Bradley A. Areheart (Tennessee), The Top 100 Law Reviews: A Reference Guide Based on Historical USNWR Data:

The best proxy for how other law professors react and respond to publishing in main, or flagship, law reviews is the US News and World Report (USNWR) rankings. This paper utilizes historical USNWR data to rank the top 100 law reviews. The USNWR rankings are important in shaping many – if not most – law professors’ perceptions about the relative strength of a law school (and derivatively, the home law review). This document contains a chart that is sorted by the 10-year rolling average for each school, but it also contains the 5-year and 15-year rolling averages. This paper also describes my methodology and responds to a series of frequently asked questions. The document was last updated February 28, 2026.

5-Year Average U.S. News Law School Rankings

1.0 Yale
1.4 Stanford
3.2 Chicago
4.4 Harvard
5.0 Penn
6.4 Virginia
6.8 Columbia
7.0 NYU
7.2 Duke
9.4 Michigan
10.6 UC-Berkeley
10.8 Northwestern
13.6 UCLA
14.0 Cornell
14.4 Georgetown
15.8 Texas
16.4 Vanderbilt
16.4 Washington University
19.0 Minnesota
20.2 USC
21.4 North Carolina
22.0 Boston University
22.8 Notre Damw
23.6 Georgia
26.0 BYU
26.0 Florida
29.2 Ohio State
29.6 Boston College
29.8 Alabama
30.2 Wake Forest
31.8 George Washington
32.4 George Mason
32.8 Iowa
33.6 Arizona State
34.2 Utah
34.4 Fordham
34.8 Emory
35.2 Texas A&M
35.2 Wisconsin
35.4 William & Mary
35.8 Washington & Lee
37.4 UC-Irvine
38.2 Illinois
43.8 Indiana
47.4 Florida State
47.4 UC-Davis
48.0 SMU
48.2 University of Washington
49.4 Colorado
50.0 Pepperdine

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