Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
Legal Ed Rankings
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Entry-Level Hiring By The Top 25 Law Schools
Sarah Lawsky (Northwestern; moving to Illinois), Reported Entry-Level Hiring by US News Rank — Top 25: Someone asked me what percentage of reported entry-level hires in each year were at schools ranked in the top 25 by US News. …
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Podcast: Religious Law Schools, Rankings, And Bias
Following up on my previous post, Are Faith-Based Law Schools Fairly Ranked By U.S. News?: Anton Sorkin (Director of Law Student Ministries, Christian Legal Society), Religious Law Schools, Rankings, & Bias: With the release of U.S. News Rankings last month, renewed interest has surfaced regarding the parameters and impact of placement. Where law schools fall speaks…
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Third Circuit Appears Skeptical Of Proposed Class Action In Alleged Rutgers Business School Rankings Fraud
Following up on my previous posts: Whistleblower Claims Rutgers Created Fake Jobs For Graduates To Goose Business School Ranking Rutgers Seeks Dismissal Of Lawsuit Claiming Business School Created Fake Jobs For Graduates To Goose Ranking Law360, 3rd Circ. Wary Standing Exists In Business School Fraud Suit: The Third Circuit on Thursday appeared skeptical that a…
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U.S. News Rankings Czar Bob Morse Retires
U.S. News, Bob Morse Retires: He’s known as the godfather of college rankings, the man behind the curtain of the U.S. News annual Best Colleges guide for almost 40 years. But no more. The man the Washington Post called “one of the most powerful wonks in the country," has decided it’s time to cease wonking. Robert…
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Projected 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Overall
Following up on last week's posts: Preview Of The 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings: First-Time Bar Passage Preview Of The 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Ultimate Bar Passage Preview Of The 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Employment In this post, I project next year's 2026-27 U.S. News law school rankings using the…
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Preview Of The 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Employment
Following up on my previous posts this week: Preview Of The 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings: First-Time Bar Passage Preview Of The 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Ultimate Bar Passage Today, following up on last week’s post, Law School Rankings By 10-Month Employment Rate (2024), this post projects next year’s 2026-27 U.S. News…
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Preview Of The 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Ultimate Bar Passage
Yesterday, I published Preview Of The 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings: First-Time Bar Passage. Today, following up on last week’s post, Law School Rankings By Ultimate Bar Passage Rate (2022): this post projects next year’s 2026-27 U.S. News ultimate bar passage ranking using the current methodology: Ultimate bar passage rate (7%): While passing the…
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Preview Of The 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings: First-Time Bar Passage
Following up on last week’s post, Law School Rankings By First-Time Bar Passage Rate (2024): this post projects next year’s 2026-27 U.S. News first-time bar passage ranking using the current methodology: 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…
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Law School Rankings By 10-Month Employment Rate (2024)
Following up on my previous posts: Law School Rankings By Ultimate Bar Passage Rate (2022) Law School Rankings By 2024 First-Time Bar Passage Rate (2024) Here is the ranking of schools in the 10-Month Employment Data for the Class of 2024 from the ABA’s spreadsheet, based on the current U.S. News methodology for “maximum credit”…
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Law School Rankings By Ultimate Bar Passage Rate (2022)
Following up on my previous post, Law School Rankings By First-Time Bar Passage Rate (2024): here is the ranking of law schools based on Graduation Year 2022 Ultimate Bar Pass Data from the ABA’s spreadsheet. The Ultimate Bar Pass rate includes all 2022 graduates who sat for a bar exam and passed it within two…
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Law School Rankings By First-Time Bar Passage Rate (2024)
Following up on my previous post, New ABA Bar Data: Pass Rate Increased 3 Percentage Points For First-Time Takers; 6 Law Schools Fell Short of 75% Accreditation Threshold: here is the ranking of law schools in the Calendar Year 2024 First-Time Takers Bar Pass Data from the ABA’s spreadsheet. The ranking uses an adjusted pass…
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2025-26 U.S. News Omnibus Specialty Rankings v. Overall Rankings
Following up on yesterday’s post, 2025-26 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 24 104 +80 2 Santa Clara 85 156 +71 3 Pacific 94 163 +69 4 Illinois-Chicago 104 169…
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2025-26 U.S. News Omnibus Specialty Rankings
The new 2025-26 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: Business/Corporate Law Clinical Law Constitutional Law Contracts/Commercial Law Criminal Law Dispute Resolution Environmental Law Health Care Law Intellectual…
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Law Schools That Boycotted The U.S. News Rankings
2023-2024 (Rank) 2024-2025 (Rank) 2025-2026 (Rank) Stanford (1) Stanford (1) Stanford (1) Yale (1) Yale (1) Yale (1) Virginia (8) Virginia (4) Virginia (4) Penn (4) Penn (4) Penn (5) Duke (5) Duke (4) Duke (6) Harvard (5) Harvard (4) Harvard (6) Michigan (10) Michigan (9) Michigan (8) NYU (5) NYU (9) NYU (8) Columbia (8) Columbia (8)…
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2025-26 U.S. News Trial Advocacy Rankings
The new 2025-26 U.S. News Trial Advocacy Rankings include the trial advocacy programs at 195 law schools (the faculty survey had a 47% response rate). Here are the Top 50: Rank School 1 Stetson 2 Temple 3 Baylor 4 Samford 5 Fordham 5 UCLA 7 Loyola-L.A. 8 Denver 8 Drexel 8 Hofstra 8 Syracuse 12…
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2025-26 U.S. News Legal Writing Rankings
The new 2025-26 U.S. News Legal Writing Rankings include the legal writing programs at 109 law schools (the faculty survey had a 52% response rate). Here are the Top 50: Rank School 1 Oregon 1 UNLV 3 Arizona State 3 Stetson 3 Suffolk 6 Seattle 7 Wake Forest 8 UC-Irvine 8 University of Arizona 10…
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Are Faith-Based Law Schools Fairly Ranked By U.S. News?
Anton Sorkin (Director of Law Student Ministries, Christian Legal Society): Interesting observation from David Lat: “schools with a strong ideological brand, including religiously affiliated law schools . . . tend to fare well in rankings[.]” Imagine how well they'd fare if there wasn't a peer ranking penalty, tabulated by Michael Conklin at 17.65 in his…
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2025-26 U.S. News International Law Rankings
The new 2025-26 U.S. News International Law Rankings include the international law programs at 195 law schools (the faculty survey had a 47% response rate). Here are the Top 50: Rank School 1 NYU 2 Harvard 3 Columbia 3 Georgetown 3 Yale 6 American 6 UC-Berkeley 8 George Washington 8 Michigan 10 Stanford 11 Cornell…
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2025-26 U.S. News Intellectual Property Law Rankings
The new 2025-26 U.S. News Intellectual Property Law Rankings include the intellectual property law programs at 194 law schools (the faculty survey had a 56% response rate). Here are the Top 50: Rank School 1 Stanford 2 UC-Berkeley 3 NYU 4 Santa Clara 5 George Washington 6 American 6 Cardozo 6 Texas A&M 9 Chicago-Kent…
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2025-26 U.S. News Health Care Law Rankings
The new 2025-26 U.S. News Health Care Law Rankings include the health care law programs at 191 law schools (the faculty survey had a 45% response rate). Here are the Top 50: Rank School 1 St. Louis 2 Boston University 3 Georgia State 4 Loyola-Chicago 4 Maryland 6 Harvard 7 Stanford 8 Georgetown 9 Houston…
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2025-26 U.S. News Environmental Law Rankings
The new 2025-26 U.S. News Environmental Law Rankings include the environmental law programs at 189 law schools (the faculty survey had a 50% response rate). Here are the Top 50: Rank School 1 Pace 2 Lewis & Clark 2 UC-Berkeley 4 Vermont 5 Columbia 6 UCLA 7 Colorado 7 Harvard 7 NYU 7 Oregon 7…
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2025-26 U.S. News Dispute Resolution Rankings
The new 2025-26 U.S. News Dispute Resolution Rankings include the dispute resolution programs at 149 law schools (the faculty survey had a 43% response rate). Here are the Top 50: Rank School 1 Ohio State 2 Pepperdine 3 Harvard 3 Texas A&M 5 Cardozo 5 Missouri-Columbia 7 Northwestern 8 Mitchell | Hamline 9 Arizona State…
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2025-26 U.S. News Criminal Law Rankings
The new 2025-26 U.S. News Criminal Law Rankings include the criminal law programs at 195 law schools (the faculty survey had a 47% response rate). Here are the Top 50: Rank School 1 NYU 1 Stanford 3 Harvard 3 Michigan 3 Penn 3 Virginia 7 UC-Berkeley 8 UCLA 9 Chicago 9 Columbia 9 Duke 9…
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2025-26 U.S. News Contracts/Commercial Law Rankings
The new 2025-26 U.S. News Contracts/Commercial Law Rankings include the contracts/commercial law programs at 195 law schools (the faculty survey had a 36% response rate). Here are the Top 50: Rank School 1 Chicago 1 Harvard 1 Stanford 4 Columbia 4 Yale 6 Michigan 6 NYU 6 Penn 6 UC-Berkeley 6 Virginia 11 Georgetown 11…
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2025-26 U.S. News Constitutional Law Rankings
The new 2025-26 U.S. News Constitutional Law Rankings include the constitutional law programs at 195 law schools (the faculty survey had a 39% response rate). Here are the Top 50: Rank School 1 Yale 2 Chicago 2 Harvard 4 Stanford 5 Columbia 5 NYU 5 UC-Berkeley 5 Virginia 9 Michigan 9 Penn 11 Georgetown 12…