Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
Legal Ed Rankings
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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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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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JD Degree Increases Lifetime Earnings By 41%; Amount Correlates to U.S. News Ranking of Law School
Following up on Sloan’s post yesterday: Inside Higher Ed, Graduate School Pays Off for Pharmacists, but Not Psychologists: On average, going to graduate school increases a student’s lifetime earnings by 17 percent. But that return on investment varies significantly depending on what they studied, according to new research published by the Postsecondary Education & Economics Research Center at…
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2026 QS World University Rankings: Law and Legal Studies
QS World University rankings have released their 2026 rankings of universities for law and legal studies. Below are the top ten in the world. On the next page are the top 25 in the United States. Ranking University 1 Harvard University 2 University of Oxford 3 University of Cambridge 4 Yale University 5 Stanford University…
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Cross-Admit Rankings
I previously noted some of the many rankings that exist for law schools (Law School Rankings Season, Feb. 25, 2026). Another one that recently was shared with me are rankings based on cross-admit decisions. Law School Data (LSD.com) has rankings that are described as “built from 136,000+ real cross-admit decisions across 135 schools.” The data…
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National Jurist: Top Schools for Government Law
PreLaw has released its annual honor roll for “top law schools for government law.” The list included thirteen schools. PreLaw Editors, Top Law Schools for Government Law, The National Jurist, March 18, 2026. You can find the list on the next page.
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Updated ABA Bar Data: 1-Year Pass Rate Increased 1 Percentage Point; 6 Law Schools Failed 2-Year 75% Pass Rate Accreditation Threshold
Update: The University of Baltimore School of Law let me know after last week’s post that they had submitted incorrect ultimate bar passage data to the ABA showing them falling short of the 75% accreditation threshold. Baltimore has sent me corrected data showing them meeting the 75% threshold. The ABA uploaded the corrected data on…
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Preview Of The 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Resources
Following up on my previous posts: In the current 2025-26 methodology, resources count 7% in the overall ranking: Student-faculty ratio (5%): This is the ratio of law school students to law school faculty members for the 2023 to 2024 school year. It is a proxy for the amount of attention from faculty that may be available…
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New ABA Bar Data: 1-Year Pass Rate Increased 1 Percentage Point; 7 Law Schools Failed 2-Year 75% Pass Rate Accreditation Threshold
Update: The University of Baltimore School of Law emailed to let me know they had submitted incorrect ultimate bar passage data to the ABA showing them falling short of the 75% accreditation and send me corrected data showing them meeting the 75% threshold. The ABA uploaded the corrected data on March 22 and I have…
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Justice & Opportunity Honor Roll (National Jurist)
National Jurist‘s preLaw has a new honor roll for the “more than 35 law schools [that] are expanding access through admissions innovation, program design and community-centered pathways — strengthening justice through opportunity.” The “Justice & Opportunity Honor Roll recognizes law schools for leadership in expanding access to legal education.” As the introduction to the article…
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2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings
U.S. News & World Report, Coming Soon: Law Schools, Business Schools and Other Graduate Programs: U.S. News will formally release the 2026 edition of Best Graduate Schools on April 7. The updated rankings include school profiles and search tools for prospective doctoral, master’s and J.D. students in the areas announced last year [“Law (J.D.): Overall, Part-Time,…
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Preview Of The 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Overall
Derek Muller (Notre Dame), Updated Projected 2026-2027 USNWR Law School Rankings (To Be Released April 2026 Or So): The updated 509 data from the American Bar Association discloses a good deal of public information about law school admissions and law school faculty that is ultimately used in the USNWR law school rankings. We now have about 75% of the information…
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Preview Of The 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Employment
In the current 2025-26 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. Maximum credit was assigned for graduates with school-funded fellowships…
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Preview Of The 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Ultimate Bar Passage
In the current 2025-26 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 must pass a bar exam within two…
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Preview Of The 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings: First-Time Bar Passage
In the current 2025-26 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, and not just those from the state with the most test-takers. This de-emphasized the impact…
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Preview Of The 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Admissions
In the current 2025-26 methodology, law school admissions count 10% in the overall ranking: Rank School Accept. Rate Rank UGPARank LSATRank Weighted Rank 1 Chicago 7 3 2 2.90 2 Yale 1 5 2 3.10 3 Harvard 6 5 2 3.60 4 Virginia 8 2 5 4.10 5 Stanford 2 5 5 4.70 6 Wash. U.…
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The Top 100 Legal Scholars of 2025
Rob Willey (George Mason) & Melanie Knapp (George Mason), The Top 100 Legal Scholars of 2025: Traditional legal scholarship rankings rely almost exclusively on career-long publication metrics, a method that inherently favors decades-old articles and often obscures the authors producing the most impactful research today. This article presents an alternative: a ranking of the 100…
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National Jurist: Top Law Schools for Social Justice
From The National Jurist website: “As social justice becomes central to legal education, students are learning not just doctrine, but how the law affects real people, real communities and their own career paths:” preLaw examined how social justice is embedded across legal education, from classroom instruction and experiential learning to clinics, centers and career support.…
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The Top 100 Law Schools, Based On 5-, 10-, And 15-Year Rolling Average U.S. News Rankings
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…
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Law School Rankings Season
The 2026 rankings are starting to appear, including the Times Higher Education, QS World University, and PublicLegal-ILRG’s rankings. As with all rankings, there are limitations, anomalies, and they emphasize or focus on different areas. On the next page, are the top 25 rankings for the Times Higher Education Best Law Schools in the U.S. –…
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Best law schools for practical training
Everyone seems curious about law school rankings. Last March, National Jurist ranked the “Best law schools for practical training.” These were the top 10: 1 Northeastern University A+ 11 54.8 Yes Yes 287.9 95 0.53 4 2 Baylor University A+ 12 24.3 Yes 19.6 27 4.75 68 3 University of St. Thomas – Mn. A+…
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Muller: Impact of the Law School Applicant Surge on Discount Rates, Class Sizes, and 50th & 25th Percentile LSATs & UGPAs
Derek Muller analyzes the impact of the surge in law school applicants on discount rates, class sizes, median & 25th percentile LSATs & UGPAs on all 197 law schools
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The 25 Most Influential People in Legal Education (2026)
The 25 Most Influential People in Legal Education (2026), based on a survey of law school deans