The Top 10 Law Schools In America: U.S. News And World Report List

For the twentieth year running, Yale University remains the best law school in the country, according to rankings released Tuesday by U.S. News and World Report.

As in 2011's list, Yale's law school is followed by those at Harvard, Stanford, Columbia and the University of Chicago. Although these schools have maintained their spots, others made some leaps -- the University of Maryland moved from 48th on the list to 42nd, and UC Davis from 28th to 23rd.

U.S. News and World Report considered 190 fully accredited institutions and rated the schools according to quality, selectivity, post-graduation placement and faculty resources. With the help of lawyers in each field, U.S. News also looked at the best schools in specific areas, like environmental and health law.

Below, see which schools topped the list of best law schools, and check out U.S. News for the full rankings, plus information on each school and more on methodology. Did your school make the cut? Let us know in the comments section.

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#1: Yale University

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Comments

[Sighedeffects]

04:01 PM on 04/26/2011

GO BEARS!

[jd2010]

11:54 PM on 03/25/2011

These ranking systems are outdated, useless and misleading.

[ChicanoBear]

01:07 AM on 03/22/2011

Berkeley! Now let's see about 90% of the time if you pay more for something its usually because of the quality. I never made it through law school but The classes are usually harder at schools with high standards. State versus university school. Take it from me, I've been to a state college amd university. Big difference in the toughness of the class. Definitely made me think much more. Not to say small schools aren't great, they just produce less successful lawyers. My opinion

[skullman]

03:13 PM on 03/20/2011

No Brooklyn Academy Of Law?

[atexasdem]

02:51 AM on 03/17/2011

I find the rankings ironic. In Texas the friends and relationships built in collage last a lifetime. If you look at a "who's who" in Texas politics and industry and where they went to collage you'll see it's almost all either UT or Texas A&M.

[ohhayyyy]

12:16 PM on 03/17/2011

you can't spell, don't know what "ironic" means, and appear to believe texas matters.

[Kellybelle22]

03:47 PM on 03/17/2011

I'm a Texan, and that's certainly true. But can you help me understand how your comment relates to a ranking of U.S. law schools?

[skraeling]

01:47 AM on 03/16/2011

There is no such thing as a "good" law school. There are colleges that excel in churning out sociaL PARASITES......We should close the cesspools and open med schools...

[longhorn20twelve]

01:39 AM on 03/19/2011

calm down, chief.

[Maderous]

01:23 AM on 03/16/2011

Peer ranking is a factor in these school rankings. That being said, Princeton Law School is often ranked in the top five when judges and lawyers are asked to rank the best schools in the country. The problem with that is that Princeton doesn't have a law school. There could be better schools out there, but we would never know because prestige is everything with these rankings. Once a good school always a good school....right?

[jackstpaul]

03:31 AM on 03/16/2011

I've never seen a ranking showing Princeton. Examples?

[exmate]

06:28 AM on 03/16/2011

Does Princeton have a law school?

[Maderous]

08:50 PM on 03/16/2011

Did you read my whole post? I said they dont have a law school, yet they are ranked in the top five because people rank on name reputation vs facts. It was kind'a the whole point.

[grod805]

09:53 PM on 03/15/2011

What's going on at Berkeley?

So low

[Mahi Joe]

09:30 PM on 03/15/2011

Wait! This can't be right. How come Liberty is not at the top of the list?

[Michael Rappaport]

11:49 PM on 03/15/2011

What about Regent University?

[skraeling]

01:47 AM on 03/16/2011

BYU

[Marvin Hadley Jr]

08:38 PM on 03/15/2011

The usual hooey, eh? Someone told me today that Amer. U L.S. was in the top twenty, and I knew that was a crock. Maybe the top 500, eh?

[Marvin Hadley Jr]

09:47 PM on 03/15/2011

I meant 50, but that may be unrealistic.

[Geelee]

05:14 PM on 03/15/2011

And yet, the most reviled family of lawyers in America, who recently won their free speech case in front of the United States Supreme Court with an 8-1 ruling (which would have been 9-0 for want of Alito's ideological vote), were all graduates fo Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kansas. In fact, that law school is what got that Meridian, Mississippi native in Kansas in the first place. Unfortunately for all of us who hold degrees from Washburn, How did we know way back then that this pro integration lawyer of the 1960's would turn into a paranoid religious bigot a few short years later. ( I strongly suspect that he had an onset of paranoid disorder and possible schizophrenia hit more toward the ends of usual time frame.) That said, obviously he and his daughter who fought the case, learned a great deal about the law at Washburn. I would like to see the whole list and find out where Washburn is on the list. I do not think any university far from a big city would ever get rated really high just because recruiters don't notice them. The major ones on the list are closer to the powers of business and government, so naturally their profs and grads get more notice and once that takes place, success breeds success.

[scruffyandspunky]

04:25 PM on 03/15/2011

I was "smart" enough to be admitted to law school at The University of Chicago, but so dumb I didn't realize it was the most conservative, socially deprived of the top five! And yes, Barack Obama was teaching there at the time. He was always a very cool guy, but after taking Con Law 1, I couldn't deal with the 9 black robes and their bullshit (to me) decisions - no more Constitutional Law for me. I swear that the professors sort of floated down the hall like big, disembodied skulls (Cass Sunstein, Richard Epstein, Larry Lessig, etc., etc.). Favorite moment: watching my white male classmates being absolutely pulverized by the demure, soft-spoken killer, Catherine McKinnon. I survived by making friends with all of the foreign LLM's that I could find to talk to; drinking heavily every Friday during our little social hour; sitting in front of the class and daring the professors to call on me (after a while, most stopped - even The Hammer); and pretending with the other Law School Dems that we were a valiant band of rebels out to overthrow the Evil Empire of Law and Economics! Ha! A good time? No...no way. A worthwhile time? Sort of.....but I sure wish I could turn in my gently-used degree for a big write-down on my student loans. For ALL of you thinking of law school as a way to turn your lives around:THINK AGAIN!

[MsLiz]

06:00 PM on 03/15/2011

Fanned and faved by a JD from the University of Alabama.

[Marvin Hadley Jr]

08:39 PM on 03/15/2011

You should get a job in a laundry, and jump in the dryer, eh?

[cvbnm67]

03:56 PM on 03/15/2011

How many of those Ivy League graduates were responsible for the financial collapse. I am sure there were plenty of lawyers making sure nobody went to jail after robbing the banks.

[Geelee]

05:39 PM on 03/15/2011

And I can assure you there are many working in Wichita, Kansas right now for the Koch brothers. I know the mother in law of one. They are there to fight every tax, lower every fine when they get caught polluting and they live VERY, VERY well. Perhaps even better than if they had jobs in NYC or DC. (Of course, they do have lawyers in both those places, too.) And their kids go to the exclusive private school the Koch and other wealthy families founded in the 60's.

[Marvin Hadley Jr]

08:41 PM on 03/15/2011

the miscreants were from a diverse list of law schools and colleges and biz schools. the bankers who made all the liars loans to people who should never have gotten them probably were not college grads or went to JCs. what was your role in the financial crisis, eh?

[mmsuki]

03:26 PM on 03/15/2011

I recommend a fine film from the '60s dealing with law students at Harvard : The Paper Chase.

[jackstpaul]

03:34 AM on 03/16/2011

70's. 1973, I think. Just saw it again recently.

[sleeperd]

03:19 PM on 03/15/2011

"America's Best Law Schools.." is an oxymoron.

[DONKEYDONE]

10:54 PM on 03/15/2011

In what way?