Brand New Ranking Switches Up The Top Law Schools In The Country

// We have some interesting news for all of the lawyers and law students twiddling their thumbs waiting for the release of the new and improved U.S. News law school rankings: there’s a new rankings game in town, and this one packs a punch where it really matters.

Law School Views & Rankings Report — an organization that has branded itself as “the new authority in U.S. legal education rankings” — recently touted its alternative law school rankings on Twitter, reminding viewers that all of the public data U.S. News plans to use for its soon-to-be released law school rankings is already available, while noting that “[t]he only thing USN will add is its ‘joke’ reputation scores.”

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So, what’s in the LSVRR methodology that makes it so special? It seems to be heavily weighted toward outcomes instead of entering student inputs (and we really like that, since outcomes are what matter in the Above the Law Top 50 Law School Rankings). Let’s check out the methodology:

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Yes, inputs like LSAT scores and GPAs are still included, but together, they’re weighted at 25%. Employment (including federal clerkships) and ultimate bar passage, however, account for 42.5% of the weight of this ranking, which is pretty significant. This ranking also pays attention to diversity and inclusion within the legal profession, giving a 5% weight to the number of a school’s graduates of color. (And with so much attention being paid to faculty and journal citations, components that account for a 20% total weight, we think this ranking must have been created by a law professor.)

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And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: the Top 14 law schools, as ranked by Law School Views & Rankings Report:

Yale

Chicago

Stanford

Harvard

Columbia

NYU

Duke

Penn

Virginia

Berkeley

Cornell

UCLA

Northwestern

Michigan

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It’s not at all shocking that the top schools in the country are still at the top in this new ranking, but we know some schools will be quite pleased with their placement here. Using this methodology, Chicago is in second place, Duke has ascended to No. 7, and UCLA has once again climbed into the T14. Georgetown is likely facing disappointment as it didn’t make the cut here — in fact, you’ll find the school at No. 17, edged further down the list by Texas and Vanderbilt.

Click here to see the full rankings from LSVRR, which list the top 150 law schools in the country.

These rankings are certainly worthy of taking a look at while we wait for U.S. News to make its move. In the meantime, check out the Above the Law Top 50 Law School Rankings for an even better outcome-based methodology.

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The Top 150 Law Schools in 2023 – New Rankings Unveiled [Law School Views & Rankings Report]

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Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

Topics

law school rankings, Law School Views & Rankings Report, Law Schools, Rankings