Which law schools will top the US News rankings? Here are three predictions
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U.S. News & World Report hasn’t yet released its latest law school rankings, but that hasn’t stopped some observers from making predictions based on ABA data.
Yale and Stanford law schools likely will top the list when U.S. News releases its 2024-25 rankings, possibly as early as this month, according to two law professors and a law school admissions consulting firm.
But they differ on which one will be No. 1.
Pepperdine University School of Law Dean Paul Caron consolidates the predictions at TaxProf Blog.
Yale Law School is No. 1 on Caron’s list, while Stanford Law School has the top spot on lists by Spivey Consulting and Notre Dame Law School professor Derek T. Muller.
All three predictions agreed the University of Chicago and University of Virginia law schools would rank No. 3 and 4 respectively. Caron ranks the University of Pennsylvania’s law school at No. 5, while Spivey puts it in a tie for fourth place and Muller puts it in a tie for sixth place.
The three disagreed on all of the other top 14 rankings, except for the University of California at Los Angeles and Georgetown University.
Here are the likely top 14 law schools, according to Caron’s analysis:
1) Yale University
2) Stanford University
3) University of Chicago
4) University of Virginia
5) University of Pennsylvania
6) Harvard University
7) Duke University
8) Columbia University
9) University of Michigan
10) New York University
11) Northwestern University
12) University of California at Berkeley
13) University of California at Los Angeles
14) Georgetown University
After many law schools refused to provide data to U.S. News, the publication began relying mostly on law school data from the American Bar Association, Spivey Consulting explains. Last year, ABA data on admissions, student outcomes and resources accounted for 75% of the rankings, Caron says.
Caron calculated his projected ratings based on ABA data and last year’s methodology.
