and has consistently been in the top 5, but at #9 for U.S. News. Vanderbilt at #9 shows a significant gap with U.S. News Ranking at #19. And the University of California at Berkeley ranks at #6 for Scholarly Impact, but outside the top 10 at #12 for U.S. News.

In the Scholarly Impact top 25, the most dramatically under-valued law faculty is the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota), which continues to rank at #23 for Scholarly Impact, while being relegated by U.S. News to #98—a difference of 75 ordinal levels. In addition, George Washington rises to #17 in Scholarly Impact, while lagging at #41 for U.S. News. Emory has moved up to #18 in Scholarly Impact, but at #42 in U.S. News. The University of California-Davis shows even greater disparity, by being now at #18 in Scholarly Impact, while left well behind by U.S. News at #55. Fordham and the University of California-Irvine also rank in the top 25 at #20 and #22 respectively for Scholarly Impact, but at #33 and #42 respectively for U.S. News. 

Reuters, These Law Schools Make the Biggest ‘Scholarly Impact,’ Study Finds

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