2020-21 Moot Court Rankings

UC Hastings Takes Moot Court Crown, Nat'l Jurist, Fall 2021, at 18:

According to an annual ranking by University of Houston Law Center’s Blakely Advocacy Institute, UC Hastings racked up 127.5 points in moot court competitions during the 2020-21 academic year. (The score takes into account the quality of the competitions, their size and the school’s performance.) By comparison, second-place University of Georgia School of Law earned 97.5 points. That’s pretty far back in the rear view mirror.

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2021 Religious Law School Rankings

The Most Devout Law Schools, preLaw (Winter 2021):

Every two years, preLaw magazine spotlights the country’s Most Devout Law Schools [2019 ranking here]. ... Forty-six law schools in the U.S. have ties to faith. ... 28 law schools ... are associated with the Catholic religion. Many others are rooted to other Christian faiths, and two are Jewish institutions — Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York City and Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center in Central Islip, N.Y.

METHODOLOGY
preLaw magazine bases its Most Devout honor roll on information gathered from law schools and other sources, including: percentage and activity of students and faculty who belong to the faith; number of religion-focused courses and other ways the school incorporates faith into its curriculum; religion-related journals, centers and clinics; religious services and clergy at the law school; and mission of the law school.

Most Devout Catholic Law Schools:

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2022 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Overall Ranking

I previously blogged the lists of the Top 5 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2022 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. In a series of posts, I highlighted the Top 50 schools in the five categories for which the Princeton Review provides individual law school data:

• Admissions Selectivity
• Academic Experience
• Professors: Teaching
• Professors: Accessibility
• Career Rating

Yesterday, I blogged the Top 50 law school professor rankings, giving equal weight (50%) to the Professors: Teaching and Professors: Accessibility rankings.

Today, in my concluding post, I blog the Princeton Review's overall law school rankings, giving equal weight (20%) to each of the Admissions Selectivity, Academic Experience, Professors: Teaching, Professors: Accessibility, and Career Rating rankings:

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2022 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Professors (Teaching And Accessibility)

I previously blogged the lists of the Top 5 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2022 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. In a series of posts, I will highlight the Top 50 schools in the five categories for which the Princeton Review provides individual law school data:

• Admissions Selectivity
• Academic Experience
• Professors: Teaching
• Professors: Accessibility
• Career Rating

Here are the Top 50 law school professor rankings, giving equal weight (50%) to the Professors: Teaching and Professors: Accessibility rankings:

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2022 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Career Rating

I previously blogged the lists of the Top 5 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2022 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. In a series of posts, I will highlight the Top 50 schools in the five categories for which the Princeton Review provides individual law school data:

• Admissions Selectivity
• Academic Experience
• Professors: Teaching
• Professors: Accessibility
• Career Rating

Career Rating:  This rating measures the confidence students have in their school's ability to lead them to fruitful employment opportunities, as well as the school's own record of having done so. This rating takes into account both student survey responses and school-reported statistical data. We ask students about how much the law program encourages practical experience; the opportunities for externships, internships, and clerkships; and how prepared to practice law they expect to feel after graduating. We ask law schools for the median starting salaries of graduating students; the percentage employed in a job that requires bar passage (and not employed by the school); and the percentage of these students who pass the bar exam the first time they take it. This rating is on a scale of 60–99.

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The Best Law Schools For Practical Training

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

Schools have managed to do incredible work, even during a pandemic when face-to-face clinical work and externship opportunities were disrupted. ... This year, we’re honoring 65 schools, but every law school invests in practical training.

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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2022 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Professors (Accessibility)

I previously blogged the lists of the Top 5 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2022 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. In a series of posts, I will highlight the Top 50 schools in the five categories for which the Princeton Review provides individual law school data:

• Admissions Selectivity
• Academic Experience
• Professors: Teaching
• Professors: Accessibility
• Career Rating

Professors: Accessible:  This rating is based on how law students rate the accessibility of law faculty members at their school. The rating is on a scale of 60 to 99. 

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The 50 Most Downloaded U.S. Tax Law Professors Of 2021

1. Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan):  8,299 downloads
2. Daniel Hemel (Chicago):  5,211 downloads
3. Lily Batchelder (NYU):  4,417 downloads
4. Bridget Crawford (Pace):  4.240 downloads
5. David Kamin (NYU):  3,999 downloads
6. Kimberley Clausing (UCLA):  3,821 downloads
7. Kyle Rozema (Washington University):  3,432 downloads
8. Dhammika Dharmapala (Chicago): 3,279 downloads
9. Ruth Mason (Virginia):  3,014 downloads
10. Richard Ainsworth (Boston University):  2,693 downloads
11. David Gamage (Indiana):  2,661 downloads
12. Zachary Liscow (Yale):  2,515 downloads
13. Margaret Ryznar (Indiana-Indianapolis):  2,469 downloads
14. Robert Sitkoff (Harvard):  2,427 downloads
15. Darien Shanske (UC-Davis):  2,305 downloads
16. Dan Shaviro (NYU):  2,241 downloads
17. Louis Kaplow (Harvard):  1,970 downloads
18. Francine Lipman (UNLV):  1,849 downloads
19. Brad Borden (Brooklyn):  1,831 downloads
20. Ari Glogower (Ohio State):  1,804 downloads
21. Yariv Brauner (Florida):  1,735 downloads
22. Hugh Ault (Boston College):  1,730 downloads
23. Gregg Polsky (Georgia):  1,586 downloads
24. Victor Fleischer (UC-Irvine):  1,488 downloads
25. Shu-Yi Oei (Boston College):  1,381 downloads
26. Michael Simkovic (USC):  1,357 downloads
27. Leandra Lederman (Indiana-Bloomington):  1,352 downloads
28. Omri Marian (UC-Irvine):  1,321 downloads
29. Paul Caron (Pepperdine):  1,270 downloads
30. Diane Ring (Boston College):  1,321 downloads
31. Rebecca Kysar (Fordham):  1,192 downloads
32. Cliff Fleming (BYU):  1,187 downloads
33. Brian Galle (Georgetown):  1,136 downloads
34. Joshua Blank (UC-Irvine):  1,124 downloads
35. Steven Dean (Brooklyn):  1,123 downloads

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The 50 Most Downloaded U.S. Law Professors Of 2021

1. Cass Sunstein (Harvard):  33,029 downloads
2. Michael Klausner (Stanford):  29,220 downloads
3. Michael Ohlrogge (NYU):  28,562 downloads
4. Daniel Solove (George Washington):  26,998 downloads
5. Orin Kerr (UC-Berkeley):  17,527 downloads
6. Mark Lemley (Stanford):  15,871 downloads
7. Saule Omarova (Cornell):  15,026 downloads
8. Lucian Bebchuk (Harvard):  14,884 downloads
9. Danielle Keats Citron (Virginia):  13,550 downloads
10. Brian Frye (Kentucky):  12,001 downloads
11. Dan Kahan (Yale):  10,785 downloads
12. Eric Goldman (Santa Clara):  10,254 downloads
13. Herbert Hovenkamp (Penn):  9,801 downloads
14. Brian Leiter (Chicago):  9,781 downloads
15. Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan):  8,299 downloads
16. James Duane (Regent):  8,004 downloads
17. Robert Chesney (Texas):  7,269 downloads
18. Woodrow Hartzog (Northeastern):  7,244 downloads
19. Brian Slocum (McGeorge):  7,118 downloads
20. Jack Balkin (Yale):  7,029 downloads
21. William McGeveran (Minnesota):  6,787 downloads
22. Wulf Kaal (St. Thomas-MN):  6,723 downloads
23. Josh Blackman (South Texas):  6,567 downloads
24. Jesse Fried (Harvard):  6,347 downloads
25. Jeremy Waldron (NYU):  6,328 downloads
26. Richard Albert (Texas):  6,312 downloads
27. Richard Hasen (UC-Irvine):  6,284 downloads
28. Andrew Selbst (UCLA):  6,250 downloads
29. Neil Richards (Washington University):  6,235 downloads
30. Nancy Levit (UMKC):  6,171 downloads
31. Jorge Contreras (Utah):  6,134 downloads
32. Peter Menell (UC-Berkeley):  6,129 downloads
33. Eric Posner (Chicago):  6,017 downloads
34. Ian Ayres (Yale):  5,929 downloads
35. Stephen Bainbridge (UCLA):  5,806 downloads

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2022 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Professors (Teaching)

I previously blogged the lists of the Top 5 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2022 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. In a series of posts, I will highlight the Top 50 schools in the five categories for which the Princeton Review provides individual law school data:

• Admissions Selectivity
• Academic Experience
• Professors: Teaching
• Professors: Accessibility
• Career Rating

Professors: Interesting:  This rating is based on how students rate the quality of teaching at their law school. This rating is on a scale of 60-99.

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2022 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Academic Experience

I previously blogged the lists of the Top 5 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2022 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. In a series of posts, I will highlight the Top 50 schools in the five categories for which the Princeton Review provides individual law school data:

• Admissions Selectivity
• Academic Experience
• Professors: Teaching
• Professors: Accessibility
• Career Rating

Academic Experience:  This rating measures the quality of the school's learning environment on a scale of 60 to 99. Factors taken into consideration include the Admissions Selectivity Rating, as well as how students rate each of the following: the quality of teaching and the accessibility of their professors, the research resources at their school, the range of available courses, the balance of curricular emphasis on legal theory and practical lawyering, the tolerance for diverse opinions in the classroom, and the degree of intellectual challenge that the coursework presents.

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2022 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Admissions Selectivity

I previously blogged the lists of the Top 5 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2022 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. In a series of posts, I will highlight the Top 50 schools in the five categories for which the Princeton Review provides individual law school data:

• Admissions Selectivity
• Academic Experience
• Professors: Teaching
• Professors: Accessibility
• Career Rating

Admissions Selectivity:  This rating measures the competitiveness of admissions at each law school on a scale of 60–99. Factors taken into consideration include the median LSAT score and undergraduate GPA of entering 1L students, the percentage of applicants who are accepted, and the percentage of applicants who are accepted and ultimately enroll. 

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Princeton Review's Best 168 Law Schools (2022 Edition)

The Princeton Review has published the 2022 edition of The Best 168 Law Schools (press release) (FAQs) (methodology):

The Princeton Review’s lists ... name the top 10 law schools in 14 categories. The company tallied the lists based on data from its surveys of 15,000 students attending 168 law schools [an average of 89 per school] in the U.S., and of administrators at the schools. ... The Princeton Review's student survey for this project asked students to rate their law schools on dozens of topics and report on their experiences at the schools. The administrator survey collected data on everything from admission requirements, academic offerings, and financial aid to facts about enrolled students and information on graduates' employment. Of the 14 categories of ranking lists, The Princeton Review tallied six lists based on student- and administrator-reported data. Five lists were based solely on student data, and three solely on administrator data.

Best Quality of Life:  Based on student answers to survey questions on: whether there is a strong sense of community at the school, whether differing opinions are tolerated in the classroom, the location of the school, the quality of social life at the school, the school's research resources (library, computer and database resources).

1. Virginia
2. Vanderbilt
3. Florida State
4. Samford
5. Penn

Best Professors:  Based on student answers to survey questions concerning how good their professors are as teachers and how accessible they are outside the classroom.

1. Virginia
2. Chicago
3. Duke
4. Washington & Lee
5. Stanford

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Law School Rankings By Fall 2021 Acceptance Rate

Following up on Wednesday's release by the ABA of Fall 2021 admissions data: this is the third of three posts on the impact of that data on the forthcoming 2023 U.S. News Law School Rankings (the 2022 rankings are here). In the current methodology, a law school's acceptance rate counts 1% in the overall ranking. 

Rank	School	2021 Acceptance Rate	2020 Acceptance Rate
1	Yale	4.12	7.40 (1)
2	Stanford	6.28	10.48 (2)
3	Harvard	6.90	13.00 (3)
4	Penn	9.39	14.30 (5)
5	Virginia	9.66	14.05 (4)
6	Michigan	10.65	16.36 (6)
7	Columbia	11.42	16.69 (7)
8	Chicago	11.91	17.86 (9)
9	Georgetown	12.88	20.10 (16)
10	USC	12.96	17.18 (8)
11	UC-Berkeley	13.66	21.53 (20)
12	Northwestern	13.91	19.2 (13)
13	Vanderbilt	14.25	22.57 (25)
14	Duke	14.45	22.34 (23)
15	NYU	14.52	21.58 (21)
16	Texas	15.24	18.43 (11)
17	Cornell	15.41	19.03 (12)
18	UCLA	15.43	22.75 (26)
19	North Carolina	15.46	21.62 (22)
20	Washington University	15.88	20.31 (19)
21	UC-Irvine	16.83	20.30 (18)
22	Florida	17.43	19.77 (15)
23	Notre Dame	17.51	20.28 (17)
24	Fordham	17.69	27.37 (31)
25	Villanova	17.80	29.75 (36)
26	Boston University	18.33	24.93 (28)
27	Texas A&M	18.41	22.43 (24)
28	Georgia	18.48	19.35 (14)
29	Florida Int'l	20.56	27.33 (30)
30	Arizona State	20.61	26.19 (29)
31	George Washington	21.57	34.15 (49)
32	Florida State	22.47	29.70 (35)
33	Boston College	23.49	31.84 (39)
34	Northeastern	24.40	35.56 (55)
35	Howard	24.53	34.22 (50)
36	University of Arizona	24.73	27.74 (32)
37	Pepperdine	24.97	28.20 (33)
38	Utah	25.52	33.45 (45)
39	University of Washington	25.57	34.51 (52)
40	Dayton	25.76	36.21 (59)
41	Georgia State	26.96	28.57 (34)
42	George Mason	27.07	22.80 (27)
43	Emory	27.31	32.21 (40)
44	Minnesota	27.57	36.45 (62)
45	Colorado	27.69	36.50 (63)
46	American	27.94	36.35 (60)
47	UC-Hastings	28.04	38.66 (72)
48	Texas Southern	28.18	30.43 (37)
49	UC-Davis	28.26	33.06 (43)
50	Chapman	28.26	32.55 (41)

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Law School Rankings By Fall 2021 Median UGPAs

Following up on Wednesday's release by the ABA of Fall 2021 admissions data: this is the second of three posts on the impact of that data on the forthcoming 2023 U.S. News Law School Rankings (the 2022 rankings are here). In the current methodology, a law school's median UGPA counts 8.75% in the overall ranking. 

Rank	School	2021 UGPA	2020 UGPA
1	Alabama	3.94	3.94 (1)
1	Yale	3.94	3.94 (1)
3	Washington University	3.93	3.88 (7)
4	Harvard	3.92	3.88 (7)
5	Chicago	3.91	3.89 (4)
5	Stanford	3.91	3.89 (4)
5	Virginia	3.91	3.90 (3)
8	Penn	3.90	3.89 (4)
9	Vanderbilt	3.89	3.82 (14)
10	Cornell	3.86	3.86 (9)
10	Florida	3.86	3.84 (11)
10	Northwestern	3.86	3.85 (10)
10	NYU	3.86	3.82 (14)
14	Arizona State	3.85	3.83 (12)
14	BYU	3.85	3.82 (14)
14	Georgetown	3.85	3.78 (24)
17	Columbia	3.84	3.82 (14)
17	Michigan	3.84	3.76 (30)
17	Texas A&M	3.84	3.76 (30)
20	George Washington	3.83	3.76 (30)
20	UC-Berkeley	3.83	3.81 (18)
22	Duke	3.82	3.80 (19)
22	Florida State	3.82	3.72 (37)
22	Georgia	3.82	3.78 (24)
22	UCLA	3.82	3.79 (22)
22	USC	3.82	3.83 (12)
22	Utah	3.82	3.77 (27)
28	George Mason	3.81	3.77 (27)
29	Emory	3.80	3.80 (19)
29	Minnesota	3.80	3.77 (27)
29	Pepperdine	3.80	3.68 (41)
29	Texas	3.80	3.76 (30)
33	Ohio State	3.79	3.79 (22)
34	William & Mary	3.78	3.60 (71)
35	Boston University	3.77	3.80 (19)
35	Indiana (Maurer)	3.77	3.78 (24)
35	Notre Dame	3.77	3.75 (34)
38	Penn State-University Park	3.76	3.72 (37)
38	SMU	3.76	3.73 (34)
40	Puerto Rico	3.75	3.61 (67)
40	Wayne State	3.75	3.65 (48)
42	Cardozo	3.74	3.65 (48)
43	North Carolina	3.73	3.68 (41)
44	Belmont	3.71	3.60 (71)
45	Cincinnati	3.70	3.65 (48)
45	Fordham	3.70	3.64 (55)
45	Maryland	3.70	3.66 (45)
45	Richmond	3.70	3.62 (65)
45	San Diego	3.70	3.65 (48)
45	UC-Davis	3.70	3.72 (37)
45	UNLV	3.70	3.67 (44)
45	Villanova	3.70	3.63 (58)

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Law School Rankings By Fall 2021 Median LSAT Scores

Following up on yesterday's release by the ABA of Fall 2021 admissions data: this is the first of three posts on the impact of that data on the forthcoming 2023 U.S. News Law School Rankings (the 2022 rankings are here). In the current methodology, a law school's median LSAT and GRE scores count 11.25% in the overall ranking. Because the ABA only reports GRE scores for law schools with 10 or more admitted students with GRE scores, the rankings below are based solely on median LSAT scores:

Rank	School	2021 LSAT	2020 LSAT
1	Columbia	174	172 (3)
1	Harvard	174	173 (1)
1	Yale	174	173 (1)
4	Chicago	172	171 (4)
4	NYU	172	170 (6)
4	Stanford	172	171 (4)
7	Cornell	171	168 (14)
7	Georgetown	171	168 (14)
7	Michigan	171	169 (9)
7	Northwestern	171	169 (9)
7	Penn	171	170 (6)
7	Virginia	171	170 (6)
13	Duke	170	169 (9)
13	UCLA	170	169 (9)
13	Washington University	170	169 (9)
16	Boston University	169	167 (18)
16	Texas	169	168 (14)
16	UC-Berkeley	169	168 (14)
16	Vanderbilt	169	167 (18)
20	Notre Dame	168	167 (18)
20	USC	168	167 (18)
22	BYU	167	166 (22)
22	Emory	167	166 (22)
22	Florida	167	165 (26)
22	George Washington	167	166 (22)
22	UC-Irvine	167	166 (22)
27	Arizona State	166	165 (26)
27	Fordham	166	164 (30)
27	Georgia	166	165 (26)
27	Minnesota	166	165 (26)
31	Alabama	165	164 (30)
31	Boston College	165	164 (30)
31	UC-Davis	165	163 (34)
34	Cardozo	164	162 (42)
34	Colorado	164	163 (34)
34	George Mason	164	164 (30)
34	Illinois	164	162 (42)
34	Indiana (Maurer)	164	162 (42)
34	North Carolina	164	163 (34)
34	Pepperdine	164	162 (42)
34	University of Washington	164	162 (42)
34	Washington & Lee	164	163 (34)
34	William & Mary	164	163 (34)
34	Wisconsin	164	163 (34)
45	University of Arizona	163	163 (34)
45	Florida State	163	161 (49)
45	Iowa	163	161 (49)
45	Ohio State	163	161 (49)
45	SMU	163	162 (42)
45	Temple	163	161 (49)
45	Texas A&M	163	160 (55)
45	Utah	163	161 (49)
45	Wake Forest	163	163 (34)

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July 2021 California Bar Exam Results For Out-Of-State Law Schools

Following up on yesterday's post on the July 2021 California Bar Exam results for in-state law schools: the state bar has released comparable data for out-of-state law schools. Overall, 52.6% of all applicants passed the California bar exam. Among graduates of ABA-accredited law schools, first-time takers from in-state law schools passed at a higher rate (80.1%) than students from out-of state law schools (75.1%).

Out-of-state law schools with the highest pass rates:
Harvard: 98.6% (70 students took the exam)
Michigan: 97.7% (44)
Chicago: 93.9% (33)
BYU: 93.8% (16)
Notre Dame: 93.8% (16)
NYU: 93.3% (30)
Columbia: 93.0% (43)
Yale: 92.9% (28)
Virginia: 92.6% (27)
Duke: 91.7% (24)
Northwestern: 91.4% (35)
Penn: 87.5% (24)
Georgetown: 86.4% (44)

Out-of-state law schools with the lowest pass rates:

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July 2021 California Bar Exam Results

The California State Bar has released school-by-school data on the July 2021 California Bar Exam.  Here are the results for first time test takers for the 18 California ABA-accredited law schools, along with each school's U.S. News ranking (California and overall):

Bar Pass Rank (Rate)	School	US News Rank CA (Overall)
1 (95.4%)	UC-Berkeley	2 (9)
2 (94.4%)	Stanford	1 (2)
3 (94.3%)	USC	4 (19)
4 (93.1%)	UCLA.	3 (14)
5 (88.9%)	UC-Irvine	5 (35)
6 (86.2%)	Loyola-L.A.	9 (72)
7 (84.9%)	Pepperdine	7 (46)
8 (82.6%)	UC-Hastings	8 (50)
9 (80.8%)	UC-Davis	5 (35)
10 (80.4%)	San Diego	10 (86)
80.1%	Statewide Ave. (CA ABA-accredited)
11 (78.8%)	Chapman	12 (134)
12 (77.2%)	Southwestern	Rank Not Published
13 (70.1%)	McGeorge	13 (141)
14 (66.9%)	Santa Clara	11 (126)
15 (64.9%)	San Francisco	Rank Not Published
16 (64.3%)	Cal-Western	Rank Not Published
17 (49.2%)	Western State	Rank Not Published
18 (36.3%)	Golden Gate	Rank Not Published

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Former Temple Dean Convicted In U.S. News Rankings Scandal Fraud; AUSA Hopes Case Send A Message To Administrators At Other Schools

Following up on my previous posts (links below):  Philadelphia Inquirer, Former Temple Business School Dean Guilty in Rankings Scandal Fraud Case:

The rankings scandal cost Porat his job as dean and the university hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal settlements.

The former dean of Temple University’s Fox School of Business was convicted Monday of orchestrating a complex fraud scheme to propel his college to the top of national rankings and defraud its students and donors based on that unearned reputation.

Moshe Porat — who led the school for more than two decades until he was fired for the misrepresentations in 2018 — shook his head quietly as the jury announced it had found him guilty of federal conspiracy and wire fraud charges now likely to send him to prison.

It took the panel of eight women and four men less than an hour to conclude that he, along with two of his subordinates, had for years knowingly embellished the data they were sending on Fox’s students to the magazine U.S. News & World Report, allowing its online MBA program to achieve its No. 1 ranking for four straight years.

The distinction helped Fox more than double its enrollment for the program between 2014 and 2017, raking in millions in tuition payments from students and donor dollars.

“The hope is that this case sends a message to other college and university administrators that there are real consequences to making representations that students and applicants rely on,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark B. Dubnoff said. “So many people turn to these rankings … to help them make informed decisions of where to go to college, graduate school, and it’s important that people are honest and fully truthful with the representations they make.”

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Yale Dean Finds 'Something Fishy' In B-School Rankings, Highlights Need For Greater Transparency

Chronicle of Higher Education, Is This College Ranking Faulty?:

A dean found something fishy in a magazine’s list of business schools. The editors say he’s off base.

There was a lot that Anjani Jain liked about Bloomberg Businessweek’s ranking of business schools. It was only when the deputy dean at the Yale School of Management dug deeper that it stopped making sense to him.

Like most publications that rate institutions of higher education, this one chose certain categories to evaluate, such as how much money graduates make, and weighted each category based on its importance. But unlike with many other rankings, Businessweek asked students, recent alumni, and recruiters what was important to them, and used their responses to determine how much weight to give to each of the five categories it used to evaluate schools: compensation, learning, networking, entrepreneurship, and diversity. To Jain, this seemed like a good idea.

The dean, who has a background in mathematics, physics, and operations research, began poking around at the numbers, trying to replicate the ranking using the information that was public. He has tinkered with other rankings too; digging into the calculations can be a way for him to procrastinate when he has other work. But when following Businessweek’s published methodology, Jain’s ranking of the business schools did not come out in the same order.

“I noticed that somehow there were numerical anomalies,” he said. The crowdsourced weights that the magazine said it gave to each of its five categories didn’t seem to yield the ranking order the magazine had published.

Perplexed, Jain wrote to Businessweek. An editor wrote back, explaining that the weights had been applied to raw scores, rather than the scores published.

Jain was skeptical. He believed that he had deduced what the weights would have to be in order to recreate the list that Businessweek published. Those weights, he said, were not the same as what the magazine had gotten from its surveys.

The way Jain sees it, one of two things happened. Either the weights were applied to the data before it was normalized — a mathematical process that can be used to ensure that data sets are being compared on the same numerical scale — which would be a statistical error, he said. Or the ranking was calculated accurately, but after the fact some sort of “mysterious manipulation,” as Jain put it, took place.

A Businessweek editor did not respond to The Chronicle’s request for comment. The magazine stands by its ranking. ... The spokesperson said that the magazine’s methodology was vetted by multiple data scientists and that disclosing raw data “would create the possibility that the rankings could be reverse-engineered or gamed by a school for an unfair advantage.” ... 

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Only 2 Of The 50 Most-Cited Legal Scholars Are Women

Fred R. Shapiro (Yale), The Most-Cited Legal Scholars Revisited, 88 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1595 (2021):

This Essay presents a list of the fifty most-cited legal scholars of all time, intending to spotlight individuals who have had a very notable impact on legal thought and institutions. Because citation counting favors scholars who have had long careers, I supplement the main listing with a ranking of the most-cited younger legal scholars. In addition, I include five specialized lists: most-cited international law scholars, most-cited corporate law scholars, most-cited scholars of critical race theory and feminist jurisprudence, most-cited public law scholars, and most-cited scholars of law and social science. (For those readers who cannot wait to see the actual lists, Tables 1–7 are on pages 8–11.)

The utility of citation totals as indicators of scholarly quality or even of scholarly influence is controversial, but they have been shown to correlate positively with informed subjective assessments. The danger in relying on such counts is that, because they are so convenient, they will be disproportionately relied upon relative to their actual probative value. There are a number of significant biases in citation statistics, and there are a variety of pitfalls that should be avoided in attempting to compile meaningful citation data. I will describe these biases and pitfalls when I explain the derivation and methodology of my study. It is my hope that I have produced tabulations that, although they clearly have imperfections, can serve as examples of careful analysis. Such examples are sorely needed after flawed proposed “scholarly impact rankings” by the U.S. News and World Report threatened to have a harmful effect on legal education.

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Admissions Data At 90% 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 90% of the U.S. News Top 50 law schools, LSAT (+1.5) and UGPA (+0.3) medians are up, as well as enrollment (+27.0). (Yellow shading indicates law schools added since my September 15 post): 

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U.S. News Crime Spree: Florida Students Steal 40 Of 75 Banners Celebrating Top 5 Public University Ranking

The Independent Florida Alligator, Forty UF Top-Five Banners Stolen From Campus:

Seventy-five banners that read “Top 5” hung at UF. Now, only 35 remain.

Forty banners celebrating the school’s new national ranking have been stolen across the UF campus.

Since the week of Sept. 13, the missing banners amount to a loss of almost $3,000, UF spokesperson Steve Orlando said. The double-sided, vinyl hangings are 24 inches wide and 72 inches tall. They cost about $73 each. ...

In less than one month, the banners have disappeared just as quickly as they were put up. Within six days of the U.S. News and World Report ranking announcement, banners were hung around campus including the Reitz Lawn, Plaza of the Americas and along Union Road. ...

Orlando attributes these thefts to excitement about the university’s new ranking. “We were glad that people are excited about the number five ranking,” he said. “We would prefer it if they would find another way to express their excitement.” ...

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U.S. News Releases Elementary School (!) Rankings

U.S. News & World Report, New Elementary and Middle Schools Rankings Launched:

Today, for the first time, U.S. News published rankings of public elementary and middle schools [methodology here]. Like our annual Best High Schools rankings, we hope these statistical assessments are a useful resource for parents in conjunction with the accompanying data we publish on school characteristics.

All public schools were ranked for which source data and history allowed. In other words, whether a school was ranked or unranked was independent of academic quality. About 81% of public schools with elementary and middle school grades received a ranking.

Including ranked and unranked schools, U.S. News now lists 118,332 public and private grade schools in its directory; among which U.S. News ranked 79,941 unique public grade schools in 2021. These include 47,325 schools newly ranked as elementary schools and 23,255 as middle schools — some of which are in both rankings.

Unlike the high school rankings, there are no national rankings of elementary and middle schools. There are overall state rankings and state rankings broken out by school district. We also published statewide rankings specific to charter schools and magnet schools.

Drexel Dean Dan Filler's 2008 tongue in cheek announcement of a U.S. News Preschool Rankings has nearly come true:  U.S. News lists, but does not rank, over 1,500 preschools.

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Law & Society Association Statement On Rejection Of 'Scholarly Impact' Ranking Of Law Faculty

Following up on my previous post, U.S. News Abandons Plan To Issue Citations Ranking Of Law Faculty:  Law & Society Association, Statement on Recent Rejection of “Scholarly Impact” Metric:

The U.S. News and World Report Decided to Reject a Proposed Law School Rankings Metric that Would Have Impacted LSA Scholars

The Law and Society Association is pleased to report that the U.S. News and World Report has decided not to proceed with its proposal to add a measure of “scholarly impact” to its law school rankings. This report summarizes the Association’s concerns and actions taken while the metric was under consideration.

The proposed metric for measuring scholarly impact was to be drawn from citations in the Hein database which is comprised primarily of law review articles. The Law & Society Association was concerned with the implications for our members, many of whom write books, book chapters and peer-reviewed articles that appear in and are frequently cited in publications other than law reviews. For that reason, the scholarly impact of our members’ scholarship would not have been accurately represented in the proposed metric. In addition, non-doctrinal and data-driven socio-legal scholarship ordinarily does not amass as many citations as constitutional or purely doctrinal articles do. Moreover, if law schools attempted to game the system to improve their rankings, as has happened with other U.S. News metrics, the intellectual, interdisciplinary, and racial diversity of law school faculties and the range of topics they choose to write on might have been negatively affected.

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The Most-Cited Law Faculties: Sisk-Leiter (Westlaw) v. Sag (HeinOnline)

Following up on my previous post, The 68 Most-Cited Law Faculties:  Matthew Sag (Loyola-Chicago), A Simple and Inclusive Citation Ranking of U.S. Law Schools (19 pages):

Scholarly impact, academic influence, or faculty reputation: call it what you will, there is a general sense that the work that law professors do outside the classroom is important part of what law schools have to offer, and what distinguishes one from another. Unfortunately, the academic ranking that seems to have captured the most attention, the Sisk rankings, is not fit for purpose. The Sisk rankings arbitrarily excludes the majority of ABA accredited law schools, including several that outperform many of those ranked by Sisk and every law school based at a Historically Black College or University (HBCU).

This exclusionary approach to ranking schools is unfair and unnecessary. It is unfair because it falsely implies that certain disfavored or overlooked schools are inferior to those deemed worth ranking. Moreover, even the exclusion of schools that don’t outrank Sisk’s preferred schools once the playing field has been leveled is also unfair. It suggests that the overlooked schools are not even in the same league as those that are ranked, rather than being separated by matters of degree.

This unfairness is unnecessary. In this Essay, I offer a much fairer and more straightforward ranking of U.S. law school faculty impact based on the median five-year citation count of doctrinal faculty in law reviews and journals in the HeinOnline database. My rankings include every U.S. law school in the HeinOnline database, i.e. every ABA accredited school. Furthermore, to demonstrate that the unfairness of the Sisk rankings do not depend on the minutia of calculation, I provide several alternative rankings based on mean, median, and total citations within the past five years, and various combinations thereof. No matter how you crunch the numbers, several schools that ignore actually outperform the ones he chooses to rank.

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2021 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews

Bryce Clayton Newell (Oregon), 2021 Meta-Ranking of Flagship US Law Reviews:

This is an updated ranking of the top flagship law reviews at US law schools (updated as of September 29, 2021). ... The ranking table below includes 193 flagship law reviews from ABA accredited law schools. Even if you ignore the “MetaRank,” the table provides access to the updated rankings from US News (peer reputation and overall rankings, averaged over the 10-year period from 2013 edition through the 2022 edition of US News’ rankings) and the current Washington & Lee Rankings (2016-2020; released on June 30, 2021) and Google Scholar (July 2021) rankings. 

prRank = Average 10-year US News Peer Reputation score ranking;
usnRank = Average 10-year overall US News school ranking; 
wluRank = Washington & Lee Law Journal Ranking; 
gRank = Google Scholar Metrics ranking; 
wlu(IF)Rank = Washington & Lee Law Journal Impact Factor Ranking (NOT included in meta-rank).

Journal	MetaRank	prRank	usnRank	wluRank	gRank	wlu(IF)Rank
Harvard Law Review	1	1	3	1	1	13
Yale Law Journal	2	2	1	2	2	2
Stanford Law Review	3	3	2	4	5	1
Columbia Law Review	4	4	5	8	3	29
California Law Review	5	7	9	3	7	3
Univ. of Penn. Law Review	6	9	7	6	6	5
Univ. of Chicago Law Review	7	5	4	14	8	15
Georgetown Law Journal	8	14	14	5	4	6
Michigan Law Review	9	8	10	9	11	8
Virginia Law Review	10	9	8	18	10	12
Duke Law Journal	11	11	11	12	14	7
NYU Law Review	12	6	6	22	19	21
Texas Law Review	13	15	15	16	9	16
UCLA Law Review	14	16	16	13	13	4
Cornell Law Review	15	12	13	15	22	8
Northwestern Univ. Law Rev.	15	13	12	23	14	18
Vanderbilt Law Review	17	17	17	20	11	24
Minnesota Law Review	18	20	20	10	16	14
Notre Dame Law Review	19	23	21	7	16	10
Iowa Law Review	20	29	25	11	16	20
Boston University Law Review	21	25	24	21	20	23
Washington Univ. Law Review	22	18	18	30	29	17
George Washington Law Rev.	23	24	23	29	21	36
Emory Law Journal	24	21	22	32	24	21
Southern California Law Rev.	25	19	19	31	32	18
Boston College Law Review	26	29	29	24	22	33
William & Mary Law Review	27	33	35	19	27	11
Fordham Law Review	28	34	39	17	25	43
U.C. Davis Law Review	29	26	37	26	30	27
Washington Law Review	30	35	33	28	28	25
North Carolina Law Review	31	22	36	34	36	31
Indiana Law Journal	32	32	31	35	34	33
Wisconsin Law Review	32	27	32	33	40	26
Univ. of Illinois Law Review	32	39	41	27	25	31
Ohio State Law Journal	35	31	37	37	36	28
Washington & Lee Law Rev.	36	40	34	41	41	49
Alabama Law Review	36	37	26	43	50	39
Florida Law Review	38	37	43	36	41	29
Arizona State Law Journal	39	41	27	51	44	58
Hastings Law Journal	40	42	55	38	30	46
Arizona Law Review	41	44	44	42	36	33
Maryland Law Review	42	48	48	39	33	39
Cardozo Law Review	43	53	59	25	34	41
Wake Forest Law Review	44	45	40	45	45	57
Georgia Law Review	45	35	30	46	70	36
Univ. of Colorado Law Rev.	46	43	45	47	50	51
BYU Law Review	47	49	41	48	48	48
American Univ. Law Review	48	50	75	40	36	43
U.C. Irvine Law Review	49	28	28	84	62	99
Utah Law Review	50	51	47	60	56	62
Connecticut Law Review	51	52	57	49	62	36
Houston Law Review	52	63	56	53	54	54
George Mason Law Review	53	57	46	50	78	51
Univ. of Richmond Law Rev.	54	70	54	56	54	49
Tulane Law Review	55	46	51	72	67	76
Case Western Reserve L. Rev.	56	67	64	58	48	79
SMU Law Review	57	65	50	73	62	84
Temple Law Review	58	58	53	64	78	58
Tennessee Law Review	59	61	60	69	1000	54
Missouri Law Review	60	69	64	70	52	77
Florida State Univ. Law Rev.	61	47	49	82	78	70
Lewis & Clark Law Review	62	83	89	44	43	45
Pepperdine Law Review	63	66	58	68	70	65
Denver Law Review	64	56	73	80	56	79
Chicago-Kent Law Review	64	73	83	57	52	69
Brooklyn Law Review	66	71	85	54	56	65
Univ. of Miami Law Review	67	54	69	81	67	71
Nevada Law Journal	68	80	68	62	67	53
Univ. of Kansas Law Review	69	62	74	83	59	95
Michigan State Law Review	70	92	91	52	45	46
Loyola Univ. Chicago L.J.	71	75	76	75	62	81
Georgia State Univ. Law Rev.	72	68	62	102	59	112
Oklahoma Law Review	73	77	70	71	75	68
Seton Hall Law Review	74	87	61	65	87	75
Nebraska Law Review	74	81	72	77	70	84
Seattle Univ. Law Review	76	91	112	54	47	62
San Diego Law Review	77	59	81	88	78	84
Penn State Law Review	78	93	71	61	85	42
Villanova Law Review	79	88	80	76	70	73
Kentucky Law Journal	80	72	63	93	93	90
DePaul Law Review	81	97	116	58	62	61
Buffalo Law Review	82	99	99	74	70	71
Saint Louis Univ. L.J.	83	98	92	94	59	106
South Carolina Law Review	84	89	95	67	93	62
Univ. of Cincinnati Law Rev.	85	86	77	98	87	115
Hofstra Law Review	86	100	111	63	76	67
Rutgers Univ. Law Review	87	74	84	115	78	129
Indiana Law Review	88	79	104	87	87	99
Marquette Law Review	89	94	103	78	87	77
Santa Clara Law Review	90	76	110	79	102	54
Arkansas Law Review	91	95	87	100	93	109
UMKC Law Review	92	107	120	66	85	81
Oregon Law Review	93	55	88	120	1000	123
Univ. of Pittsburgh Law Rev.	93	60	79	122	116	123
New Mexico Law Review	95	90	82	106	1000	88
Louisiana Law Review	96	103	90	97	100	97
St. John's Law Review	97	104	86	109	93	112
Baylor Law Review	98	85	52	129	1000	119
Loyola of L.A. Law Review	99	63	67	142	128	137
West Virginia Law Review	99	110	101	96	93	97
Howard Law Journal	99	84	115	103	98	95
CUNY Law Review	99	111	119	85	1000	60

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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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