// Back in 2011, Cooley Law School commissioned a law school ranking that placed the school second overall, just a shade behind Harvard. That ranking is positively scientific compared to the results of our annual bracket tournament.

To recap, a bunch of law schools have bailed on U.S. News and World Report, refusing to provide key data that the publication uses in its rankings. There are a lot of reasons to criticize USNWR — and we’ve leveled all of those criticisms repeatedly — but at least it’s trying to put out a data-driven assessment. Without law school participation, the next round of rankings will lean on public perception and guesstimation, which is a terrible way to run an industry.

googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-top-300x250" ); });

So we had readers vote for the top law school in a bracket format to performatively demonstrate how stupid a vibe-based ranking can be. While the USNWR rankings will most likely parrot past results (though some models suggest important shuffling among the elite schools) and pass everyone’s vague smell test, in reality they don’t shine much more light on the law school decision-making process than this competition.

Sponsored The Global Legal News You Need, When You Need It News and analysis from this company could be a game-changer for legal professionals working globally. From Ethan Beberness  

With almost 25 million bot-driven votes, ASS Law has won.

googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-middle-300x250" ); }); googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-storycontent-440x100" ); }); googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-in-story-youtube-1x1" ); });

This means we can now create the definitive ordering based on tournament performance with ties broken by preliminary seeding.

(1) ASS Law
(2) Penn
(3) Northwestern
(4) Texas
(5) Harvard
(6) NYU
(7) Berkeley
(8) Georgetown
(9) Stanford
(10) Chicago
(11) Columbia
(12) UVA
(13) Michigan
(14) Duke
(15) Cornell
(16) Wash U.
(17) Yale
(18) UCLA
(19) Boston
(20) Vanderbilt
(21) USC
(22) Florida
(23) Minnesota
(24) BYU
(25) UNC
(26) GWU 25
(27) Alabama
(28) Notre Dame
(29) Iowa
(30) Georgia
(31) William & Mary
(32) ASU

Sponsored Sponsored Introducing Filevine’s 2023 Customer Benchmark Report Explore new data on how modern law firms are managing their work. From Filevine and Above The Law   Sponsored Making History With Shepard’s Citations From Ethan Beberness   Sponsored The Global Legal News You Need, When You Need It News and analysis from this company could be a game-changer for legal professionals working globally. From Ethan Beberness   Sponsored Making History With Shepard’s Citations From Ethan Beberness  

Congratulations. May God have mercy on your souls.

Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-bottom-300x250" ); }); Sponsored Sponsored You, Too, Can ‘Recession Proof’ Your Firm. Here’s How. With today’s practice management tech, it’s easier than you think. Download our free Practice Management Buyer’s Guide here. From Above the Law   Sponsored Navigating Economic Uncertainty: 6 Tips To Keep Your Investments On Track How you can get through current challenges while advancing long-term goals. From Trion Properties   Topics

Law Schools, Legal Madness, March Madness, U.S. News Law School Rankings