Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
Law School Rankings
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Projected 2027-28 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Ultimate Bar Passage Rate
In the current 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings Methodology, ultimate bar passage counts 7% in the overall ranking: Ultimate bar passage rate (7%): While passing the bar on the first try is optimal, passing eventually is critical. Underscoring this is the ABA’s accreditation standard that at least 75% of a law school’s test-taking graduates…
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Projected 2027-28 U.S. News Law School Rankings: First-Time Bar Passage
In the current 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings Methodology, first-time bar passage counts 18% in the overall ranking: Bar passage rate for first-time test-takers (18%): U.S. News used its treatment of bar passage rates to incorporate all graduates who took the bar for the first time, not just those from the state with the most…
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Projected 2027-28 U.S. News Law School Rankings: 10-Month Employment Rate
In the current 2026-27 methodology, employment counts 33% in the overall ranking: Outcomes 10 months after graduation (weighted 33%): This measures the extent to which graduates obtain the most in-demand jobs – namely those that are long term, full time and requiring (or taking advantage of) bar passage. Graduates with full-time, long-term, school-funded fellowships earned…
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Law School Rankings: Bar Passage
Following up on my previous posts: This post ranks law schools based on the combined First-Time Bar Passage and Ultimate Bar Passage for the most recent data, using the weighting in the current U.S. News methodology: First-Time Bar Passage Rate (Class of 2025): 18%, and Ultimate Bar Passage Rate (Class of 2023): 7%: School First-Time Bar Passage…
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Law School Rankings: Ultimate Bar Passage Rate (Class of 2023)
Following up on my previous post, Law School Rankings By First-Time Bar Passage Rate (2025): here is the ranking of law schools based on Graduation Year 2023 Ultimate Bar Pass Data from the ABA’s spreadsheet. The Ultimate Bar Pass rate includes all 2023 graduates who sat for a bar exam and passed it within two…
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Law School Rankings: First-Time Bar Passage Rate (Class of 2025)
Following up on last Sunday’s post, Law School Rankings: 10-Month Employment Rate (Class of 2025): Here is the ranking of law schools in the Calendar Year 2025 First-Time Takers Bar Pass Data from the ABA’s spreadsheet. The ranking uses an adjusted pass rate that is the sum of the school pass rate (including alternative pathways)…
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Law School Rankings: 10-Month Employment Rate (Class of 2025)
Here is the ranking of schools in the 10-Month Employment Data for the Class of 2025 from the ABA’s spreadsheet, based on the current U.S. News methodology for “maximum credit” jobs: “Outcomes 10 months after graduation (weighted 33%): This measures the extent to which graduates obtain the most in-demand jobs — namely those that are long…
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2026 Top 50 Go-To Law Schools: Big Law
Law.com has their annual listing of the Top 50 “Go-To” Law Schools: Big Law. As described on the website: “Big Law report ranks the top 50 law schools by percentage of 2025 juris doctor graduates who took associate positions at the largest 200 firms as identified in The National Law Journal’s annual survey of the…
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2026-27 U.S. News Omnibus Specialty Rankings v. Overall Rankings
Following up on yesterday’s post, 2026-27 U.S. News Omnibus Specialty Rankings: Here are the law schools whose U.S. News Omnibus Specialty Ranking most exceeds their overall U.S. News Ranking: School Specialty Rank Overall Rank Difference 1 American 33 108 +75 2 Santa Clara 77 150 +73 3 Illinois-Chicago 108 167 +59 4 Suffolk 71 128…
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2026-27 U.S. News Omnibus Specialty Rankings
The new 2026-27 U.S. News Specialty Rankings include the rankings for 13 specialty programs at 195 law schools. Here are the Top 100 law schools, determined by giving equal weight to each of the 13 separate specialty rankings: School 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Avg. 1 Georgetown*…
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Law Schools That Boycotted The U.S. News Rankings
2023-2024 (Rank) 2024-2025 (Rank) 2025-2026 (Rank) 2026-2027 (Rank) Stanford (1) Stanford (1) Stanford (1) Stanford (1) Yale (1) Yale (1) Yale (1) Yale (2) Virginia (8) Virginia (4) Virginia (4) Virginia (4) Penn (4) Penn (4) Penn (5) Penn (4) Duke (5) Duke (4) Duke (6) Duke (7) Harvard (5) Harvard (4) Harvard (6) Harvard…
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“Dean’s List”: a Novel
Michael Orey (NYU Law Public Affairs Director and Adjunct Professor) has published a novel about legal academia, titled “Dean’s List.” A description, from amazon.com:
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2026-27 U.S. News Trial Advocacy Rankings
The new 2026-27 U.S. News Trial Advocacy Rankings include the trial advocacy programs at 195 law schools (the faculty survey had a 52% response rate). Here are the Top 50: Rank School 1 Stetson 2 Temple 3 Baylor 4 UCLA 5 Fordham 6 Mercer 6 South Texas 6 UC-Berkeley 9 Denver 9 Samford 9 Syracuse…
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2026-27 U.S. News Legal Writing Rankings
The new 2026-27 U.S. News Legal Writing Rankings include the legal writing programs at 109 law schools (the faculty survey had a 63% response rate). Here are the Top 50: Rank School 1 Arizona State 1 Oregon 1 Stetson 1 UNLV 5 Suffolk 6 UC-Irvine 7 Wake Forest 8 Rutgers 8 Seattle 8 University of…
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2026-27 U.S. News International Law Rankings
The new 2026-27 U.S. News International Law Rankings include the international law programs at 195 law schools (the faculty survey had a 48% response rate). Here are the Top 50: Rank School 1 NYU 2 Georgetown 2 Harvard 4 American 4 Columbia 4 UC-Berkeley 4 Yale 8 Michigan 8 Virginia 10 UCLA 11 Case Western…
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2026-27 U.S. News Intellectual Property Law Rankings
The new 2026-27 U.S. News Intellectual Property Law Rankings include the intellectual property law programs at 194 law schools (the faculty survey had a 49% response rate). Here are the Top 50: Rank School 1 Stanford 1 UC-Berkeley 3 NYU 4 Santa Clara 5 George Washington 6 American 7 Columbia 7 Chicago-Kent 7 Houston 7…
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2026-27 U.S. News Health Care Law Rankings
The new 2026-27 U.S. News Health Care Law Rankings include the health care law programs at 191 law schools (the faculty survey had a 50% response rate). Here are the Top 50: Rank School 1 St. Louis 2 Boston University 2 Georgia State 4 Harvard 4 Loyola-Chicago 6 Georgetown 6 Maryland 8 Stanford 9 Houston…
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2026-27 U.S. News Environmental Law Rankings
The new 2026-27 U.S. News Environmental Law Rankings include the environmental law programs at 189 law schools (the faculty survey had a 52% response rate). Here are the Top 50: Rank School 1 Pace 2 Lewis & Clark 2 UC-Berkeley 4 UCLA 5 Harvard 5 Vermont 7 Colorado 8 Columbia 8 NYU 8 Oregon 8…
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Best Law Schools for Practical Training (2026)
National Jurist has updated their annual Best Schools for Practical Training Honor Roll. You can find the 2025 list from a post earlier this year. The new list, which was released April 9th, explains the methodology: To determine our Best Schools for Practical Training Honor Roll, we looked at the number of students each school…
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Rankings: Graduate Employment in Bar Required (FT, LT) Jobs
While attention has been devoted to USNWR’s annual rankings, Internet Legal Research Group has released its 2026 Law School rankings that allow you to sort and rank law schools using ABA data. You can also “build your own rankings.” Here, for example, are the top 30 schools listed by “percentage of graduates in long-term, full-time…
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2026-27 U.S. News Dispute Resolution Rankings
The new 2026-27 U.S. News Dispute Resolution Rankings include the dispute resolution programs at 149 law schools (the faculty survey had a 53% response rate). Here are the Top 50: Rank School 1 Ohio State 2 Harvard 3 Pepperdine 4 Cardozo 5 Missouri-Columbia 5 Texas A&M 7 Mitchell | Hamline 8 Maryland 8 Northwestern 8…
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2026-27 U.S. News Criminal Law Rankings
The new 2026-27 U.S. News Criminal Law Rankings include the criminal law programs at 195 law schools (the faculty survey had a 53% response rate). Here are the Top 50: Rank School 1 NYU 1 Stanford 3 Harvard 3 UC-Berkeley 5 Michigan 5 Virginia 7 Penn 7 Vanderbilt 9 Chicago 9 Columbia 9 Duke 9…
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The T11 Has Replaced the T14 in the U.S. News Law School Rankings
Stuart Benjamin (Duke), The US News T14 Is Dead, and Has Been Replaced by the T11 (or, if You Prefer, the T10 with 11 Members): To state the obvious, many people put a lot of weight (far too much weight, in my view) on the US News law school rankings. Good evidence of this is…
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2026-27 U.S. News Contracts/Commercial Law Rankings
The new 2026-27 U.S. News Contracts/Commercial Law Rankings include the contracts/commercial law programs at 195 law schools (the faculty survey had a 47% response rate). Here are the Top 50: Rank School 1 Chicago 1 Harvard 1 Stanford 4 Columbia 4 NYU 6 Penn 6 Yale 8 Cornell 8 Michigan 8 Virginia 11 Duke 11…
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2026-27 U.S. News Constitutional Law Rankings
The new 2026-27 U.S. News Constitutional Law Rankings include the constitutional law programs at 195 law schools (the faculty survey had a 49% response rate). Here are the Top 50: Rank School 1 Yale 2 Chicago 2 Harvard 2 Stanford 5 Columbia 5 Michigan 5 NYU 8 Georgetown 8 UC-Berkeley 8 Virginia 11 Penn 12…