Legal News

The New U.S. News Rankings: The More Things Change . . .

By Ashby Jones

Does U.S. News & World Report need another law-school ranking?

That’s debatable. But given the current hiring climate at BigLaw, we suppose that if U.S. News is going to do another ranking, it would be most helpful if it measures something having to do with law-firm hiring.

Indeed, that’s what the magazine has given us here. It’s a ranking of the law schools according to law firm hiring partners and recruiters.

The full list won’t be unveiled until next week, but the magazine has given us a sneak preview of the top 25 schools.

As you’ll see if you click through, there aren’t many surprises in the list. Harvard topping Yale? U.S. News makes a big deal out of it, but in our minds it’s a huge yawn. The biggest surprises might be Michigan slotting in at 4th, tied with Columbia; or Chicago finishing 8th, tied with Duke, Cornell, Northwestern and Berkeley. But signs of a new world order these are not.

The takeaway, then: that old saying that sounds much better in French: the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Along the way, Craig Primis, who heads recruiting at Kirkland & Ellis, reaffirmed this old notion: “Once you are inside the top 10 or 15 law schools it is much more important to have an outstanding academic record” than to fret over whether one got into the No. 1 or No. 3 school.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 08, 2011 (boomark / email).