July 2021 Florida Bar Exam Results: Florida International Is #1 For 7th Year In A Row

The July 2021 Florida bar passage rates by school are out. The overall pass rate for first-time takers is 71.6%, down 0.1 percentage point from last year. For the seventh year in a row, Florida International is #1. Here are the results for the 11 Florida law schools, along with each school's U.S. News ranking (Florida and overall):

Bar Pass Rank (Rate)	School	US News Rank FL (Overall)
1 (88.8%)	Florida Int'l	4 (88)
2 (82.5%)	Miami	3 (72)
3 (81.3%)	Florida	1 (21)
4 (78.8%)	Stetson	5 (111)
5 (73.9%)	Florida State	2 (48)
6 (67.6%)	Ave Maria	Tier 2
7 (66.7%)	Nova	Tier 2
8 (59.2%)	Barry	Tier 2
9 (56.8%)	Florida A&M	Tier 2
10 (53.3%)	Florida Coastal	Tier 2
11 (50.8%)	St. Thomas	Tier 2

Miami Herald, Want to Attend Law School in Florida? These Have the Highest Bar Passage Rates:

FIU, the largest public university in the South Florida, led the rankings of Florida’s 11 law schools with a whopping 88.8% passing rate. ... “I’m just so very proud and impressed by our Bar takers,” said FIU law dean Anthony Page. “They have shown an enormous amount of resilience and persistence and legal skill given all of the travails of the last year.” ... This marks the seventh consecutive year that FIU has come out on top in the larger fall administration of the exam. ...

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Admissions Data At 75% Of The U.S. News Top 50: Higher LSATs, UGPAs, And Enrollment

Following up on my previous posts (links below):  with Spivey Consulting reporting the admissions statistics for 75% of the U.S. News Top 50 law schools, LSAT (+1.4) and UGPA (+0.4) medians are up, as well as enrollment (+29.0). (Yellow shading indicates law schools added since my August 30 post): 

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2022 U.S. News College Rankings

U.S. News & World Report has released its 2022 College Rankings. Here are the Top 25 National Universities and Liberal Arts Colleges:

Rank	National Universities
1	Princeton
2	Columbia
2	Harvard
2	MIT
5	Yale
6	Stanford
6	Chicago
8	Penn
9	Cal-Tech
9	Duke
9	Johns Hopkins
9	Northwestern
13	Dartmouth
14	Brown
14	Vanderbilt
14	Washington (St. Louis)
17	Cornell
17	Rice
19	Notre Dame
20	UCLA
21	Emory
22	UC-Berkeley
23	Georgetown
23	Michigan
25	Carnegie Mellon
25	Virginia

Pepperdine is ranked #49.

• Chronicle of Higher Education, Colleges Still Obsess Over National Rankings. For Proof, Look at Their Strategic Plans.
• Chronicle of Higher Education, ‘U.S. News’ Keeps ACT and SAT Scores in the Mix —For Now
• Inside Higher Ed, 'U.S. News' Makes Modest Tweak in Methodology

Prior Years' U.S. News National University Rankings:

• 2021
• 2020
• 2019
• 2018
• 2017
• 2016
• 2015
• 2014
• 2013
• 2012
• 2011
• 2009

2022 U.S. News Liberal Arts College Rankings:

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U.S. News Law School Rankings: Bar Exam Performance

U.S. News & World Report, How to Assess Law School Bar Passage Rates:

Here is a list of the 10 ranked law schools in the 2022 U.S. News Best Law Schools rankings whose first-time bar exam pass rates exceeded the average by the greatest margin within the jurisdiction where their graduates most frequently took the bar.

Law School	2019 Bar Rank	2020 Median LSAT	2019 State Bar Pass Rate 1st-Time Test-Takers	2019 Overall State Bar Pass Rate	2019 Over-performance	U.S. News Overall Rank
Stanford	1	171	92.4% (CA)	59.5%	55.3%	2
UC-Berkeley	2	168	88.7% (CA)	59.5%	49.1%	9
UCLA	3	169	87.5% (CA)	59.5%	47.1%	14
USC	4	167	86.6% (CA)	59.5%	45.5%	19
UC-Davis	5	163	85.3% (CA)	59.5%	43.4%	35
Pepperdine	6	162	81.0% (CA)	59.5%	36.13%	46
Virginia	7	170	100% (NY)	73.5%	36.05%	8
UC-Irvine	8	166	80.6% (CA)	59.5%	35.5%	35
Pennsylvania	9	170	99.2% (NY)	73.5%	35.0%	6
Harvard	10	173	98.9% (NY)	73.5%	34.6%	3

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Bahadur: The U.S. News Law School Rankings Are Racist

Rory D. Bahadur (Washburn; HeinOnline), Law School Rankings and The Impossibility of Anti-Racism, 53 St. Mary's L.J. ___ (2022):

The U.S. News and World Report Law School Rankings invoke ideas about excellence and high achievement in the legal academy, but under the surface, they also operate as a catalyst for systemic racism. They do this by capitalizing on system justification, a palliative evolutionary mechanism that forces all members of society, from privileged high socioeconomic groups to the disenfranchised, to buttress the societal status quo pervasively and unconsciously.

These responsive desires to keep the status quo invoked by the rankings are the same ones responsible for the perpetuation of the caste system in India, and every other division of human societies into dominant and disenfranchised groups. This system justification is not subject to introspection because it operates through powerful unconscious mechanisms. As a result, consciously antiracist people do not experience dissonance when making institutional decisions based on the rankings, even though those decisions perpetuate deeply rooted structural racism.

The only schools enrolling black students at the same level as their representation in the general population are the schools U.S. News ranks so poorly that they are not even assigned a numerical ranking, listed only as Tier 2 schools.

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Admissions Data At Nearly Half Of The U.S. News Top 50: Higher LSATs, UGPAs, And Enrollment

Following up on last week's post:  with Spivey Consulting reporting the admissions statistics for nearly half of the U.S. News Top 50 law schools, LSAT (+1.3) and UGPA (+0.4) medians are up, as well as enrollment (+17.0):

Ten law schools increased enrollment by 15% or more:

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The Most-Cited Deans At The 68 Most-Cited Law Schools

Following up on yesterday's post, The 68 Most-Cited Law Faculties: here are the 30 deans among the 10-most cited faculty at the Top 68 law schools:

3.  Harvard:  John Manning
6.  UC-Berkeley:  Erwin Chemerinsky
9.  Vanderbilt:  Chris Guthrie
15. Cornell:  Jens David Ohlin 
22. UC-Davis:  Kevin Johnson
23. Boston University:  Angela Onwuachi-Willig; St. Thomas (MN):  Robert Vischer 
27. Arizona:  Marc Miller; William & Mary:  A. Benjamin Spencer 
29. USC:  Andrew Guzman 
30. San Diego:  Robert Schapiro
31. Illinois:  Vikram Amar
36. Utah:  Elizabeth Kronk Warner; Case Western:  Jessica Berg
40. UC-Hastings:  David Faigman
43. Ohio State:  Lincoln Davies; Georgia:  Peter Rutledge
46. American:  Roger A. Fairfax, Jr.; Florida State:  Erin O'Hara O'Connor
49. BYU:  Gordon Smith; Wake Forest:  Jane Aiken 
52. Florida:  Laura  Rosenbury; Iowa:  Kevin Washburn; Richmond: Wendy Collins Perdue
57. Missouri:  Lyrissa Lidsky; San Francisco: Susan Freiwald
59. Boston College:  Diane Ring; Wisconsin:  Daniel Tokaji; Pittsburgh: Amy Wildermuth
63. Pepperdine:  Paul Caron 

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The Most-Cited Tax Faculty At The 68 Most-Cited Law Schools

Following up on this morning's post, The 68 Most-Cited Law Faculties: here are the 23 Tax Profs among the 10-most cited faculty at the Top 68 law schools:

2.  Chicago:  Daniel Hemel
3.  Harvard:  Louis Kaplow
13.  Michigan:  Reuven Avi-Yonah 
14.  UC-Irvine:  Vic Fleischer
18.  Minnesota:  Kristin Hickman
22.  UC-Davis:  Darien Shanske
29.  USC:  Ed McCaffery, Mike Simkovic
33.  Cardozo:  Ed Zelinsky
43.  Alabama:  Susan Pace Hamill; Georgia:  Gregg Polsky
49.  BYU:  Cliff Fleming
52.  Indiana:  David Gamage, Leandra Lederman; Iowa:  Andy Grewal
59.  Boston College:  Ray Madoff, Shu-Yi Oei, Jim Repetti, Diane Ring; Pittsburgh:  Tony Infanti
63.  Loyola-L.A.:  Ellen Aprill; Pepperdine:  Paul Caron; Santa Clara:  Pat Cain

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Law Firm Climate Change Rankings

Law Students For Climate Accountability, Law Firm Climate Change Scorecard:

Executive Summary
America’s most prestigious law firms have expanded their fossil fuel work.

Last year, Law Students for Climate Accountability released a first-of-its-kind Climate Scorecard, which catalogued the climate-related work of the Vault 100 firms — the 100 top ranked firms in the US — and gave them grades for their performance. Released in October 2020, the report focused on transactional, litigation, and lobbying work over a five-year span that revealed staggering data: the large majority of firms were exacerbating climate change, facilitating $1.31 trillion in transactions and fighting in hundreds of cases to continue warming the planet and endangering low-income communities and communities of color. While 2020 saw the COVID-19 pandemic rage and the American West on fire, dying the skies orange and destroying entire communities, the report served to highlight Big Law’s role in climate injustice.

But despite the dismal state of affairs in Big Law and in the world, some reason for optimism remained. But despite the dismal state of affairs in Big Law and in the world, some reason for optimism remained. As driving declined and the economy stalled, many recognized this moment of crisis as a chance to move away from fossil fuels and move towards a just transition to a livable future.

As driving declined and the economy stalled, many recognized this moment of crisis as a chance to move away from fossil fuels and move towards a just transition to a livable future.

The 2021 Climate Scorecard reveals that instead, top firms fought even harder to accelerate climate change. On the whole, data over a five-year window reveal a startling trend among Vault 100 firms:

• The top firms facilitated a stunning $1.36 trillion in fossil fuel transactions, increasing the top 100’s total by $50 billion from last year’s report;
• These firms also litigated even more cases on behalf of fossil fuel clients, bringing the total from 275 representations to 358; and
• Even more firms earned F grades, which requires a firm to do 8+ cases exacerbating climate change, support over $20 billion in fossil fuel
  transactions or receive over $2 million for fossil fuel lobbying. 10 more firms joined the F class. In all, 36 firms managed to perform the extraordinary amount of fossil fuel work necessary to fail.

Some actors stand out as particularly egregious. For example, Akin Gump did more fossil fuel lobbying than 91 Vault 100 firms combined. Allen & Overy did more fossil fuel transactions than 75 Vault 100 firms combined, and Paul Weiss litigated more fossil fuel cases than 60 Vault 100 firms combined. Firms like these are global leaders in the fight for climate change, dedicating top minds to the mission of a warmer planet.

But they are not alone. Only 3 firms received an A and 9 received a B, while 18 received a C, 34 received a D and 36 received an F. On the whole, 88 of the top 100 firms undertook work that worsened climate change.

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The 68 Most-Cited Law Faculties

Gregory C. Sisk (St. Thomas) & Nicole Catlin (St. Thomas), Scholarly Impact of Law School Faculties in 2021: Updating the Leiter Score Ranking for the Top Third:

This updated 2021 study explores the scholarly impact of law faculties, ranking the top third of ABA-accredited law schools. Refined by Brian Leiter, the “Scholarly Impact Score” 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. ...

To rank law faculties by scholarly impact in 2021, we examined the tenured faculties of 99 law schools. Based on the results of our prior studies of scholarly impact, we included all law schools that previously scored in or near the top 70 for Scholarly Impact Ranking.

Rank	School	Most Cited Scholars (* indicates 70 or older in 2021)	U.S. News Peer Rank	U.S. News Overall Rank
1	Yale	*Ackerman, B.; Amar, A.; Ayres, I.; Balkin, J.; *Eskridge, W.; Koh, H.; Macey, J.; *Post, R.; Siegel, R.; Tyler, T.	1	1
2	Chicago	Baude, W.; Ben-Shahar, O.; Bradley, C.; Ginsburg, T.; Hemel, D.; Huq, A.; * Nussbaum, M.; Posner, E.; * Stone, G.; Strauss, D.	5	4
3	Harvard	Bebchuk, L.; Fallon, R.; Goldsmith, J.; Kaplow, L.; Klarman, M.; *Kraakman, R.; Lessig, L.; Manning, J.;  *Shavell, S.; Vermeule, A.;	1	3
4	NYU	Barkow, R.; Choi, S.; *Epstein, R.; Friedman, B.; Issacharoff, S.; *Miller, A.; *Miller, G.; Pildes, R.; Revesz, R.; Waldron, J.	5	6
5	Columbia	Briffault, R.; *Coffee, J.; Crenshaw, K.; Fagan, J.; Gilson, R.; *Gordon, J.; Hamburger, P.; *Merrill, T.; Metzger, G.; Pozen, D.	4	4
6	UC-Berkeley	Chemerinsky, E.; *Cooter, R.; *Farber, D.; Kerr, O.; Menell, P.; Merges, R.; *Samuelson, P.; Schwartz, P.; Solomon, S.; Yoo, J.	7	9
6	Stanford	*Friedman, L.; *Hensler, D.; Lemley, M.; McConnell, M.; O'Connell, A.; Ouellette, L.; Persily, N.; *Polinsky, A.; Sklansky, D.; Sykes, A.	1	2
8	Penn	Baker, T.; *Burbank, S.; Coglianese, C.; Fisch, J.; Hoffman, D.; *Hovenkamp, H.; Parchomovsky, G.; Roberts, D.; *Robinson, P.; Skeel, D.	8	6
9	Virginia	Cahn, N.; Citron, D.; Duffy, J.; Gulati, G.; *Laycock, D.; Nelson, C.; Prakash, S.; * Schauer, F.; Solum, L.; * White, G.	8	8
9	Vanderbilt	Bressman, L.; Guthrie, C.; King, N.; Rossi, J.; *Rubin, E.; Ruhl, J.B.; Sherry, S.; * Slobogin, C.; Thomas, R.; * Viscusi, W.	17	16
11	UCLA	Bainbridge, S.; Carbado, D.; Crenshaw, K.; Eagly, I.; Kang, J.; Korobkin, R.; Motomura, H.; Raustiala, K.; Volokh, E.; Winkler, A.	15	14
12	Duke	Adler, M.; Blocher, J.; *Cox, J.; Garrett, B.; Helfer, L.; Lemos, M.; Rai, A.; *Schwarcz, S.; Siegel, N.; Young, E.	12	10
13	Michigan	Avi-Yonah, R.; Bagenstos, S.; Crane, D.; Eisenberg, R.; Litman, J.; *MacKinnon, C.; Primus, R.; Pritchard, A.; Schlanger, M.; *Schneider, C.	8	10
14	UC-Irvine	Burk, D.; Fleischer, V.; Goodwin, M.; Hasen, R.; Leslie, C.; *Menkel-Meadow, C.; Moran, R.; Reese, R.; Shaffer, G.; Simons, K.	19	35
15	Northwestern	* Allen, R.; Black, B.; Calabresi, S.; Dana, D.; * Diamond, S.; Kang, M.; Koppelman, A.; McGinnis, J.; Pfander, J.; *Redish, M.; Schwartz, D.	12	12
15	Cornell	Blume, J.; *Clermont, K.; Dorf, M.; Grimmelmann, J.; *Hans, V.; Heise, M.; Johnson, S.; Ohlin, J.; Rachlinski, J.; Sherwin, E.; Tebbe, N.	11	13
17	Georgetown	Barnett, R.; Butler, P.; Cohen, J.; *Gostin, L.; Katyal, N.; * Langevoort, D.; Levitin, A.; * Luban, D.; Ohm, P.; * Thompson, R.; West, R.	12	15
18	George Washington	Abramowicz, M.; Braman, D.; Colby, T.; Glicksman, R.; Kovacic, W.; Lee, C.; Murphy, S.; *Pierce, R.; Rosen, J.; Solove, D.	23	27
18	Texas	* Bone, R.; Chesney, R.; Forbath, W.; Golden, J.; * Levinson, S.; *McGarity, T.; * Sager, L.; Spence, D.; Vladeck, S.; Wagner, W.	15	16
18	Minnesota	Carbone, J.; Cotter, T.; Hickman, K.; Hill, C.; Klass, A.; *Kritzer, H.; McDonnell, B.; Painter, R.; Schwarcz, D.; *Tonry, M.	19	22
21	Washington University	*Appleton, S.; Epstein, L.; Inazu, J.; *Joy, P.; Kim, P.; Kuehn, R.; *Levin, R.; Richards, N.; *Seligman, J.; Tamanaha, B.	18	16
22	UC-Davis	Bhagwat, A.; Chin, G.; Dodge, W.; Horton, D.; Joh, E.; Johnson, K.; Joslin, C.; Lee, P.; Pruitt, L.; Shanske, D.	23	35
23	George Mason	Bernstein, D.; Butler, H.; Garoupa, N.; Kobayashi, B.; Kontorovich, E.; Mossoff, A.; *Muris, T.; Somin, I.; Wright, J.; Zywicki, T.	64	41
23	Fordham	*Brudney, J.; Capers, B.; Davidson, N.; Green, B.; Griffith, S.; Huntington, C.; Leib, E.; Pearce, R.; Pfaff, J.; Zipursky, B.	28	35
23	Boston University	*Annas, G.; Beermann, J.; Fleming, J.; Gordon, W.; Hylton, K.; Lawson, G.; Maclin, T.; McClain, L.; Meurer, M.; Onwuachi-Willig, A.;	23	20
23	St. Thomas (MN)	Berg, T.; *Hamilton, N.; *Johnson, L.; Kaal, W.; Nichols, J.; Organ, J.; Osler, M.; Paulsen, M.; Sisk, G.; Vischer, R.	141	126
27	Arizona	Bambauer, D.; Bambauer, J.; Bublick, E.; Coan, A.; Engel, K.; Massaro, T.; Miller, M.; Orbach, B.; Puig, S.; Tsosie, R.; *Williams, R.	40	46
27	William & Mary	Bellin, J.; Bruhl, A.; Criddle, E.; Devins, N.; Gershowitz, A.; Ibrahim, D.; Larsen, A.; *Marcus, P.; Oman, N.; Spencer, A.; Zick, T.	28	35
29	USC	Barnett, J.; Barry, J.; Craig, R.; Estrich, S.; Guzman, A.; Klerman, D.; McCaffery, E.; Rasmussen, R.; Roithmayr, D.; Simkovic, M.; Simon, D.; Sokol, D.	19	19
30	San Diego	*Alexander, L.; Bell, A.; Dripps, D.; Hirsch, A.; Lobel, O.; Ramsey, M.; Rappaport, M.; Schapiro, R.; Sichelman, T.; Smith, S.;	56	86
31	Notre Dame	Alford, R.; Bellia, A.; Bray, S.; Cushman, B.; Garnett, R.; Kozel, R.; Miller, P.; *Newton, N.; O'Connell, M.; Pojanowski, J.; Tidmarsh, J.	23	22
31	Illinois	Amar, V.; *Finkin, M.; Heald, P.; Kesan, J.; Lawless, R.; Mazzone, J.; *Moore, M.; Robbennolt, J.; Thomas, S.; Wilson, R.	40	29
33	Cardozo	Buccafusco, C.; Gilles, M.; Herz, M.; Markowitz, P.; Reinert, A.; *Rosenfeld, M.; *Scheck, B.; Sebok, A.; Sterk, S.; *Zelinsky, E.	52	53
33	Brooklyn	Araiza, W.; Baer, M.; Bernstein, A.; Gold, A.; Janger, E.; *Karmel, R.; Pasquale, F.; Ristroph, A.; *Schneider, E.; Simonson, J.; Solan, L.	64	81
33	Colorado	Anaya, S.; Carpenter, K.; Gerding, E.; Gruber, A.; Huang, P.; Kaminski, M.; Krakoff, S.; *Mueller, C.; Norton, H.; Peppet, S.; Schlag, P.; Schwartz, A.; Surden, H.	40	48
36	Utah	Adler, R.; Anghie, A.; Baughman, S.; Cassell, P.; Contreras, J.; *Francis, L.; Jones, R.; *Keiter, R.; Peterson, C.; Tokson, M.; Warner, E.	48	43
36	Case Western	Adler, J.; Berg, J.; Hill, B.; Hoffman, S.; Korsmo, C.; Ku, R.; Nard, C.; Perzanowski, A.; Robertson, C.; Scharf, M.	73	72
36	North Carolina	Ardia, D.; *Conley, J.; Coyle, J.; Gerhardt, M.; *Hazen, T.; Hessick, C.; Hessick, F.; Jacoby, M.; *Marshall, W.; Nichol, G.; Papandrea, M.	23	24
36	Emory	Dudziak, M.; *Fineman, M.; Freer, R.; Holbrook, T.; Hutchinson, D.; Nash, J.; *Perry, M.; Shepherd, J.; Volokh, A.; Witte, J.	19	29
40	Kansas	Bhala, R.; Drahozal, C.; Harper Ho, V.; Hoeflich, M.; Levy, R.; Mulligan, L.; Outka, U.; Stacy, T.; Torrance, A.; Ware, S.; Yung, C.	64	70
40	UC-Hastings	Depoorter, B.; Dodson, S.; Faigman, D.; Feldman, R.; *Marcus, R.; Mattei, U.; Owen, D.; Price, Z.; Schiller, R.; Williams, J.	40	50
40	Chicago-Kent	Baker, K.; Dinwoodie, G.; Katz, D.; Kim, N.; Krent, H.; Lee, E.; Marder, N.; Reilly, G.; Rosen, M.; Schmidt, C.	73	91
43	Ohio State	Akbar, A.; Berman, D.; Chow, D.; Cole, S.; Colker, R.; Davies, L.; Foley, E.; Hernández, C.; Simmons, R.; Walker, C.	32	40
43	Alabama	Andreen, W.; Carroll, J.; * Delgado, R.; Elliott, H.; Grove, T.; Hamill, S.; Hill, J.; Horwitz, P.; Krotoszynski, R.; * Stefancic, J.; Steinman, A.	32	25
43	Georgia	Barnett, K.; Bruner, C.; Burch, E.; Cade, J.; Chapman, N.; Coenen, D.; Cohen, H.; Leonard, E.; Polsky, G.; Rodrigues, U.; Rutledge, P.; *Wells, M.; West, S.	32	27
46	American	Anderson, J.; Daskal, J.; Davis, A.; Fairfax, R.; Ferguson, A.; Franck, S.; Frost, A.; *Robbins, I.; Roberts, J.; Wiley, L.	48	81
46	Florida State	Abbott, F.; Bayern, S.; Hsu, S.; Landau, D.; Logan, W.; O’Hara O’Connor, E.; Ryan, E.; Seidenfeld, M.; Stern, N.; Ziegler, M.	45	48
46	Maryland	*Colbert, D.; Ertman, M.; Gifford, D.; Goodmark, L.; Graber, M.; Gray, D.; Percival, R.; Pinard, M.; Ram, N.; Stearns, M.; Steinzor, R.; Tu, K.	48	50
49	Temple	Arewa, O.; Burris, S.; Dunoff, J.; Gugliuzza, P.; Hollis, D.; Lin, T.; Lipson, J.; Mandel, G.; Ramji-Nogales, J.; Rogers, B.; Spiro, P.	56	53
49	BYU	Asay, C.; Fee, J.; *Fleming, J.; Gedicks, F.; Hurt, C.; Jensen, E.; Nielson, A.; Scharffs, B.; Smith, D.; Sun, L.	52	29
49	Wake Forest	Aiken, J.; Chavis, K.; *Green, M.; Hall, M.; Knox, J.; Palmiter, A.; Parks, G.; *Shapiro, S.; Taylor, M.; Wright, R.	45	41
52	Florida	Arnow-Richman, R.; Bornstein, S.; Calvert, C.; *Dowd, N.; Fenster, M.; Nance, J.; Noah, L.; *Page, W.; Rhee, R.; Rosenbury, L.; Stinneford, J.; Wolf, M.	32	21
52	Arizona State	Bodansky, D.; Fellmeth, A.; Hodge, J.; Luna, E.; Marchant, G.; Miller, R.; Rule, T.; *Saks, M.; Selmi, M.; Weinstein, J.	32	25
52	Iowa	Bohannan, C.; Estin, A.; Gallanis, T.; Grewal, A.; Muller, D.; Pettys, T.; Rantanen, J.; Steinitz, M.; VanderVelde, L.; Washburn, K.; Wing, A.; Yockey, J.	32	29
52	Indiana-Maurer	Dau-Schmidt, K.; Fischman, R.; Fuentes-Rohwer, L.; Gamage, D.; Geyh, C.; Henderson, W.; Janis, M.; Johnsen, D.; Lederman, L.; Nagy, D.; Widiss, D.	32	43
52	Richmond	Cotropia, C.; Eisen, J.; Erickson, J.; Gibson, J.; Lain, C.; Lash, K.; Osenga, K.; Perdue, W.; *Tobias, C.; Walsh, K.	56	53
57	Missouri	Bowman, F.; Crouch, D.; English, D.; Gely, R.; Lambert, T.; Lidsky, L.; Lietzan, E.; Oliveri, R.; Reuben, R.; Schmitz, A.; Wells, C.	83	60
57	San Francisco	Bazelon, L.; Davis, J.; Freiwald, S.; Green, T.; *Hing, B.; Iglesias, T.; Kaswan, A.; Leo, R.; Ontiveros, M.; Travis, M.	127	147-193
59	Boston College	Bilder, M.; Cassidy, R.; Greenfield, K.; Kanstroom, D.; Liu, J.; Madoff, R.; McCoy, P.; Oei, S.; Olson, D.; Repetti, J.; Ring, D.; Yen, A.	28	29
59	UNLV	Cooper, F.; Griffin, L.; Kagan, M.; Main, T.; McGinley, A.; Orentlicher, D.; Rapoport, N.; Stanchi, K.; Stempel, J.; Sternlight, J.	64	60
59	Wisconsin	Brito, T.; Findley, K.; Huneeus, A.; Klingele, C.; Klug, H.; Rogers, J.; Schwartz, D.; Seifter, M.; Tokaji, D.; Yackee, J.	28	29
59	Pittsburgh	Brake, D.; Brand, R.; Carter, W.; *Chew, P.; Crossley, M.; Harris, D.; Infanti, A.; *Lobel, J.; Madison, M.; Wildermuth, A.	64	67
63	Santa Clara	*Cain, P.; Chien, C.; *Glancy, D.; Goldman, E.; Gulasekaram, P.; Kloppenberg, L.; Love, B.; Oberman, M.; Ochoa, T.; Sloss, D.; Spitko, E.; Yosifon, D.	73	126
63	SMU	Carpenter, D.; Colangelo, A.; Coleman, J.; Cortez, N.; Grossman, J.; Hayden, G.; Ryan, M.; *Steinberg, M.; Taylor, D.; Thornburg, E.; Turner, J.	64	52
63	Hofstra	Baruch Bush, R.; Burke, A.; Colombo, R.; *Dolgin, J.; Freedman, E.; Greenwood, D.; Ku, J.; Manta, I.; Neumann, R.; *Yaroshefsky, E.	107	119
63	Northeastern	* Baker, B.; Davis, M.; Dyal-Chand, R.; Hartzog, W.; * Klare, K.; Medwed, D.; Parmet, W.; Rosenbloom, R.; Waldman, A.; *Williams, P.	73	67
63	Loyola-LA	Aprill, E.; Hayden, P.; Hughes, J.; Levenson, L.; Levitt, J.; Miller, E.; Petherbridge, L.; Romano, C.; Willis, L.; Zimmerman, A.	56	72
63	Pepperdine	Anderson, R.; Caldwell, H.; Caron, P.; Childress, D.; Han, D.; Helfand, M.; McDonald, B.; McNeal, G.; Pushaw, R.; Stipanowich, T.; Weston, M.	64	46

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U.S. News Abandons Plan To Issue Citations Ranking Of Law Faculty

In February 2019, U.S. News announced it would publish a law faculty scholarly impact ranking in 2019 based on 5-year citation data from HeinOnline (FAQ; Updated FAQ; Additional Guidance). In November 2020, U.S. News announced it would be publishing the ranking in 2021. In June 2021, U.S. News abandoned its effort to rank law faculty scholarly impact:

Bloomberg Law op-ed:  Rankings Shift Could Force Big Changes at U.S. Law Schools, by Joshua Fischman (Virginia) & Michael A. Livermore (Virginia):

The U.S. News & World Report rankings are a powerful force in the world of law schools. Deans’ careers can rise or fall on their schools’ rankings, which affect everything from student recruitment to alumni giving to faculty retention. So when U.S. News announced in 2019 that it was considering creating a new ranking for law schools, heads turned across the legal academy.

Bloomberg Law received an email Aug. 19 from U.S. News stating that in June 2021 it decided that it would not proceed with its previously proposed law school scholarly impact ranking [more here]. However, we feel it is important to discuss concerns legal academics have about such proposals.

The crux of the U.S. News proposal was to develop a new measure of a law school’s prestige based on the “impact” of the scholarship produced by its faculty. This impact score would be calculated by counting the number of times a professor’s work was cited by other professors, and perhaps by courts.

Skeptics immediately raised objections. The most general challenge is that judgments of scholarly merit are inevitably subjective and cannot be quantified. Others expressed concern about biases against women, scholars of color, interdisciplinary scholars, and those in less-cited research areas.

But the citation-based rankings have supporters as well. They argue that the new approach will bring some needed objectivity to a system that is biased in favor of the old-school powerhouses and leaves little room for entrepreneurial upstarts to improve their standing.

As with many debates in academia, this might sound like a tempest in a teapot. But if U.S. News changes its ranking system, law schools will be pressured to alter how they recruit and promote faculty.

In particular, law schools will likely focus on professors with the most citations, instead of interdisciplinary credentials, peer-reviewed publications, or diversity. Ultimately, this affects who trains the next generation of lawyers and which ideas are circulated to courts and other legal decision-makers.

In a recent study of the law school lateral hiring market, we show that a focus on citations would result in dramatic changes in law school hiring. We find that the professors recruited into the top law schools are not necessarily the ones with the most citations. The citation counts of law professors who move to the most elite schools in the country—places like Harvard and Yale—are barely distinguishable from the rest of the field.

Joshua Fischman (Virginia) & Michael A. Livermore (Virginia), Empirically Validating Citation Metrics for Legal Scholars: A Market Approach:

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Early Returns On The Law School Class Of 2024: Higher LSAT Scores, UGPAs, And Enrollment

The early returns on entering 1Ls class confirm predictions of a roaring Fall 2021 law school admissions season. Here are the available data from Spivey Consulting for the U.S. News Top 50 law schools: 

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Leiter: Citation Counts Vary By Field—Tax Is 19th Among 21 Subject Areas

Brian Leiter (Chicago), Citation Counts Vary By Field:

Since Professor Sisk and colleagues at the University of St. Thomas are putting the finishing touches on their study of scholarly impact for the period 2016-2020, I thought I'd call attention to an important fact about interpreting citation data:  namely, that citation rates vary quite a bit by field.  One can see all the subject-specific citation lists for the last Sisk study (2013-2017) here.  Of the ten most-cited faculty in the U.S. in the last Sisk study, only one did not work at least in part in a public law area.  Indeed, constitutional and public law are the most high-citation fields, although corporate, law & economics, criminal law & procedure, and intellectual property also get cited a lot.  By contrast, tax, evidence, and legal ethics, among others, are low-citation fields.  300 cites in a five-year period will get you into the top five in tax, but not anywhere close to the top 20 in constitutional law (maybe the top 50?).

Here's the fields ranked from highest to lowest citations based on the sum of the cites for the scholar ranked #5 and #10 on the lists in the various specialties (those totals follow in parentheses):

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A (Better) Measure Of The Top Ten U.S. Law Schools By Faculty Impact: NYU Is #1

J.B. Heaton (JD, MBA & Ph.D., University of Chicago; Google Scholar), Who Fields the Best Team?: A (Better) Measure of the Top Ten U.S. Law Schools by Faculty Impact:

I rank the Top 10 U.S. Law Schools by examining the ability of schools to field their highest-ranked specialist in both a broad set of areas (including, in addition to “core” areas tested in multistate bar exams fields like legal philosophy, antitrust, election law, etc.) and, separately in only the core areas. In both analyses, NYU places first, an improvement over two widely-watched rankings.

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The Best Law Schools For Practical Training

Best Schools For Practical Training, preLaw (Spring 2021):

This year, we’re honoring 65 schools, but every law school invests in practical training. The American Bar Association requires that law students take at least six “experiential credits,” even though some experts cite that figure as being too low. Law schools have been criticized in the past for not producing grads ready to take on real jobs. Expanding practical training offerings beyond the ABA’s requirement has been one response.

Practical Training Methodology
We graded schools on a number of data points, focusing on key practical training offerings such as clinics, externships, simulation courses, pro bono hours and moot trial participation.

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The Roaring Fall 2021 Admissions Season: Will A Law School Have A 175 LSAT Or 4.0 UGPA Median?

Following up on yesterday's post, 98% Of The Way Through The Fall 2021 Law School Admissions Cycle: Applicants Are Up 14%, With Biggest Increase (66%) Among The 170+ LSAT Band:  Spivey Consulting, Recapping the 2020-2021 Law School Admissions Cycle & Predicting the Upcoming Cycle:

In this podcast, Mike Spivey is joined by PowerScore founder and CEO Dave Killoran and Spivey Consulting Business Intelligence Director Justin Kane ... to discuss takeaways from this previous 2020-2021 admissions cycle and to make predictions for the upcoming 2021-2022 cycle.

The fall 2021 admissions discussion addressed a number of interesting points, including:

• Potential causes of the dramatic increase in LSAT scores
• The pandemic gave test-takers more time to study
• The online test was shorter and taken in the more convenient and comfortable home environment
• Predicted LSAT and UGPA medians:  +2, +.05
• Predicted 1L enrollment: +10%
• Which will occur first: a school with a 175 LSAT median or a 4.0 UGPA median? (The current highs are a 173 LSAT median (Harvard, Yale) and a 3.94 UGPA Median (Alabama, Yale)

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Eleven Organizations Call On U.S. News To Drop SATs|ACTs From College Rankings Methodology

New America, An Open Letter to The Editors of US News and World Report’s Best Colleges Rankings:

We write today requesting you end the practice of using average SAT and ACT scores of incoming students to calculate your Best Colleges rankings. Using average scores of incoming students to rank an institution has never made sense, but is even more preposterous during a deadly pandemic. The Best Colleges ranking has been the leading college rankings publication for years, and its impact on consumers and institutions alike cannot be overstated.

The ongoing pandemic has made it difficult if not impossible for many to take the SAT or ACT. At the same time, a rise in test-blind and test-optional admissions policies has made it difficult to compare institutions using this metric. The Fiske Guide to Colleges recognized these challenges and will not be including test scores in its annual evaluations. “Rather than publish inaccurate and misleading data, we have decided to omit any reporting of score ranges for the foreseeable future,” Edward B. Fiske, editor of the guide, told Inside Higher Ed in March. “To do otherwise would be a disservice to our readers.” Not only does US News use average scores in its rankings, but has penalized colleges that go test blind or test optional by assigning them arbitrarily low average SAT/ACT scores. Many colleges and universities decided to be considerate during what has been an immensely difficult year for high school students and now they are being punished within the rankings for doing so.

The pandemic and changes in admissions policies have made it difficult to rank institutions on this measure, but even beyond this year, the use of scores is problematic. Standardized admissions test scores say nothing about the quality of a college’s education, only how selective their admissions process is. Research shows that SAT and ACT scores aren’t reliably predictive of students’ college outcomes.

Standardized admissions tests benefit high-income and predominantly white students who can afford expensive tutoring—teaching them tricks to taking the tests—or to take the exams multiple times to improve their scores, while low-income students and students of color don’t have access to the same resources. As a result, using test scores in selective college admissions disadvantages these students. Any organization that wishes to advance racial and socioeconomic equity in education should understand this. By using the test scores in the rankings, US News is rewarding and helping perpetuate a gatekeeping tactic that is discriminatory.

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Malcolm Gladwell Interviews Robert Morse: 'Lord Of The Rankings'

Following up on my previous posts (links below):

Malcolm Gladwell, Lord of the Rankings (Revisionist History Season 6):

For 30 years, US News & World Report has been using a secret formula to rank the best colleges and universities in the United States. As a public service to our listeners, we hack the algorithm and discover the dirty little secret of the rankings game. Part one of a two-part series.

Malcolm Gladwell, Project Dillard (Revisionist History Season 6):

A historically Black university in New Orleans is beloved by everyone – except the US News best colleges rankings. We hack our way back into the algorithm and show how Dillard University can rise to the top. Part two of a two-part series.

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2020 Tax Journal Rankings: Florida Tax Review Is #1, Virginia Tax Review Is #2

Washington & Lee has just released the 2020 tax law review rankings of six major tax journals:

• Columbia Journal of Tax Law ("Columbia")
• Florida Tax Review ("Florida")
• Tax Law Review ("NYU")
• Tax Lawyer ("ABA")
• Tax Notes Federal ("Tax Notes")
• Virginia Tax Review ("Virginia")

The rankings are based on citations to articles published in 2016-2020 (methodology):

• Impact Factor (citations/number of articles published)
• Citations in Law Reviews
• Citations in Cases (federal and state courts)
• Combined (weighted combination of the above rankings)
• Currency (how rapidly articles are cited)

	Combined	Impact	Journals	Cases	Currency
1. Florida	11.12	0.69	161	1	1.43
2. Virginia	10.90	0.75	135	1	1.19
3. NYU	10.64	0.62	166	0	1.11
4. Tax Notes	8.92	0.01	290	1	0.02
5. Columbia	8.10	0.58	93	0	1.18
ABA	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR

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U.S. News: The Ten Most Expensive Law Schools

U.S. News & World Report, 10 Most Expensive Law Schools:

Among the 191 ranked law schools that provided this data, the average tuition and fees for out-of-state students during the 2020-2021 school year was around $47,300. Costs were even higher among the 10 most expensive law schools, with an average cost of about $69,600.

Law School	Tuition & Fees	U.S. News Rank
1. Columbia	$74,995	4
2. NYU	$71,304	6
3. Cornell	$70,274	13
4. Chicago	$69,975	4
5. USC	$68,828	19
6.  Northwestern	$68,800	12
7. Virginia	$68,500	8
8. Pennsylvania	$68,130	6
9. Yale	$68,117	1
10. Michigan	$67,198	10

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Outrage Grows Over Firing Of Tony Verona After Less Than Two Years As Miami Dean. Did Minor Declines In U.S. News Ranking And Bar Passage Rate Play A Role?

Following up on yesterday's post, University Of Miami President Fires Tony Varona After Less Than Two Years As Dean; Tenured Faculty Protests Decision; Varona's Lawyer Says He Will Contest The Firing:  Miami Herald, UM Fires Its Law School Dean, Setting Off Outrage Among Faculty, Alums and Students:

In an abrupt move, University of Miami President Julio Frenk fired School of Law Dean Anthony Varona on Tuesday, sparking outrage among professors, students and alumni, and prompting Varona to hire a lawyer, who denounced the termination as “an egregious violation” of the dean’s legal rights. ...

Varona, 53, stands to lose his deanship July 1, but Frenk offered to let him stay on as a tenured faculty member and to keep his title as the M. Minnette Massey Professor of Law.

In his message, Frenk didn’t provide clear reasons for pushing out Varona, except for alluding to a lack of fundraising. ...

A recent decline in the law school’s U.S. News & World Report rankings, as well as challenges improving UM’s passing rate for the Florida Bar exam, also could have contributed to Varona’s sacking.

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U.S. News Law School Rankings By Elevation

I was inspired by this item in yesterday's Chronicle of Higher Education Daily briefing:

In the status-conscious world of higher ed, rankings — however methodologically flawed — exercise a profound and dubious influence on campus and off. Who’s in, and who’s out? Who’s up, and who’s down? So it was not surprising recently to see a question on Quora about where Emory University stands in the academic pecking order. Is it “on the same level as UChicago, UPenn, Cornell, Columbia, and Northeastern, or is it on the same level as UC Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, CMU, and USC?”

Several dreary replies indulged the questioner’s horse-race view of higher ed. Then Jeff Erickson, a computer-science professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, weighed in. Emory, he wrote, topped Chicago but was below Cornell — in terms of their elevation above mean sea level. He then provided a topographical ranking of all those universities, led by Carnegie Mellon, at 971 feet. At the bottom was Northeastern, at just 13 feet. Erickson’s refreshing view of what really counts in academic stature prompted us to apply it more widely. For example, under his vision, the University of Colorado at Boulder, at over a mile high, might well be the acme of American higher ed, towering over that puny college in Cambridge, Mass., a mere 10 feet above sea level.

Here are the U.S. News Top 50 law schools, re-sorted by their elevation above sea level:

Elevation Rank	School	Elevation (Feet)	Overall Rank
1	Colorado	5,387	48
2	Utah	4,682	43
3	BYU	4,649	29
4	Arizona	2,431	46
5	Arizona State	1,093	25
6	Washington & Lee	1,043	35
7	Wake Forest	935	41
8	Emory	925	29
9	Wisconsin	883	29
10	Michigan	876	10
11	Minnesota	840	22
12	Cornell	817	13
13	Indiana (Maurer)	764	43
14	Notre Dame	735	22
15	Illinois	728	29
16	Ohio State	725	40
17	Iowa	692	29
18	Georgia	659	27
19	Texas	600	16
20	Chicago	591	4
21	Northwestern	587	12
22	Virginia	568	8
23	Vanderbilt	551	16
24	Washington Univ.	541	16
25	North Carolina	469	24
26	George Mason	430	41
27	Pepperdine Caruso	427	46
28	UCLA	397	14
29	Duke	384	10
30	UC-Berkeley	282	9
31	Boston College	213	29
32	Alabama	207	25
33	Maryland	200	50
34	USC	184	19
35	Florida State	174	48
36	Florida	151	21
37	Univ. of Washington	148	45
38	Columbia	128	4
39	Fordham	89	35
40	Yale	79	1
41	Stanford	72	2
41	William & Mary	72	35
43	UC-Irvine	69	35
44	UC-Hastings	62	50
45	George Washington	59	27
46	Penn	56	6
47	UC-Davis	52	35
48	Georgetown	43	15
49	NYU	36	6
50	Harvard	20	3
51	Boston Univ.	16	20

Law School Rankings By Ultimate Bar Passage Rates

The ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has released comprehensive data on bar passage outcomes for ABA-accredited law schools:

The new data shows that in the aggregate, 89.99% of 2018 law graduates who sat for a bar exam passed it within two years of graduation (90.10% with Diploma Privilege). The two-year “ultimate” aggregate success rate is slightly better than the 89.47% comparable figure for 2017 graduates. The 2018 ultimate bar pass data also reveals that 94.98% of all graduates sat for a bar exam within two years of graduation, and that schools were able to obtain bar passage information from 98.84% of 2018 graduates.

First-time takers in 2020 achieved an aggregate 82.83% pass rate (83.66% with Diploma Privilege), which is a 3-percentage point increase over the comparable 79.64% pass rate for 2019. Diploma Privilege considers those waived into the practice of law without taking the bar because of special rules during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Three law schools have a perfect 100% 2-year ultimate bar passage rate: Belmont, University of Chicago, and University of Washington. Here are the 107 law schools with ultimate bar passage rates of 90% or more (not including diploma privilege) (the full data for all 197 law schools is here):

1	Belmont	100.00%
1	Chicago	100.00%
1	Univ. of Washington	100.00%
4	Boston Univ.	99.55%
5	Cornell	99.49%
6	Pennsylvania	99.16%
7	Yale	99.04%
8	Virginia	98.99%
9	Stanford	98.91%
10	NYU	98.89%
11	Vanderbilt	98.86%
12	Florida Int'l	98.47%
13	UC-Berkeley	98.34%
14	Duke	98.14%
15	Harvard	97.86%
16	William & Mary	97.80%
17	Liberty	97.62%
18	Pittsburgh	97.56%
19	St. Louis	97.44%
20	Michigan	97.27%
21	North Carolina	97.24%
22	Minnesota	97.21%
23	George Washington	97.19%
24	Kentucky	97.12%
25	Columbia	97.07%
26	Texas	97.06%
27	Florida State	97.04%
28	Cardozo	97.03%
29	Georgia State	97.01%
30	St. John's	96.88%
31	Seton Hall	96.82%
32	BYU	96.72%
33	Toledo	96.49%
34	Oregon	96.46%
35	Oklahoma	96.32%
36	Fordham	96.29%
37	UCLA	96.25%
38	Samford	96.06%
39	Notre Dame	96.02%
40	Hawaii	96.00%
41	Texas Tech	95.92%
42	St. Thomas (MN)	95.88%
43	Utah	95.79%
44	SMU	95.73%
45	Washington Univ.	95.52%
46	Boston College	95.50%
47	Georgetown	95.47%
48	UC-Davis	95.35%
49	Colorado	95.29%
50	Georgia	95.24%
51	Illinois	95.17%
52	Ohio State	94.94%
53	Louisiana State	94.90%
53	New Mexico	94.90%
55	Texas A&M	94.78%
56	Alabama	94.74%
57	San Diego	94.59%
57	Washington & Lee	94.59%
59	Arizona State	94.55%
60	Campbell	94.53%
61	Missouri-Columbia	94.38%
61	South Texas	94.38%
63	New Hampshire	94.37%
64	Villanova	94.27%
65	Northeastern	94.16%
66	Syracuse	94.08%
67	Penn State-Univ. Park	94.07%
68	Cleveland State	93.90%
69	Nebraska	93.81%
70	Temple	93.63%
71	Oklahoma City	93.62%
72	South Carolina	93.58%
73	Penn State-Dickinson	93.55%
74	Duquesne	93.33%
75	Loyola-L.A.	93.26%
76	Regent	93.22%
77	Pepperdine	93.21%
78	Miami	93.13%
79	Tulsa	93.10%
80	George Mason	93.06%
81	USC	92.82%
82	Tennessee	92.79%
83	Houston	92.76%
84	Northwestern	92.56%
85	Maryland	92.46%
86	Florida	92.45%
87	Kansas	92.31%
88	UC-Irvine	92.04%
89	Massachusetts	91.84%
90	Richmond	91.76%
90	Loyola-Chicago	91.76%
92	Gonzaga	91.67%
93	Connecticut	91.46%
94	Baylor	91.23%
95	Washburn	91.21%
96	Lincoln Memorial	91.07%
97	Chapman	91.04%
98	Chicago-Kent	90.82%
99	Quinnipiac	90.59%
100	Indiana-Bloom.	90.54%
101	Louisville	90.38%
102	Santa Clara	90.32%
103	Case Western	90.27%
104	Brooklyn	90.22%
105	Maine	90.00%
105	Wake Forest	90.00%
105	Widener (PA)	90.00%

Ten law schools have pass rates below the 75% rate (including diploma privilege) in ABA accreditation standard 316, which requires a bar passage rate of at least 75% within two years of graduation:

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Anatomy Of Temple Business School Rankings Fraud

Following up on my previous posts (links below):  Poets & Quants, Anatomy Of A Business School Rankings Fraud:

The beginning of the end occurred at an early morning dean’s meeting on Jan. 9 of 2018. At the tense session, several administrators at Temple University’s Fox School of Business read aloud a Poets&Quants article that cast doubt on the school’s number one ranking for its online MBA program in U.S. News.

Every person gathered for the meeting expressed concern that Fox’s No. 1 ranking had been based on an inaccurate submission of data to U.S. News. Poets&Quants skepticism led everyone in the group to fear that the school’s years-long efforts to game the ranking by routinely submitting false data would soon explode into a crisis.

Everyone, that is, except Dean M. Moshe Porat. Ambitious and strong-willed, Porat seemed undisturbed by his colleagues’ concern. He had been dean of the school for nearly 22 years, ruling over it with iron-clad control as if it were his personal fiefdom. In truth, Porat was as much a presence at the university as anyone, the second-longest-tenured dean in Fox School’s history. Including his days as a doctoral student at Temple in the late 1970s, the insurance professor and dean had been at Temple University for parts of five decades.

A CHAMPAIGN TOAST AND AN EMAIL BLAST TO DONORS TO TRUMPET A FRAUDULENLY GAINED NO. 1 RANKING
After the meeting, in fact, he was scheduled to give a champagne toast at a reception to announce the No. 1 ranking, the fourth consecutive time Fox’s online MBA had won top honors from U.S. News. But Fox deans and administrators urged him not to mention the ranking since it appeared to be based in part on false and inaccurate data.

Porat abruptly dismissed their worries. He would do his toast, anyway, and also instruct his marketing staff to send out an email to donors trumpeting the news of the school’s No. 1 ranking. Early the next morning, however, he would ask one of the school’s statistics professors to calculate where the school’s rank would have been if the school had not intentionally misled U.S. News about the number of new students enrolled in the online MBA without a standardized test score, a key component of the rankings’ methodology.

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2022 U.S. News Omnibus Specialty Rankings v. Overall Rankings

Following up on yesterday's post, 2022 U.S. News Omnibus Specialty Rankings:

Here are the law schools whose U.S. News Omnibus Specialty Ranking most exceeds their overall U.S. News Ranking:

	School	Specialty Rank	Overall Rank	Difference
1	American	22	81	+59
2	Suffolk	75	129	+54
2	UIC-John Marshall	93	147	+54
4	Seattle	74	126	+52
5	Rutgers	46	91	+45
6	Denver	34	78	+44
7	Pace	97	139	+42
8	Pacific	100	141	+41
8	Santa Clara	85	126	+41
10	Mitchell-Hamline	107	147	+40
11	Loyola-New Orleans	105	144	+39
12	Hofstra	81	119	+38
13	Baltimore	94	129	+35
14	Brooklyn	49	81	+32
14	UC-Hastings	18	50	+32
16	San Diego	57	86	+29
17	Loyola-Chicago	50	78	+28
18	Houston	33	60	+27
18	Loyola-L.A.	45	72	+27
20	Chicago-Kent	66	91	+25
20	Miami	47	72	+25
22	New York Law School	95	119	+24
22	San Francisco	123	147	+24
24	Georgia State	55	78	+23
24	Howard	68	91	+23
24	Indiana (McKinney)	88	111	+23
27	Syracuse	80	102	+22
28	DePaul	90	111	+21
28	Ohio State	19	40	+21
28	South Texas	126	147	+21
28	UC-Irvine	14	35	+21
32	Widener (DE)	127	147	+20
33	Stetson	92	111	+19
33	Tulane	41	60	+19
33	Vermont	128	147	+19
33	Univ. of Washington	26	45	+19
37	George Washington	9	27	+18
38	Temple	36	53	+17
39	Southwestern	131	147	+16
40	Case Western	58	72	+14
40	Fordham	21	35	+14
40	Georgetown	1	15	+14
40	South Carolina	82	96	+14
44	Willamette	135	147	+12
45	Golden Gate	136	147	+11
45	Gonzaga	118	129	+11
45	Maryland	39	50	+11
48	Quinnipiac	119	129	+10
49	Widener (PA)	138	147	+9
50	UNLV	52	60	+8

Here are the law schools whose U.S. News Omnibus Specialty Ranking most trails their overall U.S. News Ranking:

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2022 U.S. News Omnibus Specialty Rankings

The new 2022 U.S. News Specialty Rankings include the rankings for 13 specialty programs at 193 law schools. Here are the Top 100 law schools, determined by giving equal weight to each of the 13 separate specialty rankings:

1. Business/Corporate Law
2. Clinical Law
3. Constitutional Law
4. Contracts/Commercial Law
5. Criminal Law
6. Dispute Resolution 
7. Environmental Law
8. Health Care Law
9. Intellectual Property Law
10. International Law
11. Legal Writing
12. Tax Law
13. Trial Advocacy

	School	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	Avg.
1	Georgetown	12	1	9	11	7	24	7	7	13	5	9	3	15	9.5
2	Stanford	3	15	3	5	4	13	10	7	1	10	114	11	42	18.3
3	NYU	3	4	3	7	1	32	4	45	3	1	68	1	67	18.4
4	Michigan	9	6	13	7	10	32	37	23	15	6	9	8	67	18.6
5	Northwestern	12	9	15	13	13	7	44	37	19	26	25	4	21	18.8
6	Harvard	1	24	1	2	2	1	7	7	19	2	159	8	30	20.2
7	UC-Berkeley	3	9	6	7	2	32	1	45	1	6	121	23	17	21.0
8	UCLA	8	24	9	13	10	32	4	32	19	14	100	8	7	21.5
9	George Washington	22	24	27	26	27	24	10	20	4	6	34	28	54	23.5
10	Duke	12	50	9	13	13	52	16	23	15	10	34	16	67	25.4
11	Virginia	9	56	8	7	4	32	30	41	19	10	80	4	61	27.8
12	Texas	17	40	9	11	17	19	30	29	26	18	68	16	67	28.2
13	Penn	3	32	15	5	7	32	48	20	13	14	68	21	105	29.5
14	UC-Irvine	44	6	20	34	27	24	32	37	19	22	9	6	105	29.6
15	Washington Univ.	25	9	20	23	30	19	48	29	44	22	80	28	19	30.5
16	Columbia	2	22	6	1	7	15	7	45	15	3	159	11	105	30.6
17	Yale	9	4	1	4	4	32	20	15	52	3	154	14	90	30.9
18	UC-Hastings	28	19	33	34	30	8	24	13	30	26	121	16	21	31.0
19	Ohio State	44	56	27	18	13	2	65	18	44	49	25	34	54	34.5
20	Boston Univ.	19	40	24	26	23	63	57	4	12	32	68	16	67	34.7
21	Fordham	18	19	33	23	18	17	65	77	19	18	100	39	8	34.9
22	American	70	3	52	56	23	63	37	11	8	6	61	53	12	35.0
23	Arizona State	48	56	35	45	30	13	20	16	71	32	3	28	67	35.7
24	Minnesota	19	32	27	18	18	48	24	20	38	29	46	25	124	36.0
25	Vanderbilt	12	40	17	17	13	32	15	32	26	22	121	39	105	37.8
26	Univ. of Washington	48	32	46	26	36	19	34	41	15	39	41	34	105	39.7
27	Boston College	36	24	35	34	50	41	24	41	33	35	46	14	105	39.8
28	North Carolina	28	50	20	18	18	77	37	37	52	58	9	25	90	39.9
29	Chicago	7	40	3	2	10	63	73	45	38	18	159	6	79	41.8
30	Cornell	16	50	13	13	22	45	65	77	38	13	61	28	105	42.0
31	William & Mary	36	74	18	26	18	52	57	66	52	29	46	53	42	43.8
32	UC-Davis	22	90	18	26	23	24	24	57	44	26	132	27	61	44.2
33	Houston	52	90	67	45	61	52	20	5	8	43	46	53	42	44.9
34	Denver	64	9	71	56	36	41	24	83	63	58	9	60	12	45.1
35	Emory	22	107	24	22	40	112	48	23	38	32	46	34	42	45.4
36	Temple	52	74	60	53	61	63	90	18	63	16	7	39	1	45.9
37	Georgia	28	24	35	41	40	87	82	41	75	18	68	39	30	46.8
38	Florida	28	90	46	34	50	24	20	57	52	49	121	2	42	47.3
39	Maryland	52	9	41	56	50	15	16	7	97	68	114	73	30	48.3
40	USC	19	79	27	23	40	24	65	45	63	49	68	23	105	48.5
41	Tulane	36	32	46	34	50	52	18	71	63	39	80	47	67	48.8
42	Arizona	52	64	35	56	40	77	32	45	75	35	21	60	67	50.7
43	Indiana (Maurer)	25	79	52	26	40	77	37	57	26	35	68	16	124	50.9
44	Wisconsin	36	56	27	26	30	41	42	45	85	35	100	53	90	51.2
45	Loyola-L.A.	52	99	60	62	36	48	90	57	30	92	46	11	4	52.8
46	Rutgers	64	15	52	68	60	52	73	37	85	49	9	85	42	53.2
47	Miami	48	24	46	56	50	102	48	77	63	29	80	28	42	53.3
48	Colorado	44	79	46	45	36	77	10	66	33	62	80	39	79	53.5
49	Brooklyn	36	24	41	34	27	87	121	71	75	49	34	60	42	53.9
50	Loyola-Chicago	60	74	67	79	81	45	111	3	44	68	25	47	15	55.3
51	Notre Dame	28	74	24	41	66	112	48	83	33	22	100	47	42	55.4
52	UNLV	73	40	67	45	66	5	73	32	71	110	1	60	79	55.5
53	Texas A&M	64	32	76	62	97	8	34	83	7	68	25	73	124	57.9
54	Wake Forest	52	107	52	41	30	112	48	27	102	86	5	68	28	58.3
55	Georgia State	60	40	46	68	66	95	82	1	63	92	100	39	24	59.7
56	Utah	44	64	60	53	30	112	10	32	33	58	80	60	142	59.8
57	San Diego	28	135	20	45	40	112	65	57	19	43	144	21	54	60.2
58	Case Western	78	56	52	74	77	77	57	11	52	16	80	95	67	60.9
59	Cardozo	64	40	41	45	23	8	127	83	10	49	132	68	105	61.2
60	Northeastern	89	22	83	109	50	63	90	5	38	78	25	114	42	62.2
61	Washington & Lee	36	64	60	34	50	52	90	45	85	39	100	34	124	62.5
62	Illinois	28	107	35	18	40	95	82	71	38	62	100	53	90	63.0
63	Alabama	60	50	27	26	40	87	65	71	114	78	132	39	36	63.5
64	Florida State	52	135	41	45	40	77	18	83	75	43	132	28	61	63.8
65	Iowa	28	90	35	41	40	112	121	66	52	43	46	47	124	65.0
66	Chicago-Kent	78	120	52	68	81	63	90	57	10	92	46	85	4	65.1
67	SMU	60	64	76	68	50	102	90	45	44	49	138	53	42	67.8
68	Howard	73	32	52	62	50	95	104	110	52	86	41	95	30	67.8
69	BYU	36	120	60	56	72	95	57	108	44	62	80	47	67	69.5
70	Seton Hall	78	56	71	79	77	87	82	13	90	78	61	60	90	70.9
71	Pittsburgh	78	99	71	62	61	112	90	29	44	43	68	47	124	71.4
72	Richmond	52	129	52	68	50	77	57	77	44	68	68	68	124	71.8
73	St. John's	78	90	67	87	61	24	136	71	75	68	46	114	30	72.8
74	Seattle	73	24	89	87	97	112	48	110	63	86	7	95	90	75.5
75	Suffolk	125	15	121	109	108	32	104	45	52	104	4	141	24	75.7
76	Villanova	70	64	76	68	91	112	90	110	52	92	41	34	90	76.2
77	Connecticut	64	90	60	62	66	102	73	45	90	58	80	68	142	76.9
78	Pepperdine Caruso	64	64	60	74	113	3	136	136	97	49	132	39	36	77.2
79	Tennessee	25	19	83	53	72	112	111	83	114	110	41	77	105	77.3
80	Syracuse	96	90	76	94	81	102	90	83	75	68	61	95	11	78.6
81	Hofstra	89	74	83	101	72	63	127	96	90	86	46	82	21	79.2
82	South Carolina	78	50	110	87	72	112	44	71	121	104	100	53	30	79.4
83	Oregon	78	120	76	62	81	12	10	182	121	68	1	60	162	79.5
84	Drexel	78	64	89	94	108	52	147	32	97	110	21	129	12	79.5
85	Santa Clara	89	107	89	79	81	77	111	123	4	39	100	68	90	81.3
86	Lewis & Clark	111	90	89	101	97	52	1	123	75	68	21	114	124	82.0
87	Michigan State	70	79	71	79	81	87	100	123	52	78	121	82	54	82.8
88	Indiana (McKinney)	89	129	89	79	97	112	82	16	102	68	16	77	124	83.1
89	St. Louis	96	56	83	74	97	112	136	2	90	100	80	77	90	84.1
90	DePaul	89	107	103	109	91	110	151	23	30	100	41	82	61	84.4
91	George Mason	36	129	41	45	81	100	136	108	26	78	159	73	90	84.8
92	Stetson	117	107	103	94	81	24	73	143	151	121	5	95	2	85.8
93	UIC-John Marshall	135	50	143	109	127	41	147	96	33	78	16	129	24	86.8
94	Baltimore	125	15	83	131	66	48	104	123	97	78	46	85	162	89.5
95	New York Law School	105	64	89	131	81	63	127	123	85	68	46	108	79	89.9
96	CUNY	117	1	103	109	61	77	57	104	137	104	46	187	67	90.0
97	Pace	125	79	121	131	113	63	1	83	137	78	144	77	24	90.5
97	SUNY-Buffalo	89	79	89	101	72	112	82	96	102	92	100	108	54	90.5
99	Penn State-Dickinson	96	79	103	94	97	87	82	66	109	62	80	108	124	91.3
100	Pacific	117	135	131	109	127	48	57	143	109	43	21	141	8	91.5

If anyone at a law school outside the Top 100 would like the data for their school's rank, email me.

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2022 U.S. News Trial Advocacy Rankings

The new 2022 U.S. News Trial Advocacy Rankings include the trial advocacy programs at 187 law schools (the faculty survey had a 56% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.4	Temple
2	4.2	Baylor
2	4.2	Stetson
4	3.9	Chicago-Kent
4	3.9	Loyola-L.A.
4	3.9	South Texas
7	3.8	UCLA
8	3.7	Fordham
8	3.7	Pacific
8	3.7	Samford
11	3.6	Syracuse
12	3.5	American
12	3.5	Denver
12	3.5	Drexel
15	3.4	Georgetown
15	3.4	Loyola-Chicago
17	3.3	St. Mary's
17	3.3	UC-Berkeley
19	3.2	Campbell
19	3.2	Washington Univ.
21	3.1	Hofstra
21	3.1	Northwestern
21	3.1	UC-Hastings
24	3.0	Georgia State
24	3.0	Pace
24	3.0	Suffolk
24	3.0	UIC-John Marshall
28	2.9	Akron
28	2.9	Wake Forest
30	2.8	Georgia
30	2.8	Harvard
30	2.8	Howard
30	2.8	Maryland
30	2.8	South Carolina
30	2.8	St. John's
36	2.7	Alabama
36	2.7	Golden Gate
36	2.7	Mitchell-Hamline
36	2.7	Nova SE
36	2.7	Ohio Northern
36	2.7	Pepperdine Caruso
42	2.6	Brooklyn
42	2.6	Emory
42	2.6	Florida
42	2.6	Houston
42	2.6	Miami
42	2.6	Northeastern
42	2.6	Notre Dame
42	2.6	Quinnipiac
42	2.6	Rutgers
42	2.6	SMU
42	2.6	Stanford
42	2.6	William & Mary

2021 U.S. News Trial Advocacy Rankings

2022 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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2022 U.S. News Legal Writing Rankings

The new 2022 U.S. News Legal Writing Rankings include the legal writing programs at 176 law schools (the faculty survey had a 60% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.3	Oregon
1	4.3	UNLV
3	4.1	Arizona State
4	4.0	Suffolk
5	3.9	Stetson
5	3.9	Wake Forest
7	3.8	Seattle
7	3.8	Temple
9	3.7	Denver
9	3.7	Drake
9	3.7	Georgetown
9	3.7	Michigan
9	3.7	North Carolina
9	3.7	Rutgers
9	3.7	UC-Irvine
16	3.6	Indiana (McKinney)
16	3.6	Marquette
16	3.6	Nova SE
16	3.6	UIC-John Marshall
16	3.6	Washburn
21	3.5	Arizona
21	3.5	Drexel
21	3.5	Lewis & Clark
21	3.5	Pacific
25	3.4	Arkansas-Little Rock
25	3.4	Duquesne
25	3.4	Loyola-Chicago
25	3.4	Northeastern
25	3.4	Northwestern
25	3.4	Ohio State
25	3.4	South Texas
25	3.4	Texas A&M
25	3.4	Texas Tech
34	3.3	Arkansas-Fayetteville
34	3.3	Brooklyn
34	3.3	Duke
34	3.3	Elon
34	3.3	George Washington
34	3.3	Mercer
34	3.3	Missouri-Kansas City
41	3.2	DePaul
41	3.2	Howard
41	3.2	Tennessee
41	3.2	Univ. of Washington
41	3.2	Villanova
46	3.1	Boston College
46	3.1	CUNY
46	3.1	Baltimore
46	3.1	Chicago-Kent
46	3.1	Emory
46	3.1	Hofstra
46	3.1	Houston
46	3.1	Iowa
46	3.1	Loyola-L.A.
46	3.1	Minnesota
46	3.1	New York Law School
46	3.1	St. John's
46	3.1	Touro
46	3.1	William & Mary
46	3.1	Wyoming

2021 U.S. News Legal Writing Rankings

2022 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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2022 U.S. News International Law Rankings

The new 2022 U.S. News International Law Rankings include the international law programs at 185 law schools (the faculty survey had a 56% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.7	NYU
2	4.5	Harvard
3	4.4	Columbia
3	4.4	Yale
5	4.3	Georgetown
6	4.1	American
6	4.1	George Washington
6	4.1	Michigan
6	4.1	UC-Berkeley
10	4.0	Duke
10	4.0	Stanford
10	4.0	Virginia
13	3.9	Cornell
14	3.8	Penn
14	3.8	UCLA
16	3.6	Case Western
16	3.6	Temple
18	3.5	Chicago
18	3.5	Fordham
18	3.5	Georgia
18	3.5	Texas
22	3.4	Notre Dame
22	3.4	UC-Irvine
22	3.4	Vanderbilt
22	3.4	Washington Univ.
26	3.3	Northwestern
26	3.3	UC-Davis
26	3.3	UC-Hastings
29	3.2	Miami
29	3.2	Minnesota
29	3.2	William & Mary
32	3.1	Arizona State
32	3.1	Boston Univ.
32	3.1	Emory
35	3.0	Arizona
35	3.0	Boston College
35	3.0	Indiana (Maurer)
35	3.0	Wisconsin
39	2.9	Santa Clara
39	2.9	Tulane
39	2.9	Univ. of Washington
39	2.9	Washington & Lee
43	2.8	Florida State
43	2.8	Houston
43	2.8	Iowa
43	2.8	Pacific
43	2.8	Pittsburgh
43	2.8	San Diego
49	2.7	Brooklyn
49	2.7	Cardozo
49	2.7	Florida
49	2.7	Florida Int'l
49	2.7	Ohio State
49	2.7	Pepperdine Caruso
49	2.7	Rutgers
49	2.7	SMU
49	2.7	USC

2021 U.S. News International Law Rankings

2022 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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2022 U.S. News Intellectual Property Law Rankings

The new 2022 U.S. News Intellectual Property Law Rankings include the intellectual property law programs at 187 law schools (the faculty survey had a 65% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.6	Stanford
1	4.6	UC-Berkeley
3	4.3	NYU
4	4.0	George Washington
4	4.0	New Hampshire
4	4.0	Santa Clara
7	3.9	Texas A&M
8	3.8	American
8	3.8	Houston
10	3.7	Cardozo
10	3.7	Chicago-Kent
12	3.6	Boston Univ.
13	3.5	Georgetown
13	3.5	Penn
15	3.4	Columbia
15	3.4	Duke
15	3.4	Michigan
15	3.4	Univ. of Washington
19	3.3	Fordham
19	3.3	Harvard
19	3.3	Northwestern
19	3.3	San Diego
19	3.3	UC-Irvine
19	3.3	UCLA
19	3.3	Virginia
26	3.2	George Mason
26	3.2	Indiana (Maurer)
26	3.2	Texas
26	3.2	Vanderbilt
30	3.1	DePaul
30	3.1	Loyola-L.A.
30	3.1	UC-Hastings
33	3.0	Boston College
33	3.0	Colorado
33	3.0	UIC-John Marshall
33	3.0	Notre Dame
33	3.0	Utah
38	2.9	Chicago
38	2.9	Cornell
38	2.9	Emory
38	2.9	Illinois
38	2.9	Minnesota
38	2.9	Northeastern
44	2.8	BYU
44	2.8	Loyola-Chicago
44	2.8	Ohio State
44	2.8	Pittsburgh
44	2.8	Richmond
44	2.8	SMU
44	2.8	UC-Davis
44	2.8	Washington Univ.

2021 U.S. News Intellectual Property Law Rankings

2022 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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2022 U.S. News Health Care Law Rankings

The new 2022 U.S. News Health Care Law Rankings include the health care law programs at 181 law schools (the faculty survey had a 54% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.3	Georgia State
2	4.2	St. Louis
3	4.1	Loyola-Chicago
4	4.0	Boston Univ.
5	3.9	Houston
5	3.9	Northeastern
7	3.8	Georgetown
7	3.8	Harvard
7	3.8	Maryland
7	3.8	Stanford
11	3.7	American
11	3.7	Case Western
13	3.6	Seton Hall
13	3.6	UC-Hastings
15	3.5	Yale
16	3.4	Arizona State
16	3.4	Indiana (McKinney)
18	3.3	Ohio State
18	3.3	Temple
20	3.2	George Washington
20	3.2	Minnesota
20	3.2	Penn
23	3.1	DePaul
23	3.1	Duke
23	3.1	Emory
23	3.1	Michigan
27	3.0	Mitchell-Hamline
27	3.0	Wake Forest
29	2.9	Pittsburgh
29	2.9	Texas
29	2.9	Washington Univ.
32	2.8	Drexel
32	2.8	UCLA
32	2.8	UNLV
32	2.8	Utah
32	2.8	Vanderbilt
37	2.7	North Carolina
37	2.7	Northwestern
37	2.7	Rutgers
37	2.7	UC-Irvine
41	2.6	Boston College
41	2.6	Georgia
41	2.6	Virginia
41	2.6	Univ. of Washington
45	2.5	Arizona
45	2.5	Chicago
45	2.5	Columbia
45	2.5	Connecticut
45	2.5	NYU
45	2.5	SMU
45	2.5	Suffolk
45	2.5	UC-Berkeley
45	2.5	USC
45	2.5	Washington & Lee
45	2.5	Wayne State
45	2.5	Wisconsin

2021 U.S. News Health Care Law Rankings

2022 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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2022 U.S. News Environmental Law Rankings

The new 2022 U.S. News Environmental Law Rankings include the environmental law programs at 181 law schools (the faculty survey had a 59% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.5	Lewis & Clark
1	4.5	Pace
1	4.5	UC-Berkeley
4	4.3	NYU
4	4.3	UCLA
4	4.3	Vermont
7	4.1	Columbia
7	4.1	Georgetown
7	4.1	Harvard
10	4.0	Colorado
10	4.0	George Washington
10	4.0	Oregon
10	4.0	Stanford
10	4.0	Utah
15	3.9	Vanderbilt
16	3.8	Duke
16	3.8	Maryland
18	3.7	Florida State
18	3.7	Tulane
20	3.6	Arizona State
20	3.6	Florida
20	3.6	Houston
20	3.6	Yale
24	3.5	Boston College
24	3.5	Denver
24	3.5	Hawaii
24	3.5	Minnesota
24	3.5	UC-Davis
24	3.5	UC-Hastings
30	3.4	Texas
30	3.4	Virginia
32	3.3	Arizona
32	3.3	UC-Irvine
34	3.2	Texas A&M
34	3.2	New Mexico
34	3.2	Univ. of Washington
37	3.1	American
37	3.1	Indiana (Maurer)
37	3.1	Michigan
37	3.1	North Carolina
37	3.1	Widener (DE)
42	3.0	Montana
42	3.0	Wisconsin
44	2.9	Northwestern
44	2.9	Penn State-Univ. Park
44	2.9	South Carolina
44	2.9	Widener (PA)
48	2.8	Emory
48	2.8	Loyola-New Orleans
48	2.8	Miami
48	2.8	Notre Dame
48	2.8	Penn
48	2.8	Seattle
48	2.8	Wake Forest
48	2.8	Washington Univ.
48	2.8	Wyoming

2021 U.S. News Environmental Law Rankings

2022 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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The U.S. News Law School Rankings Failed Diversity 101

Vivia Chen (Bloomberg Law), Why U.S. News & World Report Failed Diversity 101:

Its foray into law school diversity ranking has been a fiasco. Is this emblematic of how even some sophisticated institutions mishandle diversity?

This is not the most politic thing to say but here I go: We should stop putting old White men in charge of decisions about diversity.

I know that’s a comment that will raise eyebrows but that was my gut reaction when I heard about U.S. News & World Report’s embarrassing foray into law school diversity. That august publication just came out with its latest law school rankings, and this year’s birth was a bit of a disaster. And yes, the chieftain behind the enterprise happens to be an older White guy. ...

The effort at U.S. News also started off with good intentions. For the first time, U.S. News decided to launch a diversity scorecard based on racial and ethnic data provided by the nation’s law schools.

Then, it went off the rails. For unexplained reasons, it dropped both Asian and multiracial students from its diversity count. Law schools protested, and U.S. News recategorized Asian students as diverse. However, it continued to omit multiracial students, prompting 162 law school deans to pen a letter dated March 24 to U.S. News in protest. ...

Good grief. Does anyone at U.S. News, which commands a fearsome empire that decides the prestige of higher education institutions worldwide, need this memo that multiracial people and Asians aren’t White? ...

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2022 U.S. News Dispute Resolution Rankings

The new 2022 U.S. News Dispute Resolution Rankings include the dispute resolution programs at 111 law schools (the faculty survey had a 49% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.4	Harvard
2	4.3	Ohio State
3	4.2	Pepperdine Caruso
4	4.0	Missouri (Columbia)
5	3.9	Mitchell-Hamline
5	3.9	UNLV
7	3.8	Northwestern
8	3.7	Cardozo
8	3.7	Marquette
8	3.7	Texas A&M
8	3.7	UC-Hastings
12	3.6	Oregon
13	3.5	Arizona State
13	3.5	Stanford
15	3.4	Columbia
15	3.4	Maryland
17	3.3	Fordham
18	3.2	Creighton
19	3.1	Quinnipiac
19	3.1	South Texas
19	3.1	Texas
19	3.1	Univ. of Washington
19	3.1	Washington Univ.
24	3.0	Florida
24	3.0	George Washington
24	3.0	Georgetown
24	3.0	St. John's
24	3.0	Stetson
24	3.0	UC-Davis
24	3.0	UC-Irvine
24	3.0	USC
32	2.9	Michigan
32	2.9	NYU
32	2.9	Penn
32	2.9	Suffolk
32	2.9	UC-Berkeley
32	2.9	UCLA
32	2.9	Vanderbilt
32	2.9	Virginia
32	2.9	Yale
41	2.8	Boston College
41	2.8	Denver
41	2.8	UIC-John Marshall
41	2.8	Wisconsin
45	2.7	Cornell
45	2.7	Loyola-Chicago
45	2.7	Kansas
48	2.6	Baltimore
48	2.6	Loyola-L.A.
48	2.6	Minnesota
48	2.6	Pacific

2021 U.S. News Dispute Resolution Rankings

2022 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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2022 U.S. News Criminal Law Rankings

The new 2022 U.S. News Criminal Law Rankings include the criminal law programs at 187 law schools (the faculty survey had a 57% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.5	NYU
2	4.3	Harvard
2	4.3	UC-Berkeley
4	4.2	Stanford
4	4.2	Virginia
4	4.2	Yale
7	4.1	Columbia
7	4.1	Georgetown
7	4.1	Penn
10	4.0	Chicago
10	4.0	Michigan
10	4.0	UCLA
13	3.9	Duke
13	3.9	Northwestern
13	3.9	Ohio State
13	3.9	Vanderbilt
17	3.8	Texas
18	3.7	Fordham
18	3.7	Minnesota
18	3.7	North Carolina
18	3.7	William & Mary
22	3.6	Cornell
23	3.5	American
23	3.5	Boston Univ.
23	3.5	UC-Davis
23	3.5	Cardozo
27	3.4	Brooklyn
27	3.4	George Washington
27	3.4	UC-Irvine
30	3.3	Arizona State
30	3.3	UC-Hastings
30	3.3	Utah
30	3.3	Wisconsin
30	3.3	Wake Forest
30	3.3	Washington Univ.
36	3.2	Colorado
36	3.2	Denver
36	3.2	Loyola-L.A.
36	3.2	Univ. of Washington
40	3.1	Alabama
40	3.1	Arizona
40	3.1	Emory
40	3.1	Florida State
40	3.1	Georgia
40	3.1	Illinois
40	3.1	Indiana (Maurer)
40	3.1	Iowa
40	3.1	San Diego
40	3.1	USC
50	3.0	Boston College
50	3.0	Florida
50	3.0	Howard
50	3.0	Maryland
50	3.0	Miami
50	3.0	Northeastern
50	3.0	Richmond
50	3.0	SMU
50	3.0	Tulane
50	3.0	Washington & Lee

2021 U.S. News Criminal Law Rankings

2022 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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Leiter: U.S. News Issues 4th 'Corrected' Law School Rankings

Brian Leiter (Chicago), US News Releases Yet a 4th "Corrected" Ranking, Retracting the One Issued on Tuesday!:

According to a statement from US News.com editor Bob Morse: ... 

These revisions changed the rank of every law school, excerpt Mercer (which remained at #127). Yale even dropped from #1 to #14. The full revised rankings are here.

2022 U.S. News Contracts/Commercial Law Rankings

The new 2022 U.S. News Contracts/Commercial Law Rankings include the contracts/commercial law programs at 187 law schools (the faculty survey had a 48% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.7	Columbia
2	4.6	Chicago
2	4.6	Harvard
4	4.5	Yale
5	4.4	Penn
5	4.4	Stanford
7	4.3	Michigan
7	4.3	NYU
7	4.3	UC-Berkeley
7	4.3	Virginia
11	4.2	Georgetown
11	4.2	Texas
13	4.1	Cornell
13	4.1	Duke
13	4.1	Northwestern
13	4.1	UCLA
17	3.8	Vanderbilt
18	3.7	Illinois
18	3.7	Minnesota
18	3.7	North Carolina
18	3.7	Ohio State
22	3.6	Emory
23	3.5	Fordham
23	3.5	USC
23	3.5	Washington Univ.
26	3.4	Alabama
26	3.4	Boston Univ.
26	3.4	George Washington
26	3.4	Indiana (Maurer)
26	3.4	UC-Davis
26	3.4	Univ. of Washington
26	3.4	William & Mary
26	3.4	Wisconsin
34	3.3	Boston College
34	3.3	Brooklyn
34	3.3	Florida
34	3.3	Tulane
34	3.3	UC-Hastings
34	3.3	UC-Irvine
34	3.3	Washington & Lee
41	3.2	Georgia
41	3.2	Iowa
41	3.2	Notre Dame
41	3.2	Wake Forest
45	3.1	Arizona State
45	3.1	Cardozo
45	3.1	Colorado
45	3.1	Florida State
45	3.1	George Mason
45	3.1	Houston
45	3.1	San Diego
45	3.1	UNLV

2021 U.S. News Contracts/Commercial Law Rankings

2022 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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2022 U.S. News Constitutional Law Rankings

The new 2022 U.S. News Constitutional Law Rankings include the constitutional law programs at 187 law schools (the faculty survey had a 52% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.8	Harvard
1	4.8	Yale
3	4.6	Chicago
3	4.6	NYU
3	4.6	Stanford
6	4.5	Columbia
6	4.5	UC-Berkeley
8	4.4	Virginia
9	4.2	Duke
9	4.2	Georgetown
9	4.2	Texas
9	4.2	UCLA
13	4.1	Cornell
13	4.1	Michigan
15	4.0	Northwestern
15	4.0	Penn
17	3.6	Vanderbilt
18	3.5	UC-Davis
18	3.5	William & Mary
20	3.4	North Carolina
20	3.4	San Diego
20	3.4	UC-Irvine
20	3.4	Washington Univ.
24	3.3	Boston Univ.
24	3.3	Emory
24	3.3	Notre Dame
27	3.2	Alabama
27	3.2	George Washington
27	3.2	Minnesota
27	3.2	Ohio State
27	3.2	USC
27	3.2	Wisconsin
33	3.1	Fordham
33	3.1	UC-Hastings
35	3.0	Arizona
35	3.0	Arizona State
35	3.0	Boston College
35	3.0	Georgia
35	3.0	Illinois
35	3.0	Iowa
41	2.9	Brooklyn
41	2.9	Cardozo
41	2.9	Florida State
41	2.9	George Mason
41	2.9	Maryland
46	2.8	Colorado
46	2.8	Florida
46	2.8	Georgia State
46	2.8	Miami
46	2.8	Tulane
46	2.8	Univ. of Washington

2021 U.S. News Constitutional Law Rankings

2022 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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2022 U.S. News Clinical Training Rankings

The new 2022 U.S. News Clinical Training Rankings include the clinical training law programs at 182 law schools (the faculty survey had a 64% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.6	CUNY
1	4.6	Georgetown
3	4.5	American
4	4.4	NYU
4	4.4	Yale
6	4.2	Michigan
6	4.2	District of Columbia
6	4.2	UC-Irvine
9	4.1	Denver
9	4.1	Maryland
9	4.1	New Mexico
9	4.1	Northwestern
9	4.1	UC-Berkeley
9	4.1	Washington Univ.
15	4.0	Baltimore
15	4.0	Rutgers
15	4.0	Stanford
15	4.0	Suffolk
19	3.9	Fordham
19	3.9	Tennessee
19	3.9	UC-Hastings
22	3.8	Columbia
22	3.8	Northeastern
24	3.7	Boston College
24	3.7	Brooklyn
24	3.7	George Washington
24	3.7	Georgia
24	3.7	Harvard
24	3.7	Miami
24	3.7	Seattle
24	3.7	UCLA
32	3.6	Howard
32	3.6	Loyola-New Orleans
32	3.6	Minnesota
32	3.6	Mitchell-Hamline
32	3.6	Penn
32	3.6	Texas A&M
32	3.6	Tulane
32	3.6	Univ. of Washington
40	3.5	Albany
40	3.5	Boston Univ.
40	3.5	Cardozo
40	3.5	Chicago
40	3.5	Georgia State
40	3.5	St. Thomas (MN)
40	3.5	Texas
40	3.5	UNLV
40	3.5	Vanderbilt
40	3.5	Washburn
50	3.4	Alabama
50	3.4	Cornell
50	3.4	Duke
50	3.4	North Carolina
50	3.4	South Carolina
50	3.4	UIC-John Marshall

2021 U.S. News Clinical Law Rankings 

2022 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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2022 U.S. News Business/Corporate Law Rankings

The new 2022 U.S. News Business/Corporate Law Rankings include the business/corporate law programs at 187 law schools (the faculty survey had a 54% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.8	Harvard
2	4.6	Columbia
3	4.5	NYU
3	4.5	Penn
3	4.5	Stanford
3	4.5	UC-Berkeley
7	4.3	Chicago
8	4.2	UCLA
9	4.1	Michigan
9	4.1	Virginia
9	4.1	Yale
12	4.0	Duke
12	4.0	Georgetown
12	4.0	Northwestern
12	4.0	Vanderbilt
16	3.8	Cornell
17	3.7	Texas
18	3.6	Fordham
19	3.5	Boston Univ.
19	3.5	Minnesota
19	3.5	USC
22	3.4	Emory
22	3.4	George Washington
22	3.4	UC-Davis
25	3.3	Indiana (Maurer)
25	3.3	Tennessee
25	3.3	Washington Univ.
28	3.2	Florida
28	3.2	Georgia
28	3.2	Illinois
28	3.2	Iowa
28	3.2	North Carolina
28	3.2	Notre Dame
28	3.2	San Diego
28	3.2	UC-Hastings
36	3.1	Boston College
36	3.1	Brooklyn
36	3.1	BYU
36	3.1	George Mason
36	3.1	Tulane
36	3.1	Washington & Lee
36	3.1	William & Mary
36	3.1	Wisconsin
44	3.0	Colorado
44	3.0	Ohio State
44	3.0	UC-Irvine
44	3.0	Utah
48	2.9	Arizona State
48	2.9	Miami
48	2.9	Univ. of Washington
48	2.9	Widener (DE)

2021 U.S. News Business/Corporate Law Rankings 

2022 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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2022 U.S. News Tax Rankings

The new 2022 U.S. News Tax Rankings include the tax programs at 186 law schools (the faculty survey had a 58% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.8	NYU
2	4.4	Florida
3	4.3	Georgetown
4	4.2	Northwestern
4	4.2	Virginia
6	4.0	Chicago
6	4.0	UC-Irvine
8	3.9	Harvard
8	3.9	Michigan
8	3.9	UCLA
11	3.8	Columbia
11	3.8	Loyola-L.A.
11	3.8	Stanford
14	3.7	Boston College
14	3.7	Yale
16	3.6	Boston Univ.
16	3.6	Duke
16	3.6	Indiana (Maurer)
16	3.6	Texas
16	3.6	UC-Hastings
21	3.5	Penn
21	3.5	San Diego
23	3.4	UC-Berkeley
23	3.4	USC
25	3.3	Minnesota
25	3.3	North Carolina
27	3.2	UC-Davis
28	3.1	Arizona State
28	3.1	Cornell
28	3.1	Florida State
28	3.1	George Washington
28	3.1	Miami
28	3.1	Washington Univ.
34	3.0	Emory
34	3.0	Ohio State
34	3.0	Villanova
34	3.0	Univ. of Washington
34	3.0	Washington & Lee
39	2.9	Alabama
39	2.9	Colorado
39	2.9	Fordham
39	2.9	Georgia
39	2.9	Georgia State
39	2.9	Pepperdine Caruso
39	2.9	Temple
39	2.9	Vanderbilt
47	2.8	BYU
47	2.8	Iowa
47	2.8	Loyola-Chicago
47	2.8	Notre Dame
47	2.8	Pittsburgh
47	2.8	Tulane

Among the law schools in the tax rankings last year, here are the biggest upward moves:

• +24: Colorado (#39)
• +21: Iowa (#47)
• +16: Tulane (#47), Georgia State (#39)
• +14: Cornell (#28), George Washington (#28), Emory (#34)
• +9: Arizona State (#28), Florida State (#28), Vanderbilt (#39)

Here are the biggest downward moves:

• -21: Pittsburgh (#47)
• -15: BYU (#47)
• -8: USC (#23)
• -7: Alabama (#39), Fordham (#39)
• -6: Pennsylvania (#21)

Here are the rankings of law schools with graduate tax programs:

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U.S. News Ranking Metrics Stifle Law Libraries, Tie Hands of Law Schools

TaxProf Blog op-ed:  U.S. News Ranking Metrics Stifle Law Libraries, Tie Hands of Law Schools, by Amanda Runyon (Pennsylvania), Leslie A. Street (William & Mary), & Amanda Watson (Houston):

USNWR has released the 2022 Best of Law School rankings, including a new set of questions and methodology for law libraries. As library directors at schools that perform objectively well in these new calculations, we feel obligated to voice our concerns. We believe the unintended consequences and potential outcomes of these metrics are highly problematic for law libraries and the institutions that we serve. Specifically, we are concerned that the new metrics may erode the value of libraries and push libraries to focus resources on US News data points, rather than on the services and outcomes that are most beneficial to our institutions, as the ABA requires.

Law library questions are included in the Faculty Resources portion of the ranking methodology and differ significantly from prior years’ data collection. Recognizing that the library-related US News questions used outdated metrics, a group of volunteers solicited through four law library organizations developed these new metrics beginning in early 2020.[1]  In November 2020, US News announced the immediate implementation of these metrics.

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2022 U.S. News Law School Peer Reputation Rankings (And Overall Rankings)

Continuing a TaxProf Blog tradition (see links below for 2009-2021), here is the full list of the 193 law schools ranked by academic peer reputation, as well as their overall rank, in the new 2022 U.S. News Law School Rankings (methodology here):

Peer Rank	Peer Score	School	Overall Rank
1	4.8	Harvard	3
1	4.8	Stanford	2
1	4.8	Yale	1
4	4.7	Columbia	4
5	4.6	Chicago	4
5	4.6	NYU	6
7	4.5	UC-Berkeley	9
8	4.4	Michigan	10
8	4.4	Penn	6
8	4.4	Virginia	8
11	4.3	Cornell	13
12	4.2	Duke	10
12	4.2	Georgetown	15
12	4.2	Northwestern	12
15	4.1	Texas	16
15	4.1	UCLA	14
17	4.0	Vanderbilt	16
18	3.7	Washington Univ.	16
19	3.6	Emory	29
19	3.6	Minnesota	22
19	3.6	UC-Irvine	35
19	3.6	USC	19
23	3.5	Boston Univ.	20
23	3.5	George Washington	27
23	3.5	North Carolina	24
23	3.5	Notre Dame	22
23	3.5	UC-Davis	35
28	3.4	Boston College	29
28	3.4	Fordham	35
28	3.4	William & Mary	35
28	3.4	Wisconsin	29
32	3.3	Alabama	25
32	3.3	Arizona State	25
32	3.3	Florida	21
32	3.3	Georgia	27
32	3.3	Indiana (Maurer)	43
32	3.3	Iowa	29
32	3.3	Ohio State	40
32	3.3	Univ. of Washington	45
40	3.2	Arizona	46
40	3.2	Colorado	48
40	3.2	Illinois	29
40	3.2	Tulane	60
40	3.2	UC-Hastings	50
45	3.1	Florida State	48
45	3.1	Wake Forest	41
45	3.1	Washington & Lee	35
48	3.0	American	81
48	3.0	Howard	91
48	3.0	Maryland	50
48	3.0	Utah	43
52	2.9	BYU	29
52	2.9	Cardozo	53
52	2.9	Connecticut	58
52	2.9	Miami	72
56	2.8	Denver	78
56	2.8	Georgia State	78
56	2.8	Houston	60
56	2.8	Loyola-L.A.	72
56	2.8	Oregon	72
56	2.8	Richmond	53
56	2.8	San Diego	86
56	2.8	Temple	53
64	2.7	Brooklyn	81
64	2.7	George Mason	41
64	2.7	Kansas	70
64	2.7	Pepperdine Caruso	46
64	2.7	Pittsburgh	67
64	2.7	Rutgers	91
64	2.7	SMU	52
64	2.7	Texas A&M	53
64	2.7	UNLV	60
73	2.6	Case Western	72
73	2.6	Chicago-Kent	91
73	2.6	Hawaii	98
73	2.6	Loyola-Chicago	78
73	2.6	Northeastern	67
73	2.6	Oklahoma	67
73	2.6	Penn State-University Park	60
73	2.6	Santa Clara	126
73	2.6	Tennessee	60
73	2.6	Villanova	53
83	2.5	Baylor	58
83	2.5	Indiana (McKinney)	111
83	2.5	Kentucky	81
83	2.5	Lewis & Clark	88
83	2.5	Michigan State	91
83	2.5	Missouri (Columbia)	60
83	2.5	Nebraska	87
83	2.5	New Mexico	102
83	2.5	Penn State-Dickinson	60
83	2.5	Seattle	126
83	2.5	Seton Hall	70
83	2.5	South Carolina	96
95	2.4	Arkansas-Fayetteville	96
95	2.4	Cincinnati	81
95	2.4	CUNY	102
95	2.4	Drexel	81
95	2.4	St. John's	72
95	2.4	St. Louis	91
95	2.4	Syracuse	102
102	2.3	DePaul	111
102	2.3	Marquette	102
102	2.3	Mississippi	98
102	2.3	SUNY-Buffalo	98
102	2.3	Wayne State	72
107	2.2	Baltimore	129
107	2.2	Catholic	102
107	2.2	Gonzaga	129
107	2.2	Hofstra	119
107	2.2	Louisiana State	109
107	2.2	Louisville	98
107	2.2	Loyola-New Orleans	144
107	2.2	Maine	124
107	2.2	Missouri-Kansas City	111
107	2.2	Stetson	111
107	2.2	UIC-John Marshall	Tier 2
107	2.2	West Virginia	116
119	2.1	Albany	116
119	2.1	Arkansas-Little Rock	141
119	2.1	Florida Int'l	88
119	2.1	Idaho	139
119	2.1	Montana	134
119	2.1	New Hampshire	88
119	2.1	Suffolk	129
119	2.1	Willamette	Tier 2
127	2.0	Creighton	141
127	2.0	Drake	102
127	2.0	Memphis	144
127	2.0	Mercer	124
127	2.0	New York Law School	119
127	2.0	Pace	139
127	2.0	Pacific	141
127	2.0	Quinnipiac	129
127	2.0	San Francisco	Tier 2
127	2.0	Texas Tech	102
127	2.0	Tulsa	111
127	2.0	Vermont	Tier 2
127	2.0	Washburn	109
127	2.0	Wyoming	119
141	1.9	Akron	134
141	1.9	Chapman	134
141	1.9	Cleveland-Marshall	116
141	1.9	Dayton	119
141	1.9	Duquesne	119
141	1.9	Mitchell-Hamline	Tier 2
141	1.9	Southwestern	Tier 2
141	1.9	St. Thomas (MN)	126
141	1.9	Toledo	129
150	1.8	Florida A&M	Tier 2
150	1.8	North Dakota	Tier 2
150	1.8	South Dakota	134
150	1.8	St. Mary's	Tier 2
150	1.8	Widener (DE)	Tier 2
155	1.7	Detroit Mercy	Tier 2
155	1.7	District of Columbia	Tier 2
155	1.7	Elon	Tier 2
155	1.7	Northern Illinois	Tier 2
155	1.7	Roger Williams	Tier 2
155	1.7	South Texas	Tier 2
155	1.7	Southern	Tier 2
155	1.7	Southern Illinois	Tier 2
155	1.7	Widener (PA)	Tier 2
164	1.6	Cal-Western	Tier 2
164	1.6	Campbell	Tier 2
164	1.6	Massachusetts	Tier 2
164	1.6	Mississippi College	Tier 2
164	1.6	New England	Tier 2
164	1.6	North Carolina Central	Tier 2
164	1.6	Northern Kentucky	Tier 2
164	1.6	Nova SE	Tier 2
164	1.6	Ohio Northern	Tier 2
164	1.6	Samford	144
164	1.6	St. Thomas (FL)	Tier 2
164	1.6	Texas Southern	Tier 2
164	1.6	Touro	Tier 2
177	1.5	Belmont	134
177	1.5	Golden Gate	Tier 2
177	1.5	Oklahoma City	Tier 2
177	1.5	Western New England	Tier 2
181	1.4	Capital	Tier 2
181	1.4	John Marshall (GA)	Tier 2
181	1.4	Regent	Tier 2
184	1.3	Appalachian	Tier 2
184	1.3	Charleston	Tier 2
186	1.2	Ave Maria	Tier 2
186	1.2	Barry	Tier 2
186	1.2	Faulkner	Tier 2
186	1.2	Florida Coastal	Tier 2
186	1.2	Liberty	Tier 2
186	1.2	Lincoln Memorial	Tier 2
186	1.2	Western Michigan	Tier 2
186	1.2	Western	Tier 2

• ABA Journal, US News Releases its 2022 Law School Rankings; Which Schools Had Lowest Student Debt?
• Above the Law, The 2022 U.S. News Law School Rankings Are Here: 1-50
• Above the Law, The 2022 U.S. News Law School Rankings Are Here: 52-98
• Above the Law, The 2022 U.S. News Law School Rankings Are Here: 102-193
• Above the Law, The Law Schools Flying Up The Rankings
• Above the Law, The Law Schools With The Highest LSAT Scores (2020)
• Above the Law, This Law School Took A Ratings Tumble
• Steven Chung (Tax Lawyer, Los Angeles), The New U.S. News Law School Rankings Should Have Used Tuition As A Ranking Metric Instead Of Student Loans
• Forbes, America’s Best Law Schools, According To U.S. News & World Report
• LawProfBlawg, OMG, The Rankings … I Mean, Uh, Rankings Don’t Matter
• Brian Leiter (Chicago), Derek Muller (Iowa) on the US News Rankings Disaster This Year
• Brian Leiter (Chicago), US News Seems Intent on Driving Home the Fact That the Ranking Formula Is Arbitrary and Meaningless
• Brian Leiter (Chicago), Your Annual Reminder That Movements in the US News.com Rankings Are Almost All Meaningless
• Law360, Grads From Top Law Schools Are Shouldering The Most Debt
• Brian Leiter (Chicago), US News Releases Yet a 4th "Corrected" Ranking, Retracting the One Issued on Tuesday!
• Kyle McEntee (Law School Transparency), The Law School Rankings Rat Race Has New Cheese
• Derek Muller (Iowa), Indebtedness Metrics and USNWR Rankings
• Derek Muller (Iowa), The USNWR Law School Rankings Are Deeply Wounded—Will Law Schools Have the Coordination to Finish Them Off?
• Derek Muller (Iowa), New USNWR Metric Favors $0 Loans Over $1 Loans For Graduating Law Students
• Reuters, UCLA Breaks Into Top 14 in New U.S. News Law School Rankings
• Karen Sloan (Law.com), Unpacking the U.S. News Rankings Turmoil
• Karen Sloan (Law.com), The US News Law School Rankings Are Here, But Has Their Credibility Taken a Hit?
• Mike Spivey (Spivey Consulting), 2022 vs. 2021 USNWR Law School Rankings (+/-)
• U.S. News & World Report, Key Changes in How the 2022 Best Graduate Schools Rankings Were Calculated

Prior Years' U.S. News Peer Reputation And Overall Rankings:

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U.S. News Issues THIRD Version Of Law School Rankings In Advance Of Their Public Release On Tuesday (12:01 AM ET)

At 3:53 PM ET on Sunday, U.S. News emailed Deans and other law school administrators the following:

Best Law Schools
For the overall ranking, U.S. News removed the metric for ratio of credit-bearing hours of instruction provided by law librarians to full-time equivalent law students [.25%, reducing the library weighting to 1.75%] and increased the weighting for the bar passage rate indicator [by .25%, for a new total of 2.25%]. As a result, we recalculated the rankings.

This change affected the overall ranking of 35 law schools, including 9 law schools in the Top 30.

Update: Karen Sloan (Law.com), US News' Rough Year Just Got Worse: Law School Rankings Changed a Third Time:

U.S. News & World Report has modified its closely watched law school rankings yet again—marking the third time the rankings have changed in the two weeks prior to their official March 30 release. ...

In a March 28 message to law school administrators, U.S. News said it removed a controversial metric regarding the number of credit hours taught by law librarians, and shifted the 0.25% weight that metric was given over to the bar pass rate indicator. As a result, the total weight given to law library measures in the overall rankings dropped from 2% to 1.75%, while the weight given to the bar pass rate increased from 2% to 2.25%, the message said. U.S. News recalculated the overall rankings with the new weighting, which changed the overall ranking of 35 schools, according to Pepperdine University Law Dean Paul Caron, who wrote about the latest changed on his TaxProfBlog. Nine of the schools in top 30 saw their rankings change, according to Caron, though several law faculty confirmed that there were no changes among the top 20 schools.

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Former Temple Dean Faces Criminal Charges For Submitting False Data To Inflate U.S. News Ranking

Following up on my previous posts (links below):  Philadelphia Inquirer, Criminal Charges Expected For Ousted Temple Dean in Rankings Scandal, Lawyers Say:

A long-running criminal probe into efforts by Temple University’s business school to boost its national rankings with false data is expected to conclude in the coming weeks with prosecutors recommending criminal charges against its former dean, according to recent court filings and interviews with sources familiar with the matter.

Attorneys for M. Moshe Porat — who led the Fox School of Business for more than two decades until his 2018 ouster when the school’s misrepresentations came to light — said the U.S. Attorney’s Office had recently informed them that it was pursuing a grand jury indictment against him and others in the coming weeks. ...

Porat’s lawyers, who did not return requests for comment, accused Temple in court papers Tuesday of stoking the criminal probe and trying to turn their client into a “scapegoat.”

But, in a filing in the defamation case last week, the university for the first time laid the blame squarely on Porat. Not only did the fraud occur under his watch, the school’s lawyers said, he was its “mastermind.”

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How To Juice Your Citations In The HeinOnline/U.S. News Rankings

Following up on last week's post, U.S. News Denies Report That It Will Replace The 40% Reputation Component With HeinOnline Citations In Next Year's Law School Rankings:  Rob Willey (George Mason) & Melanie Knapp (George Mason), Hein, U.S. News, and How to Increase Citations:

Using nearly 250,000 law review articles published on HeinOnline in a five-year period, the authors analyze citation patterns and characteristics of the articles such as title length, number of authors, article length, publication format, and more. The authors describe past citation studies and best practices in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The authors find that factors beyond article quality likely impact scholarly citations. Drawing from the lessons in the citation patterns, article characteristics, and SEO best practices, the authors offer techniques to increase the article citation counts of articles published in U.S. law journals.

Based on data pulled from Hein, U.S. News will introduce a new scholarly impact ranking later this year. While this new ranking has the potential to improve the overall law school rankings, it opens the door to a wide-range of potential issues from citation cartels to keyword stuffing to less focus on important but less well-known areas of the law. Using lessons from the SEO world, the authors conclude with a detailed discussion of these potential problems.

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U.S. News Makes Last-Minute Changes to Law School Rankings, Fueling Criticism And Concern

Karen Sloan (Law.com), US News Makes Last-Minute Changes to Law School Rankings, Fueling Criticism and Concern:

U.S. News & World Report said Thursday that it’s removing a controversial diversity ranking from its law school rankings package that is set to be released March 30.

That decision comes after deans from 162 law schools asked for a last-minute revision to the standalone “Most Diverse Law Schools Ranking,” citing the exclusion of students of more than one race from its calculation of “underrepresented minorities.” The deans requested that the ranking be recalculated to include multiethnic students—which would mark the second time the diversity ranking was changed in the past week. U.S. News this week recalculated that ranking after initially failing to include Asian students.

“After receiving feedback from law schools, we’ve removed the law diversity ranking and will publish it at a later, as yet undetermined date in order to include students of two or more races,” wrote U.S. News Chief Data Strategist Bob Morse in an email.

The deans' letter to Morse said that excluding multiethnic law students from the diversity rankings is “simply wrong and unacceptable.”

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U.S. News Denies Report That It Will Replace The 40% Reputation Component With HeinOnline Citations In Next Year's Law School Rankings

Following up on this morning's post, The New U.S. News Law School Rankings Methodology: Implications And Predictions:  Seth Barrett Tillman (National University of Ireland, Maynooth - Faculty of Law), The Future of U.S. News and World Report’s Law School Rankings: A Letter from A Friend:

[T]he HeinOnline] ScholarRank score is about to become the single most important metric in American legal academia. Starting next year, 40% of each American law school’s U.S. News [and World Report] ranking will be based on HeinOnline’s cumulative ScholarRank of the school’s faculty (which apparently will consist of the combined faculty score divided by the number of tenured and tenure-track faculty). It’s going to have a huge impact on our field. Interestingly, however, most law school faculty (at least in my neck of the woods) seem unaware of ScholarRank.

I checked with Robert Morse (Chief Data Strategist, U.S. News & World Report) and he provided this response:

U.S. News will not replace the peer assessment score and assessment score by lawyers and judges with HeinOnline citation metrics in the 2023 law school rankings. We don’t have any announcements for future editions of the rankings.

 

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The New U.S. News Law School Rankings Methodology: Implications And Predictions

Following up on my previous post, 2022 U.S. News Law School Rankings:  Mike Spivey (Spivey Consulting), Understanding and Implications of the New USNWR Law School Rankings Methodology:

For the first time in years, U.S. News & World Report has changed their law school ranking methodology. Starting this year, the metrics will include a new factor: graduate debt. This new factor will be assigned a 5% overall weight. The metric has two components.

First, 3% weight will be applied to the average amount of graduate debt incurred by students in the previous year’s graduating class. Only students who have taken on law school debt will be counted in this metric. Higher average debt will hurt; lower average debt will help.

Second, 2% weight will be applied to the proportion of a school’s graduating class who incurred law school debt. Again, higher proportions will hurt; lower proportions will help.

To make room for these new factors, U.S. News has reduced the weighting of two categories. The “Selectivity” factors have been reduced from 25% weight to 21%. Median test scores will now count for 11.25% of rankings, median GPA will count for 8.75%, and acceptance rate will count for 1%.

The Faculty Resources metric has been reduced from 15% weight to 14%.

There are absolutely some positives coming from these changes. First, they reduce the influence of admissions metrics. ... It is the first time that the rankings have, in any real way, addressed the cost of law school. ...

These new metrics are a step in the right direction, but they aren’t without downside.

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The Ten Smallest Towns With Law Schools

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