The publication US News and World Report has released its annual "Best Law School" rankings.
In this new ranking, the top seven schools are the exact same as they were last year (and as they were in the previous ranking before that). Yale Law School is ranked first, followed by Stanford, Harvard, the University of Chicago, Columbia, NYU Law, and the University of Pennsylvania.
Overall in the top-20, there was very little change. The University of Virginia, which was tied for ninth place in last year's ranking, rose one spot to re-claim position number eight. The University of Michigan dropped one spot to land at number nine; UC Berkeley also lost one position to tie with Duke and Northwestern at position number 10.
USC rose two positions, going from 19 last year to spot number 17 in this year's ranking.
This ranking only includes law schools based in the US. To determine the ranking, US News took into account a variety of factors, including assessments by lawyers and judges, median LSAT and GRE scores of incoming JD students, and placement success, among others.
Besides the general law school ranking, US News also publishes rankings for law specialties, such as dispute resolution, environmental law, and Health Care Law.
See below for the top 20 law schools in the US, according to US News.
US News' Top 20 Law School Ranking
| 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 | University of Virginia | +1 |
| 9 | Michigan - Ann Arbor | -1 |
| 10 (tie) | UC Berkeley | -1 |
| 10 (tie | Northwestern - Pritzker | +1 |
| 10 (tie) | Duke | +1 |
| 13 | Cornell | no change |
| 14 | Georgetown | no change |
| 15 | UCLA | +1 |
| 16 | UT Austin | -1 |
| 17 | USC | +2 |
| 18 | Vanderbilt | -1 |
| 19 | WUSTL | -1 |
| 20 | University of Minnesota | no change |
