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#2016 U. S. News Law School Ranking: the Highlights - Law Blog

U.S. News World Report

U.S. News World Report has just released  the latest edition of its ranking of America s best law schools. For the most part, institutions that have dominated the list for years still rule, but other schools lost or gained substantial ground. One reason is a new scoring methodology that punishes schools for employing their own graduates.

The validity of U.S. News s rankings has long been a source of contention among legal educators, but few deny its influence  with prospective students. And at a time when demand for law degrees is at a historic low, the pressure on law schools to place high—or at least hold steady—is arguably more intense. Here are highlights

from the magazine’s 2016 ranking:

• Little shake-up among the elite. Once again, Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Columbia and the University of Chicago occupy the top five spots. Apart from Stanford moving up a spot to tie for second with Harvard, the top five mirrors last year s order.

• School-funded jobs count less. This year, U.S. News is giving law schools less credit for employing their own new graduates, writes Robert Morse, director of data research at the magazine. Under the new methodology, he says, law schools with large percentages of graduates who hold jobs funded by the law school or university typically will rank lower than they would have if those jobs had been at law firms or in government. School-funded jobs no longer get full weight even if they re positions that require bar passage.

William Mary was among the schools that fared worse under the adjusted methodology, Mr. Morse told Law Blog. The school came in 29th place this year, five spots below last year. A spokesperson for William Mary had no immediate comment.

• UC Irvine Law debuts at 30. University of California s Irvine School of Law opened its doors in 2009, but this is the first time it was eligible to be ranked. The school was granted full accreditation by the American Bar Association in June. So how did it do? Not too shabby. It placed 30th, just behind William Mary and a spot ahead of its sister public school, University of California-Davis.

• Biggest movers. Schools that suffered a steep decline include Wake Forest, which dropped from 47th to 31st. After jumping up 13 spots last year, Pennsylvania State University Dickinson School of Law fell back 20 spots to 71st place.

We continue to give our students a superb legal education. Since 2013, we have implemented important changes to help our graduates find employment and we are already seeing positive results, James Houck. interim dean of Penn State Law, said in an emailed statement Monday evening.

Wake Forest s interim dean, Suzanne Reynolds. said she was disappointed with her school s showing, but said a student of [the U.S. News] rankings knows that they are a reflection of the current topsy-turvy world of legal education.

As for the gainers, St. John s University Law School in New York City gained 25 spots to come in 82nd. Syracuse University went from 107th to 87th. University of Tennessee–Knoxville also jumped 20 spots, moving from 72nd to 52nd, in a tie with University of Richmond. University of Hawaii-Manoa came in 82nd place, moving up 18 spots. University of Nevada-Las Vegas was ranked 67th this year, up from 83rd.

Here are the top 25 law schools as ranked by U.S. News (+/- indicates change in placement from last year s ranking):

1. Yale University

2. Harvard University

2. Stanford University (+1)

4. Columbia University

4. University of Chicago

6. New York University

7. University of Pennsylvania

8. University of California–Berkeley (+1)

14. Georgetown University (-1)