2021 U.S. News Omnibus Specialty Rankings v. Overall Rankings

Following up on yesterday's post, 2021 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	Suffolk	75	136	+61
2	American	18	76	+58
3	Seattle	72	129	+57
4	Pacific	94	148	+54
5	UIC-John Marshall	97	140	+43
6	Brooklyn	47	83	+36
6	Indiana (McKinney)	86	122	+36
6	UC-Hastings	23	59	+36
9	Denver	40	74	+34
9	Pace	102	136	+34
11	New York Law School	98	129	+31
12	Baltimore	96	126	+30
12	Santa Clara	77	107	+30
14	Chicago-Kent	54	83	+29
14	Mitchell Hamline	112	141	+29
16	Case Western	50	76	+26
16	DePaul	92	118	+26
18	Georgia State	51	76	+25
18	Loyola-New Orleans	101	126	+25
20	Loyola-L.A.	38	62	+24
20	Missouri (KC)	109	133	+24
22	Arkansas (Little Rock)	125	148	+23
23	Widener (DE)	126	148	+22
24	San Francisco	127	148	+21
24	Syracuse	90	111	+21
24	Temple	35	56	+21
27	Howard	87	107	+20
28	Rutgers	58	76	+18
29	Hofstra	85	102	+17
30	Ohio State	22	38	+16
30	South Carolina	80	96	+16
30	UC-Irvine	11	27	+16
33	Loyola-Chicago	55	70	+15
33	Miami	52	67	+15
35	Lewis & Clark	79	93	+14
35	Maryland	33	47	+14
35	Oregon	74	88	+14
35	San Diego	69	83	+14
35	Stetson	91	105	+14
40	Georgetown	1	14	+13
40	Golden Gate	135	148	+13
40	Vermont	128	141	+13
43	Houston	45	56	+11
44	George Washington	13	23	+10
44	New Mexico	89	99	+10
46	Drexel	84	93	+9
46	Southwestern	139	148	+9
46	Texas	7	16	+9
46	UNLV	53	62	+9
50	Fordham	19	27	+8
50	UC-Davis	30	38	+8
50	Willamette	133	141	+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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2021 U.S. News Omnibus Specialty Rankings

The new 2021 U.S. News Specialty Rankings include the rankings for 13 specialty programs at 194 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	8	1	9	13	5	25	10	7	13	3	12	2	12	9.2
2	NYU	3	2	5	3	1	16	6	48	3	1	76	1	31	15.1
3	Stanford	5	8	3	6	1	18	10	5	2	9	92	7	44	16.2
4	Michigan	12	8	13	8	10	37	37	19	13	7	12	11	59	18.9
5	Northwestern	12	6	13	13	16	6	49	48	21	21	24	3	19	19.3
6	UC-Berkeley	4	8	7	3	3	32	1	29	1	11	127	23	15	20.3
7	Texas	17	32	11	8	17	16	26	19	18	14	44	15	36	21.0
8	Harvard	1	22	2	3	3	1	10	9	18	2	167	7	36	21.6
9	UCLA	8	27	13	11	10	25	4	32	25	17	101	5	23	23.2
10	Duke	12	54	9	15	10	25	19	25	12	9	44	18	78	25.4
11	UC-Irvine	37	8	19	29	17	22	33	40	25	25	11	11	65	26.3
12	Penn	6	27	11	6	6	32	41	22	8	14	101	15	78	28.2
13	George Washington	30	22	25	34	22	44	15	32	5	8	44	42	50	28.7
14	Washington Univ.	26	14	19	21	26	25	73	29	45	17	51	23	12	29.3
15	Virginia	8	82	7	11	6	18	26	46	31	11	76	5	78	31.2
16	Columbia	1	20	5	1	6	37	6	46	13	4	154	10	105	31.4
17	Yale	8	5	1	8	6	37	20	16	62	4	167	11	65	31.5
18	American	68	2	44	51	26	48	37	11	10	4	51	55	4	31.6
19	Fordham	17	17	25	23	17	13	63	93	21	21	101	32	9	34.8
20	Boston University	19	32	19	18	30	56	55	5	10	32	51	21	105	34.8
21	North Carolina	26	44	25	18	22	48	37	22	55	46	7	26	78	34.9
22	Ohio State	37	69	28	23	15	2	55	29	40	43	38	32	44	35.0
23	UC-Hastings	37	27	44	46	33	13	20	13	45	28	114	23	20	35.6
24	Cornell	16	44	13	15	17	22	41	71	40	13	70	42	65	36.1
25	Minnesota	19	32	19	21	22	78	20	19	40	25	76	26	78	36.5
26	Vanderbilt	12	61	17	17	10	32	17	25	25	14	136	48	65	36.8
27	Arizona State	52	61	38	51	33	10	20	22	51	25	7	37	78	37.3
28	Emory	26	69	28	23	33	56	49	40	36	40	44	48	23	39.6
29	Boston College	26	27	31	29	43	48	33	48	31	40	38	18	105	39.8
30	UC-Davis	23	54	19	23	22	25	20	54	36	32	136	26	50	40.0
31	Chicago	7	22	4	1	10	48	63	71	40	17	154	7	78	40.2
32	Indiana (Maurer)	23	82	44	23	43	56	31	40	21	28	51	20	78	41.5
33	Maryland	61	6	44	46	57	13	10	7	79	69	63	63	31	42.2
34	William & Mary	37	61	19	29	17	18	41	48	45	32	101	63	44	42.7
35	Temple	52	86	59	59	53	25	85	17	71	17	12	37	2	44.2
36	Notre Dame	37	44	18	34	43	56	55	102	25	28	76	45	25	45.2
37	Wisconsin	48	44	38	29	33	37	41	40	79	32	51	55	78	46.5
38	Loyola-L.A.	48	69	54	63	33	67	85	48	31	57	44	11	5	47.3
39	Florida	37	82	67	39	33	37	20	61	71	69	76	3	25	47.7
40	Denver	68	8	59	63	43	56	26	93	79	52	7	63	9	48.2
41	Washington	61	44	59	39	43	99	31	32	18	43	51	42	65	48.2
42	Arizona	59	61	38	46	57	86	33	32	55	36	24	68	50	49.6
42	Colorado	30	96	44	51	30	72	10	71	25	52	51	63	50	49.6
42	Georgia	23	32	31	39	33	99	85	40	71	21	101	45	25	49.6
45	Houston	59	69	71	34	64	99	26	3	5	46	101	26	44	49.8
46	Wake Forest	37	86	54	39	29	99	41	17	95	69	6	55	25	50.2
47	Brooklyn	30	32	35	34	26	72	106	90	62	46	32	48	59	51.7
48	Tulane	37	39	54	34	53	37	17	61	62	28	148	63	44	52.1
49	USC	22	82	31	18	33	32	96	48	55	46	114	15	96	52.9
50	Case Western	61	44	59	51	64	67	55	9	40	24	92	98	50	54.9
51	Georgia State	52	27	44	86	57	56	85	2	62	98	92	55	25	57.0
52	Miami	52	32	59	46	53	78	55	93	55	36	101	26	59	57.3
53	UNLV	78	39	69	51	68	6	85	32	62	106	1	48	105	57.7
54	Chicago-Kent	52	86	54	72	74	86	85	54	13	75	32	75	5	58.7
55	Loyola-Chicago	75	54	59	72	82	56	126	3	45	69	76	48	12	59.8
55	Washington & Lee	52	69	44	51	43	44	79	40	90	36	101	32	96	59.8
57	Cardozo	52	61	38	59	30	5	106	114	13	75	114	48	65	60.0
58	Rutgers	83	22	59	81	57	83	63	54	85	52	18	80	59	61.2
59	Florida State	48	96	44	39	53	99	15	54	79	62	136	37	36	61.4
60	Utah	30	106	44	39	33	99	9	32	71	62	136	55	121	64.4
61	Texas A&M	68	54	111	69	119	6	37	102	8	62	29	75	105	65.0
62	Pepperdine	61	39	44	59	91	3	96	114	100	46	114	37	50	65.7
63	Iowa	30	86	38	46	43	99	106	78	62	57	51	68	105	66.8
64	Northeastern	113	22	71	107	57	48	106	11	21	62	38	110	105	67.0
65	Villanova	78	69	83	86	74	90	79	61	45	91	29	37	50	67.1
66	Alabama	61	61	31	29	43	99	63	102	100	98	127	32	31	67.5
67	Illinois	30	117	35	23	33	93	79	90	51	83	101	45	105	68.1
68	SMU	68	61	71	69	43	72	96	61	55	46	136	48	65	68.5
69	San Diego	30	121	28	72	57	99	79	71	31	62	166	21	59	68.9
70	BYU	19	136	54	39	68	67	55	144	55	75	76	32	96	70.5
71	Pittsburgh	75	121	69	69	57	99	85	32	51	43	76	26	131	71.8
72	Seattle	83	20	71	107	91	99	79	78	62	91	3	80	78	72.5
73	Seton Hall	83	69	71	81	82	67	116	13	71	57	92	68	78	72.9
74	Oregon	61	121	71	63	74	10	6	144	100	98	2	68	131	73.0
75	Suffolk	95	14	136	116	111	22	96	61	45	106	5	132	20	73.8
76	Richmond	37	121	35	63	43	99	63	144	25	69	101	55	105	73.8
77	Santa Clara	75	121	93	98	91	44	55	102	4	40	44	68	131	74.3
78	Tennessee	37	17	83	63	74	99	106	78	123	118	32	75	65	74.6
79	Lewis & Clark	95	86	71	107	91	48	1	122	55	69	18	92	121	75.1
80	South Carolina	83	39	93	86	74	99	63	61	114	106	70	55	36	75.3
81	Kansas	78	86	83	51	68	25	63	122	100	91	51	80	121	78.4
82	St. John's	68	117	71	72	74	37	152	102	71	57	32	132	36	78.5
83	Connecticut	61	96	59	59	82	72	63	61	108	57	76	68	160	78.6
84	Drexel	78	54	71	98	100	83	130	32	108	103	18	132	15	78.6
85	Hofstra	92	69	83	90	68	93	130	61	95	62	76	89	36	80.3
86	Indiana (McKinney)	95	86	83	81	111	99	85	15	85	83	24	98	121	82.0
87	Howard	92	44	71	72	64	67	143	122	62	106	63	120	59	83.5
88	Michigan State	68	86	83	63	91	93	96	114	71	75	101	98	65	84.9
89	New Mexico	113	17	111	81	100	99	33	78	137	106	70	92	78	85.8
90	Syracuse	95	96	111	98	100	99	73	78	85	83	76	110	15	86.1
91	Stetson	95	96	111	72	100	72	106	122	137	106	3	110	1	87.0
92	DePaul	95	106	93	98	82	97	152	25	36	91	92	92	78	87.5
93	George Mason	48	155	38	51	74	99	136	114	31	75	148	80	105	88.8
94	Pacific	106	136	146	98	125	56	73	102	114	36	32	126	9	89.2
95	Missouri (Columbia)	88	127	83	72	82	3	136	90	90	91	136	98	65	89.3
96	Baltimore	123	14	93	120	100	78	116	122	95	75	38	75	149	92.2
97	UIC-John Marshall	135	69	136	148	111	90	152	122	36	75	7	98	36	93.5
98	New York Law School	95	54	93	156	100	78	136	78	62	83	38	98	145	93.5
99	St. Louis	88	86	71	90	100	99	159	1	90	98	127	80	131	93.8
100	Marquette	88	127	93	90	91	10	126	144	79	118	12	126	121	94.2

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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2021 U.S. News Trial Advocacy Rankings

The new 2021 U.S. News Trial Advocacy Rankings include the trial advocacy programs at 188 law schools (the faculty survey had a 52% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.1	Stetson
2	4.0	Baylor
2	4.0	Temple
4	3.9	American
5	3.8	Chicago-Kent
5	3.8	Loyola-L.A.
7	3.6	Samford
7	3.6	South Texas
9	3.5	Fordham
9	3.5	Denver
9	3.5	Pacific
12	3.4	Georgetown
12	3.4	Loyola-Chicago
12	3.4	Washington University
15	3.3	Campbell
15	3.3	Drexel
15	3.3	Syracuse
15	3.3	UC-Berkeley
19	3.2	Northwestern
20	3.1	St. Mary's
20	3.1	Suffolk
20	3.1	UC-Hastings
23	3.0	Emory
23	3.0	UCLA
25	2.9	Georgia State
25	2.9	Akron
25	2.9	Florida
25	2.9	Georgia
25	2.9	Notre Dame
25	2.9	Wake Forest
31	2.8	Faulkner
31	2.8	NYU
31	2.8	Texas Tech
31	2.8	Alabama
31	2.8	Maryland
36	2.7	Florida State
36	2.7	Harvard
36	2.7	Hofstra
36	2.7	St. John's
36	2.7	UIC-John Marshall
36	2.7	Missouri (Kansas City)
36	2.7	South Carolina
36	2.7	Texas
44	2.6	Ohio State
44	2.6	Pace
44	2.6	Stanford
44	2.6	Tulane
44	2.6	Houston
44	2.6	William & Mary
50	2.5	Case Western
50	2.5	George Washington
50	2.5	Loyola-New Orleans
50	2.5	Nova
50	2.5	Pepperdine
50	2.5	Arizona
50	2.5	UC-Davis
50	2.5	Colorado
50	2.5	Villanova

2021 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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2021 U.S. News Legal Writing Rankings

The new 2021 U.S. News Legal Writing Rankings include the legal writing programs at 179 law schools (the faculty survey had a 54% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.3	UNLV
2	4.2	Oregon
3	4.1	Seattle
3	4.1	Stetson
5	4.0	Suffolk
6	3.9	Wake Forest
7	3.8	Arizona State
7	3.8	Denver
7	3.8	UIC-John Marshall
7	3.8	North Carolina
11	3.7	UC-Irvine
12	3.6	Drake
12	3.6	Georgetown
12	3.6	Marquette
12	3.6	Temple
12	3.6	Texas Tech
12	3.6	Michigan
18	3.5	Drexel
18	3.5	Lewis & Clark
18	3.5	Mercer
18	3.5	Nova
18	3.5	Rutgers
18	3.5	Washburn
24	3.4	Indiana (McKinney)
24	3.4	Northwestern
24	3.4	Arizona
24	3.4	Arkansas (Little Rock)
24	3.4	Missouri (Kansas City)
29	3.3	Duquesne
29	3.3	Texas A&M
29	3.3	Villanova
32	3.2	Brooklyn
32	3.2	Chicago-Kent
32	3.2	St. John's
32	3.2	Arkansas (Fayetteville)
32	3.2	Tennessee
32	3.2	Pacific
38	3.1	Boston College
38	3.1	New York Law School
38	3.1	Northeastern
38	3.1	Ohio State
38	3.1	Baltimore
38	3.1	Memphis
44	3.0	Duke
44	3.0	Elon
44	3.0	Emory
44	3.0	George Washington
44	3.0	Loyola-L.A.
44	3.0	Santa Clara
44	3.0	Texas

2021 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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2021 U.S. News International Law Rankings

The new 2021 U.S. News International Law Rankings include the international law programs at 187 law schools (the faculty survey had a 52% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.7	NYU
2	4.4	Harvard
3	4.3	Georgetown
4	4.2	American
4	4.2	Columbia
4	4.2	Yale
7	4.1	Michigan
8	4.0	George Washington
9	3.9	Duke
9	3.9	Stanford
11	3.8	UC-Berkeley
11	3.8	Virginia
13	3.7	Cornell
14	3.6	Penn
14	3.6	Texas
14	3.6	Vanderbilt
17	3.5	Temple
17	3.5	UCLA
17	3.5	Chicago
17	3.5	Washington Univ.
21	3.4	Fordham
21	3.4	Northwestern
21	3.4	Georgia
24	3.3	Case Western
25	3.2	Arizona State
25	3.2	UC-Irvine
25	3.2	Minnesota
28	3.1	Indiana (Maurer)
28	3.1	Tulane
28	3.1	UC-Hastings
28	3.1	Notre Dame
32	3.0	Boston University
32	3.0	UC-Davis
32	3.0	Wisconsin
32	3.0	William & Mary
36	2.9	Arizona
36	2.9	Miami
36	2.9	Pacific
36	2.9	Washington & Lee
40	2.8	Boston College
40	2.8	Emory
40	2.8	Santa Clara
43	2.7	Ohio State
43	2.7	Pittsburgh
43	2.7	Washington
46	2.6	Brooklyn
46	2.6	Pepperdine
46	2.6	SMU
46	2.6	Houston
46	2.6	North Carolina
46	2.6	USC

2021 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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2021 U.S. News Intellectual Property Law Rankings

The new 2021 U.S. News Intellectual Property Law Rankings include the intellectual property law programs at 188 law schools (the faculty survey had a 58% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.7	UC-Berkeley
2	4.6	Stanford
3	4.4	NYU
4	4.0	Santa Clara
5	3.8	George Washington
5	3.8	Houston
5	3.8	New Hampshire
8	3.7	Texas A&M
8	3.7	Penn
10	3.6	American
10	3.6	Boston University
12	3.5	Duke
13	3.4	Columbia
13	3.4	Georgetown
13	3.4	Chicago-Kent
13	3.4	Michigan
13	3.4	Cardozo
18	3.3	Harvard
18	3.3	Texas
18	3.3	Washington
21	3.2	Fordham
21	3.2	Indiana (Maurer)
21	3.2	Northeastern
21	3.2	Northwestern
25	3.1	UC-Irvine
25	3.1	UCLA
25	3.1	Colorado
25	3.1	Notre Dame
25	3.1	Richmond
25	3.1	Vanderbilt
31	3.0	Boston College
31	3.0	George Mason
31	3.0	Loyola-L.A.
31	3.0	San Diego
31	3.0	Virginia
36	2.9	DePaul
36	2.9	Emory
36	2.9	UC-Davis
36	2.9	UIC-John Marshall
40	2.8	Case Western
40	2.8	Cornell
40	2.8	Ohio State
40	2.8	Chicago
40	2.8	Minnesota
45	2.7	Loyola-Chicago
45	2.7	Suffolk
45	2.7	UC-Hastings
45	2.7	Villanova
45	2.7	Washington Univ.
45	2.7	William & Mary

2021 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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2021 U.S. News Health Care Law Rankings

The new 2021 U.S. News Health Care Law Rankings include the health care law programs at 143 law schools (the faculty survey had a 54% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.4	St. Louis
2	4.2	Georgia State
3	4.1	Loyola-Chicago
3	4.1	Houston
5	4.0	Boston University
5	4.0	Stanford
7	3.9	Georgetown
7	3.9	Maryland
9	3.8	Case Western
9	3.8	Harvard
11	3.7	American
11	3.7	Northeastern
13	3.6	Seton Hall
13	3.6	UC-Hastings
15	3.5	Indiana (McKinney)
16	3.4	Yale
17	3.3	Temple
17	3.3	Wake Forest
19	3.2	Michigan
19	3.2	Minnesota
19	3.2	Texas
22	3.1	Arizona State
22	3.1	North Carolina
22	3.1	Penn
25	3.0	DePaul
25	3.0	Duke
25	3.0	Mitchell Hamline
25	3.0	Vanderbilt
29	2.9	Ohio State
29	2.9	UC-Berkeley
29	2.9	Washington University
32	2.8	Drexel
32	2.8	George Washington
32	2.8	Arizona
32	2.8	UCLA
32	2.8	UNLV
32	2.8	Pittsburgh
32	2.8	Utah
32	2.8	Washington
40	2.7	Emory
40	2.7	Indiana (Maurer)
40	2.7	UC-Irvine
40	2.7	Georgia
40	2.7	Wisconsin
40	2.7	Washington & Lee
46	2.6	Columbia
46	2.6	Virginia
48	2.5	Boston College
48	2.5	Loyola-L.A.
48	2.5	NYU
48	2.5	Northwestern
48	2.5	USC
48	2.5	William & Mary

2021 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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2021 U.S. News Environmental Law Rankings

The new 2021 U.S. News Environmental Law Rankings include the environmental law programs at 184 law schools (the faculty survey had a 56% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.5	Lewis & Clark
1	4.5	UC-Berkeley
3	4.4	Pace
4	4.3	UCLA
5	4.2	Vermont
6	4.1	Columbia
6	4.1	NYU
6	4.1	Oregon
9	4.0	Utah
10	3.9	Georgetown
10	3.9	Harvard
10	3.9	Stanford
10	3.9	Colorado
10	3.9	Maryland
15	3.8	Florida State
15	3.8	George Washington
17	3.7	Tulane
17	3.7	Vanderbilt
19	3.6	Duke
20	3.5	Arizona State
20	3.5	UC-Hastings
20	3.5	UC-Davis
20	3.5	Florida
20	3.5	Minnesota
20	3.5	Yale
26	3.4	Denver
26	3.4	Houston
26	3.4	Texas
26	3.4	Virginia
30	3.3	Hawaii
31	3.2	Indiana (Maurer)
31	3.2	Washington
33	3.1	Boston College
33	3.1	Arizona
33	3.1	UC-Irvine
33	3.1	New Mexico
37	3.0	American
37	3.0	Texas A&M
37	3.0	Michigan
37	3.0	North Carolina
41	2.9	Cornell
41	2.9	Penn State (Univ. Park)
41	2.9	Montana
41	2.9	Penn
41	2.9	Wisconsin
41	2.9	Wake Forest
41	2.9	Widener (PA)
41	2.9	William & Mary
49	2.8	Emory
49	2.8	Loyola-New Orleans
49	2.8	Northwestern
49	2.8	Idaho
49	2.8	Wyoming
49	2.8	Widener (DE)

2021 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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2021 U.S. News Dispute Resolution Rankings

The new 2021 U.S. News Dispute Resolution Rankings include the dispute resolution programs at 98 law schools (the faculty survey had a 51% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.5	Harvard
2	4.4	Ohio State
3	4.3	Pepperdine
3	4.3	Missouri (Columbia)
5	4.0	Cardozo
6	3.9	Mitchell Hamline
6	3.9	Northwestern
6	3.9	Texas A&M
6	3.9	UNLV
10	3.8	Arizona State
10	3.8	Marquette
10	3.8	Oregon
13	3.7	Fordham
13	3.7	UC-Hastings
13	3.7	Maryland
16	3.6	NYU
16	3.6	Texas
18	3.5	Quinnipiac
18	3.5	Stanford
18	3.5	Virginia
18	3.5	William & Mary
22	3.4	Cornell
22	3.4	Suffolk
22	3.4	UC-Irvine
25	3.3	Duke
25	3.3	Georgetown
25	3.3	Temple
25	3.3	UC-Davis
25	3.3	UCLA
25	3.3	Kansas
25	3.3	Washington University
32	3.2	Pace
32	3.2	UC-Berkeley
32	3.2	Penn
32	3.2	USC
32	3.2	Vanderbilt
37	3.1	Columbia
37	3.1	St. John's
37	3.1	Tulane
37	3.1	Florida
37	3.1	Michigan
37	3.1	Wisconsin
37	3.1	Yale
44	3.0	George Washington
44	3.0	Santa Clara
44	3.0	South Texas
44	3.0	Washington & Lee
48	2.9	American
48	2.9	Boston College
48	2.9	Creighton
48	2.9	Lewis & Clark
48	2.9	Northeastern
48	2.9	Chicago
48	2.9	North Carolina
48	2.9	St. Thomas (MN)

2021 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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2021 U.S. News Criminal Law Rankings

The new 2021 U.S. News Criminal Law Rankings include the criminal law programs at 188 law schools (the faculty survey had a 53% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.5	NYU
1	4.5	Stanford
3	4.4	Harvard
3	4.4	UC-Berkeley
5	4.3	Georgetown
6	4.2	Columbia
6	4.2	Penn
6	4.2	Virginia
6	4.2	Yale
10	4.1	Duke
10	4.1	UCLA
10	4.1	Chicago
10	4.1	Michigan
10	4.1	Vanderbilt
15	4.0	Ohio State
16	3.9	Northwestern
17	3.8	Cornell
17	3.8	Fordham
17	3.8	UC-Irvine
17	3.8	Texas
17	3.8	William & Mary
22	3.7	George Washington
22	3.7	UC-Davis
22	3.7	Minnesota
22	3.7	North Carolina
26	3.6	American
26	3.6	Brooklyn
26	3.6	Washington Univ.
29	3.5	Wake Forest
30	3.4	Boston University
30	3.4	Colorado
30	3.4	Cardozo
33	3.3	Arizona State
33	3.3	Emory
33	3.3	Loyola-L.A.
33	3.3	UC-Hastings
33	3.3	Florida
33	3.3	Georgia
33	3.3	Illinois
33	3.3	USC
33	3.3	Utah
33	3.3	Wisconsin
43	3.2	Boston College
43	3.2	Indiana (Maurer)
43	3.2	SMU
43	3.2	Alabama
43	3.2	Denver
43	3.2	Iowa
43	3.2	Notre Dame
43	3.2	Richmond
43	3.2	Washington
43	3.2	Washington & Lee

2021 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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2021 U.S. News Contracts/Commercial Law Rankings

The new 2021 U.S. News Contracts/Commercial Law Rankings include the contracts/commercial law programs at 188 law schools (the faculty survey had a 44% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.7	Columbia
1	4.7	Chicago
3	4.6	Harvard
3	4.6	NYU
3	4.6	UC-Berkeley
6	4.5	Stanford
6	4.5	Penn
8	4.4	Michigan
8	4.4	Texas
8	4.4	Yale
11	4.3	UCLA
11	4.3	Virginia
13	4.2	Georgetown
13	4.2	Northwestern
15	4.1	Cornell
15	4.1	Duke
17	3.9	Vanderbilt
18	3.8	Boston University
18	3.8	North Carolina
18	3.8	USC
21	3.7	Minnesota
21	3.7	Washington University
23	3.6	Emory
23	3.6	Fordham
23	3.6	Indiana (Maurer)
23	3.6	Ohio State
23	3.6	UC-Davis
23	3.6	Illinois
29	3.5	Boston College
29	3.5	Alabama
29	3.5	UC-Irvine
29	3.5	Wisconsin
29	3.5	William & Mary
34	3.4	Brooklyn
34	3.4	George Washington
34	3.4	Tulane
34	3.4	Houston
34	3.4	Notre Dame
39	3.3	BYU
39	3.3	Florida State
39	3.3	Florida
39	3.3	Georgia
39	3.3	Utah
39	3.3	Washington
39	3.3	Wake Forest
46	3.2	Arizona
46	3.2	UC-Hastings
46	3.2	Iowa
46	3.2	Maryland
46	3.2	Miami

2021 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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2021 U.S. News Constitutional Law Rankings

The new 2021 U.S. News Constitutional Law Rankings include the constitutional law programs at 188 law schools (the faculty survey had a 57% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.9	Yale
2	4.8	Harvard
3	4.7	Stanford
4	4.6	Chicago
5	4.5	Columbia
5	4.5	NYU
7	4.4	UC-Berkeley
7	4.4	Virginia
9	4.3	Duke
9	4.3	Georgetown
11	4.2	Penn
11	4.2	Texas
13	4.1	Cornell
13	4.1	Northwestern
13	4.1	UCLA
13	4.1	Michigan
17	3.8	Vanderbilt
18	3.6	Notre Dame
19	3.5	Boston University
19	3.5	UC-Davis
19	3.5	UC-Irvine
19	3.5	Minnesota
19	3.5	Washington University
19	3.5	William & Mary
25	3.4	Fordham
25	3.4	George Washington
25	3.4	North Carolina
28	3.3	Emory
28	3.3	Ohio State
28	3.3	San Diego
31	3.2	Boston College
31	3.2	Alabama
31	3.2	Georgia
31	3.2	USC
35	3.1	Brooklyn
35	3.1	Illinois
35	3.1	Richmond
38	3.0	Arizona State
38	3.0	George Mason
38	3.0	Arizona
38	3.0	Iowa
38	3.0	Wisconsin
38	3.0	Cardozo
44	2.9	American
44	2.9	Florida State
44	2.9	Georgia State
44	2.9	Indiana (Maurer)
44	2.9	Pepperdine
44	2.9	UC-Hastings
44	2.9	Colorado
44	2.9	Maryland
44	2.9	Utah
44	2.9	Washington & Lee

2021 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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2021 U.S. News Clinical Training Rankings

The new 2021 U.S. News Clinical Training Rankings include the clinical training law programs at 179 law schools (the faculty survey had a 65% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.7	Georgetown
2	4.4	American
2	4.4	CUNY
2	4.4	NYU
5	4.3	Yale
6	4.2	Northwestern
6	4.2	Maryland
8	4.1	Stanford
8	4.1	UC-Berkeley
8	4.1	UC-Irvine
8	4.1	Denver
8	4.1	Michigan
8	4.1	District of Columbia
14	4.0	Suffolk
14	4.0	Baltimore
14	4.0	Washington University
17	3.9	Fordham
17	3.9	New Mexico
17	3.9	Tennessee
20	3.8	Columbia
20	3.8	Seattle
22	3.7	George Washington
22	3.7	Harvard
22	3.7	Northeastern
22	3.7	Rutgers
22	3.7	Chicago
27	3.6	Boston College
27	3.6	Georgia State
27	3.6	UC-Hastings
27	3.6	UCLA
27	3.6	Penn
32	3.5	Boston University
32	3.5	Brooklyn
32	3.5	Mitchell Hamline
32	3.5	Georgia
32	3.5	Miami
32	3.5	Minnesota
32	3.5	Texas
39	3.4	Loyola-New Orleans
39	3.4	Pepperdine
39	3.4	Tulane
39	3.4	UNLV
39	3.4	South Carolina
44	3.3	Albany
44	3.3	Case Western
44	3.3	Cornell
44	3.3	Howard
44	3.3	Catholic
44	3.3	North Carolina
44	3.3	Notre Dame
44	3.3	Washington
44	3.3	Wisconsin
44	3.3	Washburn

2021 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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2021 U.S. News Business/Corporate Law Rankings

The new 2021 U.S. News Business/Corporate Law Rankings include the business/corporate law programs at 188 law schools (the faculty survey had a 52% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.8	Columbia
1	4.8	Harvard
3	4.7	NYU
4	4.6	UC-Berkeley
5	4.5	Stanford
6	4.4	Penn
7	4.3	Chicago
8	4.2	Georgetown
8	4.2	UCLA
8	4.2	Virginia
8	4.2	Yale
12	4.1	Duke
12	4.1	Northwestern
12	4.1	Michigan
12	4.1	Vanderbilt
16	3.9	Cornell
17	3.8	Fordham
17	3.8	Texas
19	3.6	Boston University
19	3.6	BYU
19	3.6	Minnesota
22	3.5	USC
23	3.4	Indiana (Maurer)
23	3.4	UC-Davis
23	3.4	Georgia
26	3.3	Boston College
26	3.3	Emory
26	3.3	North Carolina
26	3.3	Washington University
30	3.2	Brooklyn
30	3.2	George Washington
30	3.2	Colorado
30	3.2	Illinois
30	3.2	Iowa
30	3.2	San Diego
30	3.2	Utah
37	3.1	Ohio State
37	3.1	Tulane
37	3.1	UC-Hastings
37	3.1	UC-Irvine
37	3.1	Florida
37	3.1	Notre Dame
37	3.1	Richmond
37	3.1	Tennessee
37	3.1	Wake Forest
37	3.1	Widener (DE)
37	3.1	William & Mary
48	3.0	Florida State
48	3.0	George Mason
48	3.0	Loyola-L.A.
48	3.0	Wisconsin

2021 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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2021 U.S. News Tax Rankings

The new 2021 U.S. News Tax Rankings include the tax programs at 187 law schools (the faculty survey had a 59% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.8	NYU
2	4.4	Georgetown
3	4.3	Northwestern
3	4.3	Florida
5	4.1	UCLA
5	4.1	Virginia
7	4.0	Harvard
7	4.0	Stanford
7	4.0	Chicago
10	3.9	Columbia
11	3.8	Loyola-L.A.
11	3.8	UC-Irvine
11	3.8	Michigan
11	3.8	Yale
15	3.7	Penn
15	3.7	USC
15	3.7	Texas
18	3.6	Boston College
18	3.6	Duke
20	3.5	Indiana (Maurer)
21	3.4	Boston University
21	3.4	San Diego
23	3.3	UC-Hastings
23	3.3	UC-Berkeley
23	3.3	Washington Univ.
26	3.2	UC-Davis
26	3.2	Houston
26	3.2	Miami
26	3.2	Minnesota
26	3.2	North Carolina
26	3.2	Pittsburgh
32	3.1	BYU
32	3.1	Fordham
32	3.1	Ohio State
32	3.1	Alabama
32	3.1	Washington & Lee
37	3.0	Arizona State
37	3.0	Florida State
37	3.0	Pepperdine
37	3.0	Temple
37	3.0	Villanova
42	2.9	Cornell
42	2.9	George Washington
42	2.9	Washington
45	2.8	Georgia
45	2.8	Illinois
45	2.8	Notre Dame
48	2.7	Brooklyn
48	2.7	Emory
48	2.7	Loyola-Chicago
48	2.7	SMU
48	2.7	UNLV
48	2.7	Vanderbilt
48	2.7	Cardozo

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

• +14: Ohio State (#32), Washington University (#23)
• +11: Houston (#26)
• +9: Yale (#11)
• +6: Arizona State (#37), UC-Davis (#26)

Here are the biggest downward moves:

• -17: Washington (#42)
• -12: Temple (#37), Villanova (#37)
• -10: George Washington (#42)
• -8: Georgia (#45)
• -7: Boston University (#21)

Derek Muller (Pepperdine) notes the absurd volatility of USNWR specialty law rankings by pointing out changes in the peer reputation scores of tax programs at these law schools:

South Carolina: 2.6 (+0.6)
Loyola Chicago: 2.7 (+0.4)
Albany: 1.8 (+0.4)
Cornell: 2.9 (+0.4)
Ohio State: 3.1 (+0.4)
Baltimore: 2.3 (+0.4)
Cincinnati: 2.4 (+0.4)
Richmond: 2.6 (+0.4)
Washington University: 3.3 (+0.4)
-
Suffolk: 1.5 (-0.4)
Wyoming: 1.5 (-0.4)
Vermont: 1.3 (-0.4)
New England Law: 1.2 (-0.4)
Montana: 2.0 (-0.5)

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

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2021 U.S. News Law School Peer Reputation Rankings (And Overall Rankings)

Continuing a TaxProf Blog tradition (see links below for 2009-2020), here is the full list of the 194 law schools ranked by academic peer reputation, as well as their overall rank, in the new 2021 U.S. News Law School Rankings (methodology here):

Peer Rank	Peer Score	School	Overall Rank
1	4.8	Yale	1
1	4.8	Stanford	2
1	4.8	Harvard	3
4	4.7	Columbia	4
5	4.6	Chicago	4
5	4.6	NYU	6
7	4.5	UC-Berkeley	9
8	4.4	Penn	7
8	4.4	Virginia	8
8	4.4	Michigan	9
11	4.3	Georgetown	14
12	4.2	Northwestern	9
12	4.2	Duke	12
12	4.2	Cornell	13
15	4.1	UCLA	15
15	4.1	Texas	16
17	4.0	Vanderbilt	18
18	3.7	Washington University	17
18	3.7	Minnesota	21
20	3.6	USC	18
21	3.5	Boston University	20
21	3.5	Notre Dame	22
21	3.5	George Washington	23
21	3.5	Emory	24
21	3.5	UC-Irvine	27
26	3.4	North Carolina	27
26	3.4	Boston College	31
26	3.4	UC-Davis	38
29	3.3	Arizona State	24
29	3.3	Florida	24
29	3.3	Fordham	27
29	3.3	Iowa	27
29	3.3	Alabama	31
29	3.3	Georgia	31
29	3.3	William & Mary	31
29	3.3	Indiana (Maurer)	38
29	3.3	Ohio State	38
29	3.3	Wisconsin	38
39	3.2	Illinois	31
39	3.2	Washington	42
39	3.2	Colorado	46
39	3.2	Arizona	47
43	3.1	Washington & Lee	31
43	3.1	Wake Forest	42
43	3.1	Florida State	50
43	3.1	Tulane	54
43	3.1	UC-Hastings	59
48	3.0	Maryland	47
48	3.0	Connecticut	50
50	2.9	BYU	37
50	2.9	Utah	45
50	2.9	Cardozo	53
50	2.9	Denver	74
50	2.9	American	76
50	2.9	Georgia State	76
56	2.8	Richmond	54
56	2.8	Temple	56
56	2.8	Houston	56
56	2.8	Miami	67
56	2.8	Oregon	88
61	2.7	George Mason	42
61	2.7	Pepperdine	47
61	2.7	SMU	56
61	2.7	Loyola-L.A.	62
61	2.7	Villanova	62
61	2.7	Tennessee	70
61	2.7	Case Western	76
61	2.7	Pittsburgh	76
61	2.7	San Diego	83
61	2.7	Howard	107
71	2.6	Texas A&M	60
71	2.6	UNLV	62
71	2.6	Northeastern	67
71	2.6	Missouri (Columbia)	67
71	2.6	Loyola-Chicago	70
71	2.6	Kansas	70
71	2.6	Kentucky	70
71	2.6	Rutgers	76
71	2.6	Brooklyn	83
71	2.6	Chicago-Kent	83
81	2.5	Baylor	50
81	2.5	Penn State (Univ. Park)	60
81	2.5	Seton Hall	62
81	2.5	Oklahoma	76
81	2.5	Michigan State	93
81	2.5	Hawaii	96
81	2.5	South Carolina	96
81	2.5	Santa Clara	107
81	2.5	Indiana (McKinney)	122
90	2.4	Nebraska	76
90	2.4	Cincinnati	83
90	2.4	St. Louis	90
90	2.4	Lewis & Clark	93
90	2.4	New Mexico	99
90	2.4	Syracuse	111
90	2.4	Seattle	129
97	2.3	Penn State (Dickinson)	62
97	2.3	St. John's	74
97	2.3	Arkansas (Fayetteville)	90
97	2.3	Drexel	93
97	2.3	SUNY-Buffalo	99
97	2.3	Hofstra	102
97	2.3	Marquette	102
97	2.3	CUNY	107
97	2.3	Mississippi	111
97	2.3	DePaul	118
107	2.2	Wayne State	83
107	2.2	Florida Int'l	90
107	2.2	Louisiana State	96
107	2.2	Louisville	99
107	2.2	Stetson	105
107	2.2	West Virginia	111
107	2.2	Loyola-New Orleans	126
107	2.2	Missouri (Kansas City)	133
107	2.2	Arkansas (Little Rock)	Tier 2
116	2.1	New Hampshire	88
116	2.1	Catholic	111
116	2.1	Gonzaga	118
116	2.1	Maine	122
116	2.1	Montana	122
116	2.1	Baltimore	126
116	2.1	Suffolk	136
116	2.1	Idaho	136
116	2.1	UIC-John Marshall	140
125	2.0	Drake	105
125	2.0	Washburn	107
125	2.0	Texas Tech	111
125	2.0	Tulsa	111
125	2.0	Albany	118
125	2.0	St. Thomas (MN)	118
125	2.0	Mercer	126
125	2.0	Wyoming	133
125	2.0	Pace	136
125	2.0	Willamette	141
135	1.9	Cleveland	102
135	1.9	Chapman	111
135	1.9	Quinnipiac	122
135	1.9	Duquesne	129
135	1.9	New York Law School	129
135	1.9	Toledo	136
135	1.9	Akron	141
135	1.9	Memphis	141
135	1.9	Vermont	141
135	1.9	Southwestern	Tier 2
135	1.9	North Dakota	Tier 2
135	1.9	San Francisco	Tier 2
135	1.9	Pacific	Tier 2
148	1.8	Creighton	133
148	1.8	Mitchell Hamline	141
148	1.8	Dayton	141
148	1.8	South Dakota	141
152	1.7	N. Illinois	Tier 2
152	1.7	Roger Williams	Tier 2
152	1.7	St. Mary's	Tier 2
152	1.7	Widener (DE)	Tier 2
152	1.7	Widener (PA)	Tier 2
157	1.6	Campbell	Tier 2
157	1.6	Elon	Tier 2
157	1.6	Florida A&M	Tier 2
157	1.6	N. Kentucky	Tier 2
157	1.6	Nova	Tier 2
157	1.6	Samford	Tier 2
157	1.6	South Texas	Tier 2
157	1.6	S. Illinois	Tier 2
157	1.6	Detroit	Tier 2
157	1.6	Massachusetts	Tier 2
157	1.6	District of Columbia	Tier 2
168	1.5	California-Western	Tier 2
168	1.5	Golden Gate	Tier 2
168	1.5	Mississippi College	Tier 2
168	1.5	New England	Tier 2
168	1.5	NC Central	Tier 2
168	1.5	Ohio Northern	Tier 2
168	1.5	Oklahoma City	Tier 2
168	1.5	St. Thomas (FL)	Tier 2
168	1.5	Touro	Tier 2
177	1.4	Belmont	129
177	1.4	Capital	Tier 2
177	1.4	Southern	Tier 2
177	1.4	Texas Southern	Tier 2
177	1.4	W. New England	Tier 2
182	1.3	John Marshall (GA)	Tier 2
183	1.2	Appalachian	Tier 2
183	1.2	Barry	Tier 2
183	1.2	Charleston	Tier 2
183	1.2	Concordia	Tier 2
183	1.2	Faulkner	Tier 2
183	1.2	Florida Coastal	Tier 2
183	1.2	Liberty	Tier 2
183	1.2	Lincoln Memorial	Tier 2
183	1.2	Regent	Tier 2
192	1.1	Ave Maria	Tier 2
192	1.1	W. Michigan Cooley	Tier 2
192	1.1	Western State	Tier 2

2013 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

• Business/Corporate Law
• Clinical Law
• Constitutional Law
• Contracts/Commercial Law
• Criminal Law
• Dispute Resolution 
• Environmental Law
• Health Care Law
• Health Care Law
• Intellectual Property Law
• International Law
• Legal Writing
• Tax Law
• Trial Advocacy

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

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Pepperdine’s Place In The 2021 U.S. News Law School Rankings

By now many of you have seen the news that Pepperdine Caruso Law has risen to #47 in the 2021 U.S. News Law School Rankings. This is the highest ranking in the 50-year history of our law school. 

Our 25-point improvement in three years is the second largest increase of any law school among the Top 100 law schools as ranked by U.S. News (behind only Texas A&M (formerly Texas Wesleyan) from #92 to #60).

We do not chase rankings at Pepperdine Caruso Law. Every decision we make is guided by a single question: what is in the best interest of our students? Often those decisions produce a rankings benefit as well, and we gladly reap those results. I am pleased that our rankings rise is driven by the increasing quality of our students, the improved outcomes achieved by our graduates, the additional resources we have been able to deploy to improve our students’ educational experience, and our growing reputation among legal academics, lawyers, and judges.

Pepperdine Caruso Law also was recognized by U.S. News with Top 50 rankings in six specialty programs (another all-time high) based on our reputation among faculty in those fields:  #3 in dispute resolution, #37 in tax law, #39 in clinical training, #44 in constitutional law, #46 in international law, and #50 in trial advocacy.

We are proud of our past, excited by all we have accomplished thus far, and exhilarated at what we will be able to achieve in the future with the additional resources provided by Rick J. Caruso's $50 million naming gift.

2020 Law School Rankings By Graduates In BigLaw Jobs

Law.com, The Top 50 Go-To Law Schools:

We have ranked the 50 law schools that sent the highest percentage of their 2019 juris doctor graduates into associate positions at the largest 100 law firms in the country [methodology].  Columbia Law School tops the list for the seventh straight year, with 70 percent of its recent graduate class now working in Big Law.

1. Columbia
2. Pennsylvania
3. NYU
4. Northwestern
5. Virginia
6. Chicago
7. Duke
8. UC-Berkeley
9. Cornell
10. Harvard
11. Michigan
12. Stanford
13. Georgetown
14. Vanderbilt
15. Boston University
16. USC
17. Texas
18. UCLA
19. Boston College
20. Yale

Go-To Law Schools: All Schools Data
See hiring stats for every law school that sent a 2019 graduate to one of the largest 100 firms

Go-To Law Schools vs. U.S. News
How Go-To Law School rankings match up with U.S. News & World Report

Want to Work in Big Law? These Schools Are Good Bets
Columbia Law School lands at the top of our 2020 Go-To Law Schools ranking of Big Law feeder schools—marking the seventh straight year the school tops the list

Harvard, NYU and Columbia Embrace Early Summer Associate Hiring—Sort Of
After resisting the trend of law firms interviewing summer associate candidates prior to on-campus interview programs, three major Big Law feeder schools are now embracing early hiring

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Guthrie: U.S. News Should Replace Its Current Law School Rankings With A Mission-Driven Ranking

Chris Guthrie (Vanderbilt), Toward A Mission-Based Ranking?, 60 Jurimetrics J. 75 (2019):

Law schools exist to generate knowledge about law and the legal system and to prepare students for entry into the profession. Law school rankings, in turn, should evaluate schools on their success in carrying out this two-part mission. ... I propose that U.S. News replace its current ranking with a mission-based ranking. U.S. News could do this in any number of ways, but I propose below three steps U.S. News could take toward that end: 

1. Replace Subjective Surveys with Objective Measures of Scholarly Impact ...
2. Retain, But Tweak, the “Placement” Category ...
3. Eliminate Remaining Criteria as Irrelevant or Harmful ...

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Fellowships For Aspiring Law Professors (Updated 2019-20 Edition)

For practitioners and others contemplating joining the law professor ranks, many law schools offer wonderful opportunities to transition into the legal academy with one- or two-year fellowships which allow you to enter the AALS Faculty Recruitment Conference (the "meat market") and the new SEALS Faculty Recruitment Conference with published scholarship (and in many cases teaching experience) under your belt. Here is an updated list of the law schools with fellowship and VAP programs (thanks to AALS President Judith Areen for allowing me to include in this listing positions in the AALS' new directory):

General Programs:

Law School	Program Name
Arizona State	Visiting Assistant Professor Program
Boston University	Visiting Assistant Professor Program
Chicago	Harry A. Bigelow Teaching Fellowships
Chicago	Earl B. Dickerson Fellowship
Columbia	Associates in Law Program
Columbia	Academic Fellows Program
Connecticut	Visiting Scholars Program
Cornell	Visiting Assistant Professorships
Duke	Visiting Assistant Professor Program
Georgetown	Graduate Teaching Fellowships
Georgetown	Georgetown Law Research Fellowship
Georgetown	Visiting Researcher Program
Harvard	Climenko Fellowship
Harvard	Reginald F. Lewis Fellowship for Law Teaching
Illinois	Illinois Academic Fellowship Program
Iowa	Iowa Law Faculty Fellowship
Loyola-New Orleans	Westerfield Fellows Program
Michigan	Michigan Faculty Fellows Program (VAP)
Michigan	Michigan Society of Fellows Program
NYU	Acting Assistant Professors
NYU	Furman Academic Fellowship Program
Northwestern	Visiting Scholars Program
Pennsylvania	The George Sharswood Fellowship
Stetson	Bruce R. Jacob Visiting Assistant Professor Program
Tulane	Forrester Fellowships
Villanova	Visiting Assistant Professor Program
Wake Forest	Visiting Assistant Professor Program
Washington	Visiting Scholars Program
Wisconsin	The Hastie Fellowship Program
Yale	Fellowship Home Page (for Yale grads)

Subject Specific Programs:

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2021 U.S. News Law School Rankings

Robert Morse (Chief Data Strategist, U.S. News & World Report) announced yesterday that the new 2021 law school rankings will be released on Tuesday, March 17.  For the first time, they will include specialty rankings in business/corporate law, criminal law, constitutional law, and contracts/commercial law (in addition to Clinical Training, Dispute Resolution, Environmental Law, Health Care, Intellectual Property, International Law, Legal Writing, Tax, and Trial Advocacy).  Here is my coverage of the current 2020 law school rankings:

• Paul Caron (Dean, Pepperdine), Pepperdine’s Place In The 2020 U.S. News Law School Rankings (Mar. 12, 2019)
• 2020 U.S. News Law School Peer Reputation Rankings (And Overall Rankings) (Mar. 12, 2019)
• 2020 U.S. News Tax Rankings (Mar. 13, 2019)
• 2020 U.S. News Dispute Resolution Rankings (Mar. 14, 2019)
• 2020 U.S. News Clinical Training Rankings (Mar. 15, 2019)
• 2020 U.S. News Environmental Law Rankings (Mar. 16, 2019)
• 2020 U.S. News Health Care Law Rankings (Mar. 17, 2019)
• 2020 U.S. News Intellectual Property Law Rankings (Mar. 18, 2019)
• 2020 U.S. News International Law Rankings (Mar. 19, 2019)
• 2020 U.S. News Legal Writing Rankings (Mar. 20, 2019)
• 2020 U.S. News Trial Advocacy Rankings (Mar. 21, 2019)
• CJ Ryan (Roger Williams) & Brian Frye (Kentucky), Law School Rankings By Attractiveness To Students (25/50/75 LSAT/UGPA, Transfers In/Out) (Mar. 21, 2019)
• Caleb Griffin (Regent), Law School Rankings: Incentives, Culture, And Change In Legal Education (Mar. 21, 2019)
• Ted Sichelman (San Diego), A Defense And Explanation Of The U.S. News 'Citation' Ranking (Mar. 21, 2019)
• March Madness Law School Bracket (Mar. 21, 2019)
• $26.5 Million Donor Completes Naming Gift Ahead Of Schedule Due To Alabama Law School's Rise In The U.S. News Rankings (Mar. 30, 2019)
• Robert Jones (Northern Illinois), U.S. News Law School Academic Reputation Scores, 1998-2019 (Apr. 2, 2019)
• Bradley Areheart (Tennessee), The Top 100 Law Schools, Based On 5-, 10-, And 15-Year Rolling Average U.S. News Rankings (Apr. 15, 2019)
• The Best Law Schools For Practical Training (Apr. 16, 2019)
• U.S. News Offers More Guidance, Meeting With Law School Deans On New Scholarly Impact Rankings (May 2, 2019)
• Ousted Business School Dean Files $25 Million Defamation Lawsuit Against Temple For Unfairly Blaming Him In U.S. News Rankings Scandal (May 6, 2019)
• Robert Kuehn (Washington University), The U.S. News Law School Specialty Program Rankings: Is The Tail Wagging The Dog? (May 6, 2019)
• Derek Muller (Pepperdine), Visualizing Legal Employment Outcomes In California, DC-Maryland-Virginia, Florida, Illinois, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, And Texas (May 6, 2019)
• Robert Anderson (Pepperdine), 2019 Law School Rankings By Employment Outcomes (May 7, 2019)
• The Best LL.M. Programs (May 15, 2019)
• Christopher Iacono (J.D. 2019, Pennsylvania), How To Fix The U.S. News Law School Rankings (May 22, 2019)
• University Of Oklahoma Inflated Its Alumni Giving Data For 20 Years, U.S. News Strips Its #127 Ranking (May 24, 2019)
• Alabama Donor Doesn't Want His $21 Million Back; He Wants Law School To Increase Enrollment And 'Tell U.S. News, F*** You.’ (May 30, 2019)
• Former Student Files Class Action Against University Of Oklahoma For Submitting False Data To Inflate Its U.S. News Ranking For 20 Years (June 1, 2019)
• Derek Muller (Pepperdine), Significant One-Year Drops In U.S. News Law School Peer Reputation (June 6, 2019)
• Adversity' In Law School Admissions? (June 7, 2019)
• February 2019 California Bar Exam Results (June 20, 2019)
• Robert Morse Of U.S. News Receives Lifetime Ranker Achievement Award (July 24, 2019)
• Bryce Clayton Newell (Oregon), 2019 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews (July 25, 2019)
• Andrew Hayashi (Virginia) & Gregory Mitchell (Virginia), Maintaining Scholarly Integrity In The Age Of Bibliometrics (July 30, 2019)
• Paul Caron (Dean, Pepperdine), A Dean's Perspective On Diversity, Socioeconomics, The LSAT, And The U.S. News Law School Rankings (July 31, 2019)
• Paul Caron (Dean, Pepperdine), More On A Dean's Perspective On Diversity, Socioeconomics, The LSAT, And The U.S. News Law School Rankings (Aug. 6, 2019)
• Rob Anderson (Pepperdine), Citation Engagement v. One-Off Citations (Aug. 6, 2017)
• 2019 World Law School Rankings (Aug. 20, 2019)
• The Impact Of The U.S. News Rankings On The Cost Of Law School (Aug. 21, 2019)
• The 30 Most Fun Law Schools (Sept. 3, 2019)
• J. B. Ruhl, Michael Vandenbergh & Sarah Dunaway (Vanderbilt), Extending Leiter-Sisk Citation Counts To Interdisciplinary Scholarship (Sept. 16, 2019)
• July 2019 Florida Bar Exam Results: Florida International Is #1 For 5th Year In A Row (Sept. 16, 2019)
• The Top Law Schools For Human Rights (Sept. 21, 2019)
• University Of Florida Law School Continues Its Rise In Student Quality And Rankings (Oct. 1, 2019)
• Law School Trial Team Rankings: Stetson Is #1 (Oct. 9, 2019)
• Minnesota Law School Enrolls Largest 1L Class Since 2011 As Part Of Plan To Eliminate Multi-Million Dollar Deficit By 2021 While Defending Its Top 20 Ranking (Oct. 10, 2019)
• LawProfBlawg (Anonymous Professor, Top 100 Law School), The U.S. News Citation Ranking Is A 'Rigged Metrics Game' That 'Imperils Legal Academia' (Oct. 16, 2019)
• LawProfBlawg (Anonymous Professor, Top 100 Law School), The Problems Of Measuring Scholarly Impact (‘Stuff’) (Oct. 16, 2019)
• July 2019 Pennsylvania Bar Exam: Pittsburgh #1 (Oct. 17, 2019)
• Society For Empirical Legal Studies Urges U.S. News To Use Google Scholar Rather Than HeinOnline In Scholarly Impact Rankings (Oct. 29, 2019)
• Clinical Legal Education Association Statement On The U.S. News Clinical Program Rankings (Nov. 1, 2019)
• Princeton Review's Best 167 Law Schools (2020 Edition) (Nov. 6, 2019)
• Paul Heald (Illinois) & Ted Sichelman (San Diego), The Top 100 Law School Faculties In Citations (Hein) And Impact (SSRN Downloads) (Nov. 11, 2019)
• Gregory Sisk (St. Thomas), 'A Valid, If Imperfect, Proxy For Faculty Scholarly Impact On A National Scale' (Nov. 11, 2019)
• Adam Chilton (Chicago) & Jonathan Masur (Chicago), What Should Law School Rankings Measure And How Should We Measure it: A Comment On Heald & Sichelman's Rankings (Nov. 12, 2019)
• Bridget Crawford (Pace), SSRN And The (Arbitrary) Determination Of 'Scholarly' Merit (Nov. 20, 2019)
• Top Law Schools: Tax Law (Dec. 4, 2019)
• Top Law Schools: Business Law (Dec. 5, 2019)
• July 2019 New York Bar Exam Results: Columbia #1 (Dec. 5, 2019)
• July 2019 California Bar Exam Results (Dec. 14, 2019)
• July 2019 California Bar Exam Results For Out-Of-State Law Schools (Dec. 15, 2019)
• Jerry Organ (St. Thomas), 2019 Transfer Data Show Continued Decline In Number And Percentage Of Transfers (Dec. 16, 2019)
• Jerry Organ (St. Thomas), The Benefits Of Greater Transparency In Reporting Of Law Graduate Employment Outcomes (Dec. 19, 2019)
• Changes To U.S. News Law School Rankings Met With Skepticism (Jan. 9, 2020)
• Dispatches From The AALS Annual Meeting: Rankings, Rankings, And More Rankings (Jan. 13, 2020)
• The Fifty Hardest Law Schools To Get Into (Jan. 29, 2020)
• 2020 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Admissions Selectivity (Feb. 3, 2020)
• 2020 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Academic Experience (Feb. 4, 2020)
• 2020 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Professors (Teaching) (Feb. 5, 2020)
• 2020 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Professors (Accessibility) (Feb. 6, 2020)
• 2020 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Career Rating (Feb. 7, 2020)
• 2020 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Professors (Teaching And Accessibility) (Feb. 10, 2020)
• 2020 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Overall Ranking (Feb. 11, 2020)
• Deborah Merritt (Ohio State), Ranking Academic Impact (Feb. 19, 2020)
• Paul Caron (Dean, Pepperdine), Law School Rankings By Bar Exam Overperformance (Feb. 19, 2020)
• Paul Caron (Dean, Pepperdine), Law School Rankings By Ultimate Bar Passage Rates (Feb. 20, 2020)

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. Here are the 43 law schools with ultimate bar passages rates for the Class of 2017 greater than 95% (the full data for all 199 law schools is here):

1	CONCORDIA	100.00%
1	WISCONSIN	100.00%
1	YALE	100.00%
4	VIRGINIA	99.66%
5	PENNSYLVANIA	99.59%
6	DUKE	99.55%
7	CHICAGO	99.52%
8	STANFORD	99.45%
9	U. WASHINGTON	99.39%
10	MARQUETTE	98.95%
11	NEBRASKA	98.90%
12	HARVARD	98.83%
13	NYU	98.32%
14	SAINT LOUIS	97.96%
15	CORNELL	97.50%
16	TULSA	97.47%
17	OKLAHOMA	97.37%
18	UC-BERKELEY	97.32%
19	BAYLOR	97.06%
20	ILLINOIS	97.06%
21	BOSTON COLLEGE	97.00%
22	COLUMBIA	96.93%
22	COLORADO	96.93%
24	TEXAS	96.78%
25	GEORGIA STATE	96.59%
26	KANSAS	96.55%
27	VANDERBILT	96.30%
28	NORTH CAROLINA	96.26%
29	NORTHWESTERN	96.22%
30	MIAMI	96.20%
31	ST. JOHN'S	96.17%
32	FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL	96.10%
33	FORDHAM	96.10%
33	WILLIAM & MARY	96.04%
35	ALABAMA	96.03%
36	MICHIGAN	95.99%
37	GEORGETOWN	95.85%
38	SYRACUSE	95.59%
39	NOTRE DAME	95.54%
40	GEORGIA	95.48%
41	UCLA	95.40%
42	BOSTON UNIVERSITY	95.26%
43	USC	95.15%

Law School Rankings By Bar Exam Overperformance

The ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar yesterday released comprehensive data on bar passage outcomes for ABA-accredited law schools. Here are the 56 law schools that outperformed their state's average bar pass rate for first-time takers in 2019 by at least 10% (the full data for all 199 law schools is here):

		School Pass Rate	State Pass Rate	Difference
1	GEORGIA	91.76%	67.78%	23.98%
2	FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL	94.81%	70.92%	23.89%
3	WISCONSIN	100.00%	76.99%	23.01%
4	MARQUETTE	99.44%	77.00%	22.44%
5	GEORGIA STATE	86.91%	65.92%	20.99%
6	STANFORD	95.32%	74.35%	20.97%
7	CHICAGO	96.45%	76.32%	20.13%
8	HARVARD	98.93%	79.01%	19.92%
9	YALE	96.26%	77.38%	18.88%
10	DUKE	97.70%	78.98%	18.72%
11	UCLA	89.46%	70.94%	18.52%
12	UC-BERKELEY	90.37%	71.88%	18.49%
13	MICHIGAN	95.39%	77.18%	18.21%
14	VIRGINIA	95.79%	77.69%	18.10%
15	ILLINOIS	92.50%	74.74%	17.76%
16	USC	87.73%	70.06%	17.67%
17	PENNSYLVANIA	97.07%	79.69%	17.38%
18	VANDERBILT	94.15%	77.27%	16.88%
19	TEXAS	93.29%	77.10%	16.19%
20	FLORIDA	87.12%	71.09%	16.03%
21	FLORIDA STATE	86.71%	70.78%	15.93%
22	NORTHWESTERN	91.97%	76.05%	15.92%
23	BELMONT	96.25%	80.56%	15.69%
24	GEORGETOWN	92.67%	76.99%	15.68%
25	NEW HAMPSHIRE	87.09%	72.22%	14.87%
26	LIBERTY	92.00%	77.25%	14.75%
27	NOTRE DAME	90.16%	75.69%	14.47%
28	UC-DAVIS	84.46%	70.01%	14.45%
29	MERCER	81.25%	66.98%	14.27%
30	NORTH CAROLINA	92.50%	78.85%	13.65%
31	COLUMBIA	95.11%	81.48%	13.63%
32	IOWA	92.59%	79.02%	13.57%
33	NYU	95.96%	82.48%	13.48%
34	SETON HALL	90.44%	76.99%	13.45%
35	MINNESOTA	93.04%	79.62%	13.42%
36	WILLIAM & MARY	90.91%	77.53%	13.38%
37	BAYLOR	90.32%	77.29%	13.03%
38	TEXAS A&M	90.32%	77.34%	12.98%
39	GEORGE MASON	87.90%	75.07%	12.83%
40	WASHINGTON & LEE	89.72%	76.99%	12.73%
41	INDIANA - BLOOMINGTON	88.19%	75.47%	12.72%
42	GEORGE WASHINGTON	88.02%	75.35%	12.67%
43	ARIZONA STATE	86.69%	74.17%	12.52%
44	PEPPERDINE	82.42%	70.17%	12.25%
45	ALABAMA	93.65%	81.72%	11.93%
46	CORNELL	93.79%	81.97%	11.82%
47	UC-IRVINE	81.49%	69.74%	11.75%
48	CAMPBELL	91.51%	79.86%	11.65%
49	LOYOLA-CHICAGO	85.32%	74.10%	11.22%
50	WAKE FOREST	90.00%	78.86%	11.14%
51	COLORADO	87.50%	76.54%	10.96%
51	WAYNE STATE	81.51%	70.55%	10.96%
53	BOSTON UNIVERSITY	91.60%	80.73%	10.87%
54	EMORY	82.82%	72.02%	10.80%
55	BOSTON COLLEGE	91.46%	80.99%	10.47%
56	WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY	89.13%	78.70%	10.43%

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Merritt: Ranking Academic Impact

Deborah J. Merritt (Ohio State), Ranking Academic Impact:

Paul Heald and Ted Sichelman have published a new ranking of the top U.S. law schools by academic impact. Five distinguished scholars comment on their ranking in the same issue of Jurimetrics Journal in which the ranking appears. But neither the authors of this ranking nor their distinguished commentators notice a singular result: The Heald/Sichelman rankings include a law school that does not exist.

According to Heald and Sichelman, Oregon State ranks 53d among U.S. law schools for its SSRN downloads; 35th for its citations in the Hein database; and 46th in a combined metric. Oregon State, however, does not have a law school. The University of Oregon has a law school, but it appears separately in the Heald/Sichelman rankings. So Heald and Sichelman have not simply fumbled the name of Oregon’s only public law school.

Instead, it appears that my own law school (Ohio State) has been renamed Oregon State. I can’t be sure without seeing Heald and Sichelman’s underlying data; even the “open” database posted in Dropbox refers to the nonexistent Oregon State. But Ohio State, currently tied for 34th in the US News survey, seems conspicuously absent from the Heald/Sichelman ranking.

I’m sure that my deans will contact Heald and Sichelman to request a correction–assuming that Oregon State actually is Ohio State. Oregon State Law School’s administrators probably will not complain. They can’t celebrate either, of course, because they don’t exist. But apart from that correction, let’s ruminate on this error. What does it have to say about rankings? ...

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2020 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Overall Ranking

I previously blogged the lists of the Top 10 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2020 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. Last week, 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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2020 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Professors (Teaching And Accessibility)

I previously blogged the lists of the Top 10 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2020 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. Last week, 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

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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2020 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Career Rating

I previously blogged the lists of the Top 10 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2020 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. In a series of posts this week, 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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2020 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Professors (Accessibility)

I previously blogged the lists of the Top 10 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2020 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. In a series of posts this week, 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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2020 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Professors (Teaching)

I previously blogged the lists of the Top 10 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2020 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. In a series of posts this week, 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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2020 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Academic Experience

I previously blogged the lists of the Top 10 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2020 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. In a series of posts this week, 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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2020 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Admissions Selectivity

I previously blogged the lists of the Top 10 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2020 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. In a series of posts this week, 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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The Fifty Hardest Law Schools To Get Into

24/7 Wall St., 50 Hardest Law Schools to Get Into:

Using data from the ABA, 24/7 Wall St. created an index of three measures of selectivity to identify the 50 hardest law schools to get into. The first index measure is the acceptance rate, or the number of offer letters a school sent in 2019 as a share of the number of applications. The second is the median LSAT score of newly enrolled students in fall 2019, and the third measure is the median undergraduate GPA of newly enrolled students. We also reviewed the share of students in the class of 2018 who took the bar exam and passed on their first attempt.

1. Yale (#1 in U.S. News)
2. Stanford (#2)
3. Harvard(#3)
4. Penn Carey (#7)
5. Virginia (#8)
6. Columbia (#5)
7. Michigan (#9)
8. Chicago (#4)
9. Northwestern Pritzker (#10)
10. USC Gould (#17)
11. Duke (#10)
12. Texas (#16)
13. UC-Berkeley (#10)
14. Georgetown (#14)
15. NYU (#6)
16. Cornell (#14)
17. Florida Levin (#31)
18. Vanderbilt (#18)
19. UCLA (#15)
20. George Mason Scalia (#45)
21. Georgia (#27)
22. Washington University (#18)
23. Boston University (#23)
24. UC-Irvine (#23)
25. Notre Dame (#21)
26. Arizona State O'Connor (#27)
27. Arizona Rogers (#39)
28. Fordham (#39)
29. University of Washington (#44)
30. Emory (#26)
31. Alabama (#25)
32. UNLV Boyd (#58)
33. George Washington (#22)
34. William & Mary (#39)
35. Pepperdine Caruso (#51)
36. UC-Davis (#31)
37. Texas A&M (#83)
38. Boston College (#27)
39. Florida International (#91)
40. Florida State (#48)
41. Washington & Lee (#34)
42. Georgia State (#67)
43. North Carolina (#34)
44. Colorado (#45)
45. Loyola-L.A. (#62)
46. Tennessee (#59)
47. Indiana-Maurer (#34)
48. Illinois (#39)
49. Villanova Widger (#71)
50. Minnesota (#20)

Dispatches From The AALS Annual Meeting: Rankings, Rankings, And More Rankings

Following up on my previous coverage (links below):  Karen Sloan (Law.com), Dispatches from the Association of American Law Schools' Annual Meeting:

Rankings, Rankings, and More Rankings
In case that headline didn’t tip you off, rankings were a big deal at this year’s annual meeting. More specifically, U.S. News & World Report’s introduction of a “scholarly impact” ranking of faculties appears to have more than a few people in a tizzy. That ranking was a focus of no less than three separate panels over the weekend, two of which featured Bob Morse, U.S. News’ chief data strategist and the person responsible for the law school rankings. Legal academics love to hate on Morse and the U.S. News rankings, primarily for what they see as the outsized influence of the rankings on prospective students and the pernicious effects of playing the rankings game. So Morse is used to facing the slings and arrows of law professors, and frankly, he got away from this year’s AALS relatively unscathed. ...

Here are some of the big concerns raised by academics about the project:

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Changes To U.S. News Law School Rankings Met With Skepticism

Karen Sloan (Law.com), Changes to US News Law School Rankings Met With Skepticism:

U.S. News & World Report is adding as many as five new categories to its suite of law school specialty rankings this year, an expansion that’s getting a cold reception from legal academics. ...

[U.S. News Chief Data Strategist Bob Morse] revealed that the latest rankings survey, which is now out in the field, for the first time asks reviewers to rank law schools on their constitutional law, criminal law, business corporations, and contracts programs. That joins nine existing specialty rankings, including intellectual property, clinical training, and tax law. U.S. News sends the survey to four people at each law school and for the specialty rankings, respondents are asked to rate each school’s programs on a scale of 1 to 5. ...

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The Benefits Of Greater Transparency In Reporting Of Law Graduate Employment Outcomes

Ten years ago, there was no standardized reporting format law schools had to follow for reporting graduate employment outcomes.  As a result, it was very difficult to make comparisons across law schools because the data were presented by law schools in a way that did not facilitate apples to apples comparisons.  At that time, many law schools presented employment outcomes data in a manner that reflected as favorably as possible on the institution.

Following the Great Recession, the ABA mandated greater transparency in the way law schools report employment outcomes, requiring each law school to report disaggregated results for all law school graduates using a common template — the Employment Summary Report.  This mandated reporting format has fostered much greater transparency with respect to graduate employment outcomes by increasing both the amount and detail of employment outcomes data and by fostering comparisons across law schools due to a consistent reporting framework. 

Interestingly, however, throughout this period of time, there has been some variability in how entities compiling employment outcomes data report such data, particularly as it relates to the "top line" statistic — what proportion of each class of new law graduates is working nine (now ten) months after graduation — an interval long enough to take and get results on a bar exam.  While NALP has reported its results on a consistent basis throughout this period of time, US News and World Report has significantly changed its methodology for reporting employment outcomes, largely in response to the ABA’s requirement of increased transparency with respect to employment outcomes data.

To understand the extent to which the ABA’s mandate for increased transparency in reporting of employment outcomes data has mattered, one need only compare aggregated employment outcomes data as reported by NALP and USNews for the Class of 2004 and the Class of 2014 (five years before and five years after the Great Recession).  As shown below, the ABA’s requirement for greater transparency in reporting of employment outcomes data has resulted in public dissemination of much more realistic understandings of employment outcomes of law graduates. 

Table 1 shows the comparison of reported employment outcomes for the class of 2004 and for the class of 2014 as presented by NALP (reporting data on all graduates with reported employment outcomes) and by USNews (reporting the average of employment outcomes for the top 100 law schools in each year).

TABLE 1 – Class of 2004 and Class of 2014 Employment Outcomes Percentages as Reported by NALP (All Graduates with Reported Employment Outcomes) and USNews (Avg. of Top-100 Law Schools)

	Class of 2004	Class of 2014	Change 2004 to 2014
NALP	88.9	86.7	-2.2
USNews (Avg. of Top-100 Law Schools)	95.8	74.7	-21.1
Difference	+6.9	-12

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2019 Transfer Data Show Continued Decline In Number And Percentage Of Transfers

This blog posting updates my blog postings of December 2014, December 2015, March 2017, December 2017 and December 2018 regarding what we know about the transfer market. With the ABA’s posting of the 2019 Standard 509 Reports, we now have six years (2014-2019) of more detailed transfer data from which to glean insights about the transfer market among law schools.

NUMBERS AND PERCENTAGES OF TRANSFERS SHOW CONTINUING DECLINE SINCE 2013

As shown in Table 1 below, the number of transfers decreased to 1294 (3.3%), continuing a steady decline since a peak of 2,501 (5.8%) in 2013. It is also the lowest number and percentage of transfers we have seen since at least 2011.

For the last several years, the transfer market has been shrinking, having declined from 5.8% in 2013, to 5.2% in 2015, to 4.8% in 2017, to 4.0% in 2018, and now down to 3.4% in 2019.

Table 1 – Number of Transfers and Percentage of Transfers from 2011-2019

	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
Number of Transfers	2495	2438	2501	2187	1979	1749	1797	1494	1294
Previous Year First Year Enrollment	52,000	47,600	43,200	39,800	38,000	37,100	37,100	37,300	38,390
% of Previous First-Year Total	4.8%	5.1%	5.8%	5.5%	5.2%	4.7%	4.8%	4.0%	3.4%

While it is hard to know for sure what might be causing this decline in transfers over the last several years, I believe the most likely explanation for the continuing decline in transfers over the last several years is the corresponding decline in law schools with conditional scholarship programs.  As I noted in a blog posting on conditional scholarship programs in January 2018, the number of law schools with conditional scholarship programs declined from 140 to 89 between 2011-12 and 2016-17.  As of the 2017-2018 academic year, there were only 77 law schools with conditional scholarships that were reduced or eliminated.  This decline in the number of law schools with conditional scholarship programs likely has reduced the number of rising second-year law students considering transferring.  In past years, it is likely that a reduced or eliminated conditional scholarship was a catalyst for some law students to consider transferring.  If they were going to have to pay more to continue their legal education because of a reduced or eliminated scholarship, they might as well consider transferring to a more highly ranked law school.  With the reduction in the number of law schools with conditional scholarship programs, however, this financial incentive to consider transferring has been diminished.

SOME LAW SCHOOLS CONTINUE TO DOMINATE THE TRANSFER MARKET

Table 2 lists the top 15 law schools participating in the transfer market in descending order in Summer 2016 (fall 2015 entering class), Summer 2017 (fall 2016 entering class), Summer 2018 (fall 2017 entering class), and Summer 2019 (fall 2018 entering class).

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July 2019 California Bar Exam Results For Out-Of-State Law Schools

Following up on yesterday's post on the July 2019 California Bar Exam results for in-state law schools: the state bar has <released comparable data for out-of-state law schools. Overall, 50.1% 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 lower rate (71.3%) than students from out-of state law schools (73.0%).

Out-of-state law schools with the highest pass rates:
Chicago: 100% (25 students took the exam)
Duke: 100% (16)
Michigan: 97.1% (34)
Harvard: 96.6% (88)
Penn: 96.5% (22)
NYU: 96.2% (26)
Virginia: 95.2% (21)
Columbia: 93.2% (44)
Yale: 91.2% (34)
Cornell: 86.7% (15)
Northwestern: 85.0% (20)
Georgetown: 80.9% (47)

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

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July 2019 California Bar Exam Results

The California State Bar has released school-by-school data on the July 2019 California Bar Exam.  Here are the results for first time test takers for the 21 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 (94%)	Stanford	1 (2)
2 (89%)	UC-Berkeley	2 (10)
3 (88%)	UCLA	3 (15)
4 (86%)	USC	4 (17)
5 (84%)	UC-Davis	6 (31)
6 (82%)	Pepperdine	7 (51)
7 (80.3%)	UC-Irvine	5 (23)
8 (79.9%)	Loyola-L.A.	8 (62)
9 (79%)	UC-Hastings	8 (62)
10 (75%)	San Diego	10 (86)
71%	Statewide Ave. (CA ABA-accredited)
11 (64%)	Santa Clara	11 (104)
12 (63%)	McGeorge	Rank Not Published
13 (60%)	Southwestern	Rank No Published
14 (59%)	Chapman	12 (132)
15 (58%)	Western State	Rank Not Published
16 (51%)	Cal-Western	Rank Not Published
17 (42%)	Golden Gate	Rank Not Published
18 (39.7%)	La Verne	Rank Not Published
19 (39.6%)	San Francisco	Rank Not Published
20 (22%)	Thomas Jefferson	Rank Not Published
21 (11%)	Whitier	Rank Not Published

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Top Law Schools: Business Law

Top Law Schools: Business Law, preLaw, Vol. 23, No. 2, Fall 2019, at 41:

preLaw magazine graded law schools based on the breadth of their curricular offerings. The scores were weighted as follows: 30% for a concentration, 24% for a clinic, 12% for a center, 12% for an externship, 9% for a journal, 8% for a student group, 5% for a certificate and added value for other offerings.

13 schools [got] an A+ in our roundup of Top Schools for Business Law. Many schools were honored for exceptional offerings in this area. Thirty-two schools earned an A grade, while another 41 earned an A-. That is more than any other specialty.

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July 2019 New York Bar Exam Results: Columbia #1

The July 2019 New York bar passage rates by law school are out. Here are the results for first time test takers for the 15 New York ABA-approved law schools, along with each school's U.S. News ranking (New York and overall).

Bar Pass Rank (Rate)	School	US News Rank NY (Overall)
1 (96.9%)	Columbia	1 (5)
2 (95.8%)	NYU	2 (6)
3 (93.8%)	Cornell	3 (13)
4 (91.0%)	Fordham	4 (39)
5 (88.9%)	St. John's	7 (77)
6 (87.7%)	Syracuse	8 (91)
7 (86.4%)	Cardozo	5 (52)
86.0%	Statewide Average
8 (81.5%)	Brooklyn	6 (71)
9 (78.5%)	New York Law School	13 (117)
10 (75.5%)	Albany	12 (115)
11 (74.8%)	CUNY	11 (108)
12 (73.4%)	Pace	14 (122)
13 (72.5%)	SUNY-Buffalo	10 (104)
14 (65.3%)	Hofstra	9 (100)
15 (63.4%)	Touro	15 (Tier 2)

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Top Law Schools: Tax Law

Following up on my previous post, 2020 U.S. News Tax Rankings (175 Law Schools):  Top Law Schools: Tax Law, preLaw, Vol. 23, No. 2, Fall 2019, at 44:

preLaw magazine graded law schools based on the breadth of their curricular offerings. The scores were weighted as follows: 30% for a concentration, 24% for a clinic, 12% for a center, 12% for an externship, 9% for a journal, 8% for a student group, 5% for a certificate and added value for other offerings.

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U.S. News Pulls Five College From Rankings For Misreporting Data

Robert Morse (Chief Data Strategist, U.S. News) & Eric Brooks (Senior Data Strategist, U.S. News), U.S. News Withdraws Five Schools' 2019 Best Online Rankings:

Five Institutions notified U.S. News they misreported data used to calculate their rankings for the 2019 edition of Best Online Programs. They are Western Colorado University (one program unranked), Missouri University of Science & Technology (one program), Auburn University (two programs), Ohio University (three programs) and the University of Dallas (one program). [See details here.]

The misreporting by each program resulted in their numerical ranks being higher than they otherwise would have been. Because of the discrepancies, U.S. News now lists these programs as "Unranked," meaning they no longer have numerical ranks. Each school's profile page has been updated with the Unranked status, and U.S. News deleted the incorrect data on their profiles. All rankings of other schools are unchanged.

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Crawford: SSRN And The (Arbitrary) Determination Of 'Scholarly' Merit

Bridget J. Crawford (Pace), SSRN and the (Arbitrary) Determination of 'Scholarly' Merit, 22 Green Bag 2d 201 (2019):

This article, published in the Green Bag, investigates and critiques SSRN’s (lack of clear) criteria for classification of material as a “scholarly paper” or “other paper.” In the former category appear to be “scholarly research papers,” bibliographies, briefs filed before some courts, some (but not all) teaching materials, and some (but not all) articles published in the Green Bag, for example. In the latter category are data tables, summary book reviews, opinion pieces, advocacy and satirical papers. “Other papers” are internet-searchable but are not displayed on the author’s SSRN page. Downloads of “other papers” are not included for purposes of SSRN’s various rankings.

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Chilton & Masur: What Should Law School Rankings Measure And How Should We Measure it — A Comment On Heald & Sichelman's Rankings

Adam S. Chilton (Chicago) & Jonathan S. Masur (Chicago), What Should Law School Rankings Measure and How Should We Measure it: A Comment on Heald & Sichelman's Rankings, 60 Jurimetrics J. ___ (2019) (reviewing Paul J. Heald (Illinois) & Ted M. Sichelman (San Diego), Ranking the Academic Impact of 100 American Law Schools, 60 Jurimetrics J. ___ (2019)):

There are obvious benefits to ranking academic departments based on objective measures of faculty research output. However, there are considerable difficulties associated with producing reliable and accurate rankings. In this short comment, we offer an evaluation of Heald & Sichelman's recent foray into the project of ranking law schools. Heald & Sichelman are to be commended for the transparency and rigor of their rankings effort. At the same time, it is important to note that their rankings involve a series of contestable discretionary choices and could give rise to potential counter-productive gaming by law schools seeking to improve their place in the rankings. In particular, Heald & Sichelman's system places a thumb on the scale on behalf of more senior faculty who publish in traditional law reviews and write in popular substantive areas like constitutional law.

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Sisk: Citations — 'A Valid, If Imperfect, Proxy For Faculty Scholarly Impact On A National Scale'

Gregory C. Sisk (St. Thomas-Minnesota), Measuring Law Faculty Scholarly Impact by Citations: Reliable and Valid for Collective Faculty Ranking, 60 Jurimetrics J. ___ (2019) (reviewing Paul J. Heald (Illinois) & Ted M. Sichelman (San Diego), Ranking the Academic Impact of 100 American Law Schools, 60 Jurimetrics J. ___ (2019)):

No single metric of faculty scholarly activity can fully capture every individual contribution. For that reason, evaluating a single professor’s scholarly work requires a nuanced, multifaceted, and individually focused assessment. However, for a contemporary sketch of the collective scholarly impact of a law school faculty, citation measurements in the legal literature are both reliable and valid.

The new Heald-Sichelman study of citations in the HeinOnline database confirms the reliability of the multiyear results of the Leiter-Sisk Scholarly Impact Ranking based on the Westlaw journals database. Despite using a different law journal database, counting citations differently, including pre-tenure faculty, and even adding download statistics into the mix, the Heald-Sichelman ranking correlates powerfully at 0.88 with the most recent Leiter-Sisk ranking. An objective citation measurement is time-sensitive and corresponds to informed awareness of law school faculty developments around the country. A citation-based ranking thus is a valid, if imperfect, proxy for faculty scholarly impact on a national scale.

With appropriate qualifications and necessary adjustments, a citation-based ranking should be considered in any evaluation of the overall quality of a law school faculty. For the U.S. News ranking of American law schools, an up-to-date, citation-based ranking would have considerable merit as an objective forward-directed control to the subjective past-looking academic reputation survey. ...

In an ideal world of infinitely elastic resources, the eternity of time, and omniscient observers, every individual law professor and every law school’s faculty would be fully known, sensitively understood, and thoroughly evaluated based on complete, detailed, and nuanced information. A dean or faculty committee conducting an annual evaluation of an individual faculty member may conduct a more focused individualized assessment. Similarly, a candidate for a faculty position at a particular law school may have the opportunity for a more targeted exploration of the scholarly culture and activity and arrive at a more specified assessment of that school’s progress as a scholarly community.

When comparing large numbers of law faculties across the country, however, a generalized assessment approach has considerable merit and the imperfections of a robust proxy for scholarly accomplishment will wash out at the macro level. That is no reason to be insensitive to flaws in a particular method or to resist adjustments that improve the accuracy and meaning of the results, even if at the margins. And honesty demands acknowledging the limitations of any single approach, allowing the reader to avoid ascribing perfect confidence.

With those qualifications in mind, a citation-based measurement of law faculty scholarly impact has proven to be a reliable method and should be recognized as a valid if imperfect proxy for faculty scholarly achievement. Citation ranking has established itself as a worthwhile factor in comparative assessment of law faculty scholarly impact.

• Paul J. Heald (Illinois) & Ted M. Sichelman (San Diego), Ranking the Academic Impact of 100 American Law Schools, 60 Jurimetrics J. 1 (2019)
• Gregory C. Sisk (St. Thomas), Measuring Law Faculty Scholarly Impact by Citations: Reliable and Valid for Collective Faculty Ranking, 60 Jurimetrics J. 41 (2019)
• Adam S. Chilton (Chicago) & Jonathan S. Masur (Chicago), What Should Law School Rankings Measure and How Should We Measure it: A Comment on Heald & Sichelman's Rankings, 60 Jurimetrics J. 61 (2019)
• Gregory N. Mandel (Temple), Measure for Measure: The Risks of Incorporating Citations Data into U.S. News Rankings, 60 Jurimetrics J. 69 (2019)
• Chris Guthrie (Vanderbilt), Toward A Mission-Based Ranking?, 60 Jurimetrics J. 75 (2019)

Heald & Sichelman: The Top 100 Law School Faculties In Citations (Hein) And Impact (SSRN Downloads)

Paul J. Heald (Illinois) & Ted M. Sichelman (San Diego), Ranking the Academic Impact of 100 American Law Schools, 60 Jurimetrics J. ___ (2019):

U.S. News & World Report and rankings-minded scholars have constructed several measures of faculty impact at U.S. law schools, but each has been limited in a variety of ways. For instance, the U.S. News “peer assessment” rankings rely on the qualitative opinions of a small group of professors and administrators and largely mirror the overall rankings (correlations of 0.96 in 2016). While the scholarly rankings improve upon U.S. News by using the quantitative measure of citation counts, they have relied on the Westlaw database, which has notable limitations. Additionally, these rankings have failed to capture the component of scholarly impact on the broader legal community. We overcome these limitations by offering citation-based rankings using the more comprehensive Hein database and impact rankings based on Social Science Research Network (SSRN) download counts, as well as a combination of the two metrics.

Notably, we find a high correlation with the previous scholarly rankings (about 0.88), but a significantly lower correlation with the U.S. News peer assessment rankings (about 0.63). Specifically, we find that many law schools in dense urban areas with large numbers of other law schools that are highly ranked in the U.S. News survey are underrated in the U.S. News peer assessment rankings relative to our faculty impact metrics. Given the relatively low correlation between our rankings and the U.S. News peer assessment rankings—and the fact the U.S. News peer assessment rankings largely track its overall rankings—we strongly support U.S. News’s plans to rank schools on the basis of citation counts and recommend that U.S. News adopt a quantitative-based metric as a faculty reputation component of its overall rankings. ...

Here, pursuant to our suggested weighting discussed earlier, we combine the SSRN and Hein scores equally. Because SSRN download counts are substantially higher than Hein citation counts, we determine the number of standard deviations (z-score) from each school’s score from the mean for that metric, then average the SSRN and Hein z-scores together for a final score.

Table 3. Ranking by SSRN Download and Hein Citation Metrics

Combined Ranking	School	Total SSRN Score	Hein Total Score	SSRN Z-score	Hein Z-score	Average Z-score
1	Yale	18,753	5223	2.56	5.25	3.91
2	Harvard	23,608	3856	3.60	3.53	3.56
3	Columbia	17,820	3075	2.36	2.55	2.45
4	Chicago	19,103	2414	2.64	1.71	2.17
5	Vanderbilt	21,124	1995	3.07	1.19	2.13
6	Penn	18,340	2364	2.47	1.65	2.06
7	NYU	12,569	3114	1.24	2.60	1.92
8	Stanford	11,336	2837	0.97	2.25	1.61
9	UC-Irvine	15,786	2027	1.93	1.23	1.58
10	Duke	12,194	2029	1.16	1.23	1.19
11	GW	14,037	1617	1.55	0.71	1.13
12	Northwestern	11,648	1939	1.04	1.12	1.08
13	Cornell	10,942	1970	0.89	1.15	1.02
14	UCLA	11,956	1782	1.11	0.92	1.01
15	G. Mason	15,120	1150	1.78	0.12	0.95
16	Georgetown	9906	1758	0.67	0.89	0.78
17	Virginia	9325	1702	0.54	0.82	0.68
18	UC-Berkeley	9781	1609	0.64	0.70	0.67
19	Michigan	10,305	1519	0.75	0.59	0.67
20	Minnesota	10,315	1462	0.75	0.52	0.63
21	St. Thomas	11,487	1155	1.00	0.13	0.57
22	Illinois	10,927	1159	0.88	0.13	0.51
23	Texas	6611	1873	-0.04	1.03	0.50
24	UC-Davis	10,805	1098	0.86	0.06	0.46
25	Arizona	9696	1058	0.62	0.01	0.31

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Princeton Review's Best 167 Law Schools (2020 Edition)

The Princeton Review has published the 2020 edition of The Best 167 Law Schools (press release) (FAQs) (methodology):

The ranking lists, reported in 14 categories, each name the top 10 law schools. The education services company tallied the lists based on its surveys of 19,000 students attending 167 law schools [an average of 114 per school] in the U.S., and of administrators at those schools. The Princeton Review's 80-question student survey for this project asked students to rate their law schools on dozens of topics and report on their school experiences. The survey of law school administrators, which numbered more than 200 questions, covered topics from academic offerings and admission requirements to data about currently enrolled students as well as graduates' employment. Six of the 14 ranking lists were tallied using both student and administrator-reported data, five solely from student data, and three solely from administrator data.

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. Duke
3. Chicago
4. Washington & Lee
5. Stanford
6. Notre Dame
7. Boston College
8. Boston University
9. Michigan
10. Northwestern

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).

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Clinical Legal Education Association Statement On The U.S. News Clinical Program Rankings

Statement on U.S. News and World Report Rankings for Clinical Programs:

The Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA) recognizes that many who receive U.S. News & World Report ballots in their capacity as clinical program directors find this ranking process uncomfortable. There are a number of problems with the ranking of clinical programs. First, it places us in competition with each other, when we as a group see ourselves in a shared struggle for social justice, equality, and improved legal education. Second, there are no articulated factors for ranking clinical programs, so the voting can be arbitrary to a degree. Third, some schools may unfairly suffer because they do not have the budget or the support of their administration to market their program or send their clinical faculty to annual conferences.

While we might wish the rankings did not exist or hope to solve the collective action problem that bedevils creative responses, the USNWR rankings have remained a feature of our collective landscape. So, since rankings presently exist, what can we do now as faculty who teach clinics?

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Society For Empirical Legal Studies Urges U.S. News To Use Google Scholar Rather Than HeinOnline In Scholarly Impact Rankings

Following up on my recent posts on the U.S. News Faculty Scholarly Impact Rankings (links below): Kevin Cope (Virginia) passed along this five page letter to Robert C. Morse (Chief Data Strategist, U.S. News & Woirld Report) from the Society for Empirical Legal Studies (SELS) Board of Directors (David S. Abrams (Pennsylvania), David Bjerk (Claremont McKenna College), Dawn Chutkow (Cornell), Christoph Engel (Max Planck), Michael Frakes (Duke), Andrew Green (Toronto), James Greiner (Harvard), Eric Helland (Claremont McKenna), James Hines (Michigan), Daniel Ho (Stanford), William Hubbard (Chicago), Daniel Krauss (Claremont McKenna College), Anthony Niblett (Toronto), J.J. Prescott (Michigan), Paige Skiba (Vanderbilt), Sonja Starr (Michigan), Eric Talley (Columbia), Albert Yoon (Toronto) & Kathryn Zeiler (Boston University)):

We write on behalf of the Society for Empirical Legal Studies (SELS) to express our concern about U.S. News’ plan to create a law school “scholarly impact” ranking based on HeinOnline data. We appreciate your willingness to consider input from the legal academic community, and particularly your May 2, 2019, statement that “neither the methodology nor the metrics for the proposed new rankings have been finalized.” We were further reassured to read that — contrary to other recent reports — you “do not have any current plans to incorporate scholarly impact rankings . . . in [your] Best Law Schools rankings.” We hope those plans do not change; for the reasons explained below, incorporating the HeinOnline data into Best Law Schools would introduce statistical biases that could do serious damage to U.S. legal education.

Although no ranking system is perfect, one strength of the existing ranking approach — as U.S. News officials themselves have argued — is that it provides several accurate metrics for consumers to evaluate for themselves. Unlike other indicators like graduation rate and bar-passage rate, however, HeinOnline’s current citation system does not appear to accurately capture what it represents to. HeinOnline’s metric would purportedly measure a faculty member’s “scholarly impact.” But the method suffers from a variety of systemic measurement flaws so significant that they undermine its validity as a measure of scholarly impact — and with it, the validity of any metric incorporating it. Making the HeinOnline data part of the Best Law Schools ranking would therefore deviate from your longstanding practice of offering readers accurate information.

HeinOnline’s present citation-measurement system has three principal problems: (1) it is biased against interdisciplinary legal scholarship; (2) it omits all book manuscripts and chapters; and (3) it systematically undervalues the academic contributions of junior scholars, which would inhibit law schools from recruiting diverse faculties. We elaborate on each of these problems below and suggest an alternative for measuring scholarly influence. ...

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July 2019 Pennsylvania Bar Exam: Pittsburgh #1

Here are the results of the July 2019 Pennsylvania Bar Exam for first-time test-takers by law school, along with each school's U.S. News ranking:

Bar Pass Rank (Rate)	School	US News Rank PA (Overall)
1 (91.4%)	Pittsburgh	6 (77)
2 (88.5%)	Penn State - Dickinson	4 (71)
3 (88.2%)	Pennsylvania	1 (1)
4 (87.9%)	Duquesne	8 (122)
5 (86.9%)	Villanova	4 (71)
6 (85.4%)	Temple	2 (48)
7 (81.8%)	Penn State - University Park	3 (64)
80.6%	Statewide Average
8 (78.5%)	Drexel	7 (100)
9 (66.7%)	Rutgers	(77)
10 (66.1%)	Widener - Pennsylvania	9 (Tier 2)
11 (63.2%)	Widener - Delaware	(Tier 2)