The US News and World Report has released its annual law school rankings for 2019.
Yale, Stanford, and Harvard are the top three schools, once again, in that order. In fact, the top seven positions are held by the same schools that held them last year.
There was some minor shuffling in the rest of the top 10. The University of Virginia, which was tied for eighth last year with the University of Michigan-Ann-Arbor, has fallen to spot number nine, where it's tied with the University of California at Berkeley (last year, Berkeley ranked 12th).
US News determines the ranking by using metrics such as peer reviews, placement success, bar passage rates, and other factors.
The publication also ranks law schools by specialty. For instance, Vermont Law School holds the top position for Best Environmental Law Programs, while Pepperdine University leads the pack for Best Dispute Resolution Programs.
The full law school rankings are available on the U.S. News and World Report website.
LLM Guide offers its own Top 10 lists for a various law specialities, focusing on LL.M. programs.
Below, you can find a list of the top 20 law schools, according to US News:
US News' Top 20 Law School Ranking 2019
| 2019 Rank | Law School | Change from 2018 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yale | no change |
| 2 | Stanford | no change |
| 3 | Harvard | no change |
| 4 | University of Chicago | no change |
| 5 | Columbia | no change |
| 6 | New York University (NYU) | no change |
| 7 | University of Pennsylvania | no change |
| 8 | Michigan - Ann Arbor | no change |
| 9 (tie) | University of Virginia | -1 |
| 9 (tie) | UC Berkeley | +3 |
| 11 (tie) | Northwestern - Pritzker | -1 |
| 11 (tie) | Duke | -1 |
| 13 | Cornell | no change |
| 14 | Georgetown | +1 |
| 15 | UT Austin | -1 |
| 16 | UCLA | no change |
| 17 | Vanderbilt | no change |
| 18 | WUSTL | no change |
| 19 | USC | no change |
| 20 | University of Minnesota | +3 |
Image: "East wall of the Yale Law School courtyard, Yale University, New Haven, CT" by Nick Allen / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
