US News' law school rankings are out, with fewer big moves

Yale and Stanford have retained their shared perch atop U.S. News & World Report's influential law school rankings, released on Tuesday.

The University of Chicago Law School and the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School also held on to their No. 3 and 4 positions from last year, in a rankings cycle that saw relatively few changes among the so-called T-14 schools but significant movement further down the list.

The biggest moves at the top were the University of Virginia School of Law’s four-spot gain to tie Penn and Harvard Law School at No. 4, and New York University School of Law’s drop four positions to tie Northwestern and Michigan at No. 9. An NYU Law spokesperson declined to comment Tuesday.

Georgetown moved back to its longstanding No. 14 spot after getting bumped out of the T-14 on last year’s list.

This marks U.S. News’ second law school ranking following a major methodology overhaul in 2023, after nearly a third of law schools declined to provide U.S. News with any internal data. Those schools said that the former rankings methodology hurt student diversity and affordability.

The methodology remained largely the same this year, with much of a school’s ranking based on its employment outcomes and bar passage rates and less weight on Law School Admission Test scores and undergraduate grade-point averages. Other factors include reputation scores from law school faculty, judges and practitioners.

U.S. News did modify the methodology to average employment and bar pass data over two years instead of one — a change that appeared to help reduce the volatility of the rankings. There were 33 double-digit moves either up or down the rankings this year. Last year, 62 law schools saw their ranks increase or decrease by 10 or more spots.

While the T-14 stayed largely the same outside of NYU and Virginia’s four-point moves this year, there were bigger changes further down the list. Washington University in St. Louis School of Law gained four spots to land at No. 16, while the University of Notre Dame Law School gained seven spots to No. 20. The College of William & Mary School of Law went from No. 45 last year to No. 36 this year.

Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law and Samford University Cumberland School of Law both had the latest gain on this year’s list, moving up 28 positions. Catholic is now No. 94, while Samford is No. 103.

Catholic law dean Stephen Payne said Tuesday that he expects the school’s ranking to rise even further next year based on its recent bar passage and employment rates.

The University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law had the largest drop this year, declining 37 spots to No. 136. In an interview Tuesday, Dean Melanie Jacobs attributed that to lower bar pass and employment rates for the Class of 2022, which graduated during the COVID-19 pandemic and amid leadership changes at the law school.

“To me, this ranking does not capture our institutional excellence,” Jacobs said.

Read more:

Revamped US News law school rankings yield major shifts

U.S. News law school rankings release date set, methodology changes expected