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June 2, 2010
There are numerous sources that can knowledgeably rank the “top” law schools. However, because law schools receive different rankings depending on the sources’ criteria, it can be difficult to understand which are the “best” schools. Therefore today we’d like to talk about how law school applicants can use rankings to discover the “best” schools—for them. Although the general merits of each school are important, we also believe that it is important for law school applicants to rank schools based on their individual needs and interests. Therefore we encourage students to use official law school rankings in the following ways:
1. Use rankings to create a consensus. Sources rarely have the exact same rankings as each other, and therefore trying to determine the . . . → Continue Reading
May 24, 2010
According to a May 20 post on Morse Code, the blog maintained by the US News and World Report’s director of data research Robert Morse, the influential rankings magazine is planning to change the way it determines law schools’ at-graduation employment figure. Morse attributes the need for the change to evidence that some law schools are manipulating the data to inflate the percentage of students who have secured employment by their graduation date in order to artificially boost their rank. The evidence came to light as a result of a May 12 post on TaxProf Blog, in which University of Cincinnati associate dean and professor of taxation Paul L. . . . → Continue Reading
April 19, 2010
In a special edition of the The National Law Journal, 40 lawyers, including three law school professors, have been named the decade’s most influential legal practitioners. These lawyers were selected based on their actions from January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2009, which improved the profession, an industry, or practice in 12 legal areas, including legal education. As David Brown, the editor in chief of the Journal said, “these are lawyers who defined a decade. In every case, they have built practices or promoted causes that have advanced the legal profession.” Over 100 lawyers were considered for the honor, with nominations provided by both the Journal’s staff and outside members of the legal . . . → Continue Reading
April 14, 2010
While the rankings were earlier leaked and subsequently made the law school blogosphere rounds — including here — the official U.S. News & World Report Law School Rankings were posted on the publication’s site late Wednesday.
The official rankings match the leaked version we reported before, as Yale Law School has retained the top position, followed by Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, U. Chicago, New York University, UC Berkeley, U. Pennsylvania, U. Michigan, U. Virginia, Duke, Northwestern, Cornell and Georgetown rounding out the coveted Top 14 spots. UCLA and . . . → Continue Reading
April 14, 2010
Though the hotly anticipated US News & World Report Best Law Schools rankings for 2010 won’t officially be released until tomorrow, a scan of what purportedly are the new rankings has been making the rounds in the law school space. First posted to Top-Law-Schools and subsequently carried by Above the Law and The Bright Coast, these rankings, if true, show some interesting movement, including among Top 14 schools. The (allegedly) new Top 14 are as follows:
1. Yale
2. Harvard
3. Stanford
4. Columbia
5. Chicago (moved up . . . → Continue Reading
April 13, 2010
In response to two recent blog posts questioning the methodology used in the publication’s law school rankings, U.S. News & World Report‘s director of data research defended the process and the accuracy of the results.
Writing in the “Morse Code” blog last Thursday, rankings developer Robert Morse posited an entry that wondered about the rankings’ law school reputation question and another that wondered if the methodology is too simple.
Morse said “U.S. News believes that using a five-point scale is appropriate for the level of knowledge that respondents at each law school have about other schools,” and that the publication’s use of one-decimal point data produces “a great deal of granularity . . . → Continue Reading
March 31, 2010
In an article in its March 2010 issue, The National Jurist has ranked the University of Iowa College of Law’s library as the nation’s top law library — besting 197 other competitors.
The article, “What Makes a Great Library,” and the rankings system use the most recent ABA data and consider the law libraries based on various differently-weighed categories, including the number of available volumes and titles, the school’s number of students per librarian and the library’s total hours open. The number of volumes and titles makes up 50 percent of the score, stressing the figure’s relative importance.
Behind Iowa Law in the top five are: Yale Law School, Indiana University-Bloomington Maurer . . . → Continue Reading
March 15, 2010
Offering a preview Friday of the soon-to-be-released full rankings, Brian Leiter’s Law School Reports has placed Yale Law School atop its 2010 study of “scholarly impact.”
Yale was followed in the rankings, which tabulate scholarly citations over a five year period, by Harvard Law School and the University of Chicago Law School in the top three. Rounding out the top ten are: Stanford, New York University, Columbia, U. California-Berkeley, Northwestern, U. California-Irvine and Vanderbilt.
The study’s methodology is based off of the number of citations from January 2005 to mid-January 2010, and is primarily restricted to tenured faculty, excluding, for example, judges who still teach periodically at . . . → Continue Reading
March 9, 2010
Responding to a somewhat accusatory study, the U.S. News & World Report’s Robert Morse downplayed the effect his publication’s law school rankings have on institutional diversity, addressing the criticism in a blog entry last week.
The study in question, put forth by two professors at the University of Iowa College of Law and Northwestern University School of Law, is entitled, “Rankings and Diversity” (PDF). It contends that rankings systems – with U.S. News at the forefront – place pressure on law schools to boost the measured statistics. “…Efforts to improve these (selectivity) statistics can threaten various forms of diversity,” the study says.
Morse responds to the study . . . → Continue Reading
February 22, 2010
Supplanting Columbia Law School in the annual “go-to” law school list, Northwestern University School of Law garnered top honors in a relatively down recruitment year.
The rankings, released Monday afternoon by The National Law Journal, detail the number of law school graduates placed as first-year associates at the nation’s largest 250 law firms in 2009.
Northwestern took the top slot by placing 55.9 percent of its 2009 graduates at BigLaw firms. Columbia, which ranked No. 1 in 2008 and 2007, was second in 2009. Stanford Law School, the University of Chicago Law School and the University of Virginia School of Law rounded out the top five, respectively. The top nine programs placed 50 percent or more of their graduates at BigLaw firms.
Overall, the . . . → Continue Reading
February 9, 2010
At its Midyear Meeting Monday, the American Bar Association (ABA) accepted Resolution 10A, which says that the ABA will study how organizations rank law schools.
The final tally passed by virtue of a narrow voice vote. Law firm rankings will also be studied as part of the resolution.
According to the ABA Journal, the measure “proved to be the most contentious of any resolution [the ABA] considered [Monday].” The ABA’s president, Carolyn Lamm, in fact asked her colleagues to table the resolution.
The vote was in part contentious because the decision to include the study of law school rankings was only added earlier Monday. The measure’s sponsor, the New York State Bar Association, also specifically . . . → Continue Reading
November 3, 2009
In a blog entry on Monday, Bob Morse, the director of data research for U.S. News & World Report, indicated that his publication is now measuring part-time J.D. law school programs using a “separate survey instrument” in advance of the 2011 iteration of America’s Best Graduate Schools.
The 2011 edition, which is slated for release in early spring 2010 and as recessionary concerns regarding law school tuition have recently been building, will mark the second year in which the publication offers rankings of part-time law degrees.
Also of note for law school aspirants, Morse pointed out that the full-time law school rankings will again offer separate analytical survey snapshots of clinical training, dispute resolution, . . . → Continue Reading
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If you'd like us to add your blog to the feed, simply send us an email. School News BlogsStraight from the source. The latest press releases and news items streaming from the leading schools.
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General Topic Blogs
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Above the Law
The popular self-described "legal tabloid."
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Wall Street Journal on the cases, trends and personalities of interest to the business community.
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