Following up on my prior post on law school moot court rankings: here are the updated 2008 Top 25 rankings from Brian Koppen’s Law School Advocacy site:
Moot Court (72 schools ranked):
- 1. South Texas
- 2. Georgetown
- 3. Washington University
- 4. Mississippi College
- 5. UC-Hastings
- 6. Seton Hall
- 7. Denver
- 8. Texas-Wesleyan
- 9. Regent
- 10. Southwestern
- 11. Detroit Mercy
- 12. Georgia
- UC-Davis
- 14. Brooklyn
- 15. Lewis & Clark
- 16. Hawaii
- Michigan State
- 18. Campbell
- Wisconsin
- 20. Columbia
- George Washington
- Marquette
- 23. Houston
- Northern Kentucky
Trial Advocacy (38 schools ranked):
- 1. Faulkner
- 2. Samford
- 3. South Texas
- Wake Forest
- 5. Chicago-Kent
- Suffolk
- 7. Barry
- 8. Quinnipiac
- Syracuse
- 10. Georgia
- 11. Temple
- 12. St. John’s
- 13. Akron
- Stetson
- UC-Berkeley
- 16. Richmond
- 17. New Mexico
- 18. Campbell
- 19. Florida Coastal
- Loyola-L.A.
- Pepperdine
- Washington University
- 23. Buffalo
- 24. Baylor
- Drake
- Florida International
- Loyola-Chicago
- North Carolina
- Thomas Cooley
- Tulane
- UCLA
Robert T. Sherwin (Texas Tech) today published a detailed, seven-part critique of these rankings on The Bench Brief:
- You can’t accurately rank an advocacy program solely on team results in national competitions
- You can’t give equal weight to, for lack of a better term, “unequal” competitions
- The rankings ignore regional champions and runners up at the National Moot Court Competition
- He refuses to acknowledge success at invitational or state-level competitions
- Why rank according to the calendar year and not the academic year?
- Koppen refuses to consider brief and advocate awards. Why?
- The rankings system really favors quantity, and not necessarily quality.
(Hat Tip: Bryan Camp.)
