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The 2010 U.S. News & World Report Law School Rankings

By Ashby Jones

Here they are: the 2010 U.S. News & World Report rankings of the U.S. law schools.

In regard to the top 14 schools — the T14, as they’re commonly referred to — you typically don’t see a lot of change from year to year. And this year was no different (click here for our post on last year’s ranking). University of Chicago jumped ahead of NYU, Berkeley fell into a 7th-place tie with Penn, which jumped up one spot. UVA jumped one spot ahead of Duke and Northwestern, with whom it was tied last year.

Other movers in the top 35 included GW, which jumped from 28 to 20, and Georgia, UC Davis, and Wisconsin, all of whom jumped from 35 to 28. Alabama slid from 30 to 38.

The top 35 (actually 37):

1. Yale, 2. Harvard, 3. Stanford, 4. Columbia, 5. Chicago, 6. NYU, 7. Berkeley, 7. (tie) Penn, 9. Michigan, 10. UVA, 11. Duke, 11. (tie) Northwestern, 13. Cornell, 14. Georgetown, 15. UCLA, 15. (tie) Texas, 17. Vanderbilt, 18. USC, 19. Wash U, 20. George Washington, 21. Illinois, 22. BU, 22. (tie) Emory, 22. (tie) Minnesota, 22. (tie) Notre Dame, 26. Iowa, 27. Indiana, 28. Boston College, 28. (tie) William & Mary, 28. (tie) UC Davis, 28. (tie) Georgia, 28. (tie) UNC, 28. (tie) Wisconsin, 34. Fordham, 34. (tie) Ohio State, 34. (tie) University of Washington, 34. (tie) Washington & Lee.

What to make of this? We have no idea. Our general advice, as it was last year: if you’re set on going to law school, go to the best one you get into. That said, is there much of a difference between Stanford and Columbia; Northwestern and Georgetown; Wisconsin or Iowa? Maybe, maybe not. We have no clue. Statistics are funny things. A full 100 percent of 2008 Iowa grads were employed by February of 2009 — something that wasn’t true at either Yale at Harvard. We’re just sayin.’

We chatted briefly with Bob Morse, the director of data research for the magazine. He said that this year, as in others, some of the movement was due to problems the schools had with the submission of data. He attributed Alabama’s drop, for instance, partly to an issue with data submission. Some moves up the board, Morse said, were the result of schools fixing past data problems.

He also cautioned against reading too much into the employment numbers. “Everyone who reads your blog knows that the employment picture for new graduates has changed dramatically since the classes of 2008 went through their job-placement processes,” said Morse.

We asked Morse why, given how little things change from year to year, why the magazine insists on doing it every year. Why not, for instance, do it every 5 years? Of course, we sort of new the answer: that they do it because there’s a demand for it — and demand means revenue, but we at least wanted to ask the question. Morse’s answer:

“We do it every year because the audience changes every year,” he said. “We realize that law schools don’t change that much, law school academics don’t move around all that much, but the applicant pool wants to see the latest data and latest trends. Going to law schools is a giant decision. People want to know the very latest on what are regarded as the most prestigious schools as, in law, that’s very important in getting a job.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 15, 2010 (boomark / email).