Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
Legal Ed News
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DEI in Law Schools: ABA, Deans, and Faculty
Wall Street Journal Editorial, How the ABA Spreads DEI in Law Schools: Diversity, equity and inclusion programs are supposed to be on their way out of higher education, but the American Bar Association doesn’t want to admit it. The lawyers’ guild is still mandating DEI standards that law schools must meet to be accredited. That’s…
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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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90% Through the Fall 2026 Law School Admissions Season: Applicants Are Up 10% From Last Year (32% From 2024)
We are now 90% of the way through Fall 2026 law school admissions season. The number of law school applicants reported by LSAC is up 10.3% compared to last year at this time. 170 of the 197 law schools are experiencing an increase in applications. Applications are up +20% or more at 85 law schools. Applicants are…
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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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Judges Jump the Gun Again
The Harvard Crimson reports that a group of conservative federal judges are once again wreaking havoc with the idea that clerkship hiring should be delayed until a fixed deadline. Judges for decades have attempted, abandoned and attempted again to set a date to level the playing field and bring order to the process for overworked…
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Who picks a Dean
This guest essay from the Louisville Courier Journal tells a story about what happened in March at the University of Kentucky Law School when, according to the author, the University leadership named a federal judge, Greg Van Tatenhoveas, dean over the express objection of a substantial majority of the law faculty. Of course, if accurately…
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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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Salkin & Rosenblum: “The Challenge to ABA Accreditation…”
A new article from Patricia Salkin and Gabrielle Rosenblum: “The Challenge to ABA Accreditation of Legal Education and Its Impact on Licensing of Lawyers.” While it was published in the New York State Bar Journal (Spring 2026) (pp. 16-20), you can find a copy on SSRN. From the article: A long-standing system of accreditation for…
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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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NCCU Names New Law Dean
Joseph Karl Grant, who is currently serving as interim dean at Capital University School of Law in Columbus, Ohio, will assume the role on July 1. Grant has been at Capital since 2008 and previously served as the associate dean for Administration and Finance prior to becoming interim dean at Capital.
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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…
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2026-27 U.S. News Clinical Training Rankings
The new 2026-27 U.S. News Clinical Training Rankings include the clinical training law programs at 185 law schools (the faculty survey had a 60% response rate). Here are the Top 50: Rank School 1 Georgetown 2 American 2 NYU 4 Baltimore 4 CUNY 4 Suffolk 4 Yale 8 Maryland 8 UC-Berkeley 8 Washington University 11…
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2026-27 U.S. News Business/Corporate Law Rankings
The new 2026-27 U.S. News Business/Corporate Law Rankings include the business/corporate law programs at 195 law schools (the faculty survey had a 47% response rate). Here are the Top 50: Rank School 1 Harvard 2 Columbia 2 NYU 2 Stanford 5 Penn 6 Chicago 7 UC-Berkeley 7 UCLA 9 Virginia 9 Yale 11 Duke 11…
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2026-27 U.S. News Tax Rankings
The new 2026-27 U.S. News Tax Rankings include the tax programs at 194 law schools (the faculty survey had a 52% response rate). Here are the Top 50: Rank School 1 NYU 2 Georgetown 3 Florida 3 Northwestern 5 Virginia 6 Michigan 7 Columbia 8 Boston College 8 Harvard 8 Loyola-L.A. 8 UC-Irvine 12 Chicago…
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Amicus Briefs Supporting Targeted Law Firms
Significant coverage last week of the many amicus briefs filed in support of law firms that successfully challenged the constitutionality of executive orders targeting law firms for their representations of clients and causes disfavored by the current federal administration (i.e., Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, Susman Godfrey, and WilmerHale). For examples, see Abigail Adcox, Few…
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“Worldwide Tally” of Legal Decisions Involving AI Hallucinations
Damien Charlotin, from Science Po Law School and HEC Paris, has “a database [that] tracks legal decisions in cases where generative AI produced hallucinated content – typically fake citations, but also other types of AI-generated arguments.” You can find the database at this link. The database was recently highlighted in a story by NPR. Last year…
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2026-27 U.S. News Law School Peer Reputation Rankings (And Overall Rankings)
Continuing a TaxProf Blog tradition, here is the full list of the 194 law schools ranked by academic peer reputation, as well as their overall rank, in the new 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings (methodology): Peer Rank Peer Score School Overall Rank 1 4.8 Stanford 1 2 4.7 Harvard 6 2 4.7 Yale 2 4 4.6…
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Ups and Downs of Law School Applications
Over on LinkedIn, Mike Spivey, CEO of Spivey Consulting and a familiar name in the world of law school admissions consulting, wrote last Friday that overall applicants in this cycle are up +10.6% at this point, roughly (as he writes) 90% done with the cycle, compared to being up +33% early in the cycle. He…
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Muller: AI Is Not Yet Disrupting the Robust Job Market for Law School Graduates
Derek Muller (Notre Dame), AI and the Law Firm Summer Associate: A Tale of Two Futures: In May 2025, Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, suggested that artificial intelligence could wipe out half of all entry level white-collar jobs—including in law—in the next 1 to 5 years. Every few months, this claim finds new virality on social media…