A couple of days ago, we mentioned the new Super Lawyers Law School Rankings. The list ranks law schools by their number of Super Lawyer alumni. At the time, we noted that a potential flaw with the magazine’s methodology was that it is just looking at raw numbers. The rankings aren’t adjusted for class size.

Northwestern Law placed #18 on the list. That’s not too bad if you care about things like rankings. The school placed higher than other traditional Top-14 law schools like Stanford, Duke, and Cornell.

But Northwestern Law Dean David E. Van Zandt does care about rankings. He cares about them a great deal. And while #18 is certainly respectable, it wasn’t quite enough for Dean Van Zandt. Here’s part of his email to Northwestern law students:

As you know, I am a proponent of rankings in general and believe they provide a useful source of consumer information for applicants as well as employers. While their methodology needs improving, I applaud Super Lawyers Magazine for developing a ranking that is based on career performance outputs.

So — in a brilliant exercise of Descartian rationale — Dean Van Zandt changed the list. He (or somebody that works for him) went and changed the methodology to make Northwestern look even more awesome.

Let’s check out Super Lawyers according to Van Zandt after the jump.

Last night, the WSJ Law Blog previewed a new set of law school rankings. Today, we have the full list from SuperLawyers. The magazine, in association with Minnesota Law & Politics and Washington Law & Politics, has ranked law schools based on the number of Super Lawyers they produce.

Is it a little self-serving for a magazine to rank law schools based on how many of the school’s graduates end up in its own magazine? Sure. It’s a little like US Weekly handing out Oscar nominations based on how many times a star has appeared on its cover.

But at least it is an attempt to rank schools based on graduate outcomes. The Super Lawyers Blog explains the rankings this way:

Most law school rankings look at things like bar passage rates, professor-to-student ratios and the number of books in the library, but they ignore the end product — the quality of lawyers produced. We think it’s like ranking football teams based on athletic facilities, player size and equipment without considering who wins the games.

In the real world — the world of clients and juries and judges — no one cares about your GPA or LSAT score. All that matters is how good and ethical a lawyer you are. That’s the focus of Super Lawyers.

Schools are ranked according to the total number of graduates named to the state and regional Super Lawyers lists in 2009. In the event of a tie between schools, the cumulative peer evaluation and research scores of graduates are used as tie-breakers.

They care about how “ethical” you are in the real world? Who knew?

Enough with the preamble. Let’s explore the cream of the crop, the Super Lawyers top 20, after the jump.

On Friday, we gave you a sneak peek at the new rankings being developed by the Association for Corporate Counsel. The organization is asking its members to submit reviews about the law firms they work with based on a five star system.

We told you that the ACC rankings were still a work in progress, with many firms not having enough reviews to consider their rating significant.

Still, the ACC would have preferred to keep its list a secret from the general public. The ABA Journal reports:

The ABA Journal asked the Association of Corporate Counsel for comment. Media representatives pointed to an online statement and a blog post by ACC President Fred Krebs. “It is premature and inappropriate at this time to cite ‘rankings’ of law firms given the limited number of evaluations submitted thus far,” Krebs says. “The ACC Value Index is in the early data-gathering stage, and it will take time to develop a robust database.”

It seems that the ACC’s real problem is that it doesn’t want its rankings to be termed “rankings.”

Check out an email from the ACC to its members after the jump.

Wednesday, we told you that the Association of Corporate Counsel was compiling a ranking of law firms based on evaluations from its members. We also told you that some law firm partners were very concerned about this list.

We have the list.

The ACC Value Index currently has responses for 448 law firms. Big and small, big city and secondary markets. Sadly, the vast majority of the firms have very few responses. Apparently corporate counsels have better things to do than ranking the quality of legal services they receive. Most firms — including some of the bigger names like Cravath and Sullivan & Cromwell — have three or fewer responses.

But some firms have generated more reviews.

After the jump, we look at the top ten and bottom ten Am Law 200 firms as ranked by corporate counsel.

You know how much we love rankings around these parts. But apparently there is a list of law firm rankings out there that actually matters. The National Law Journal reports:

An Association of Corporate Counsel law firm rating system unveiled last month has triggered a lot of interest from the association’s in-house lawyer members, who have submitted 1,500 firm reviews. Lawyers at firms are less enthused. …

Since the ACC initiated its “value index” last month, its members have shared their opinions about the performances of 500 law firms. The ACC has used the mainly anonymous input to rank firms on a five-point scale.

Unfortunately, there is one humongous catch:

The evaluations and ratings are viewable only by ACC members.

Why, Association of Corporate Counsel? Why? Why produce a new juicy list of clients actually rating the quality of legal services they receive, and then keep it private? We all want to know what you think.

Sorry. “All” is probably a little bit strong. Law firm managers don’t seem to like this list very much. Details after the jump.

On Sunday, the Boston Globe released its list of the Top 100 Place to Work in Massachusetts. Goodwin Procter placed #74. That’s interesting because last Thursday Goodwin laid off 55 people.

Nice timing on the Globe report. In a companion article titled “They look past the paycheck” the Globe highlights Goodwin:

Under the traditional apprenticeship system at law firms, new lawyers learn from partners who handpick associates they want for particular cases. …

A new approach matches the associate’s professional development goals with a partner’s needs, leaving associates less at the whim of partners and partners more assured of a good fit. Goodwin Procter has a site online where associates enter their availability and their interests, but it takes more than a grand schedule to make the program work. Staffing managers who are lawyers themselves make the match.

Wrong day for that story. Wrong day.

Goodwin wasn’t the only law firm on the list. Other firms after the jump.

The Government Accountability Office has released a new report on the rising cost of legal education. Who is to blame? Not the ABA. Not university presidents using their law schools as cash cows.

According to the GAO, the U.S. News law school rankings put law school deans in a “resource intensive” competition to rise up the U.S. News list. The two key slides from the 44-page GAO report (PDF) are below:

The GAO makes a provocative argument. Let’s discuss it after the jump.

When the Princeton Review Law School Rankings came out last year, I was skeptical of their usefulness. The organization ranks law schools in 11 different categories based on student surveys. This year, 172 law schools were eligible.

Looking at Princeton Review’s list of top ten Best Career Prospects, I remain skeptical:

1. Northwestern
2. Penn
3. Michigan
4. University of Chicago
5. Stanford
6. Boston University
7. Boston College
8. Harvard
9. NYU
10. GULC

Honestly, I’m okay with Harvard being ranked lower than BU or BC in terms of career prospects. I mean, that’s wrong but whatever. I’m okay with NYU placing in the top ten while Columbia does not. Again, probably wrong but no big deal. But — as I said last year — having a list that ranks the ten best law schools for your career that doesn’t include Yale undermines the credibility of the entire list. You’re really telling me that there are ten law schools that are better for your legal career than Yale Law School? That’s just dumb. Maybe next year, Princeton Law will be on the list.

Anyway, after the jump we take a look at some of the other categories.

Let’s give credit where credit is due. The Human Rights Campaign has released its annual Best Places to Work list. It shows that law firms are great when it comes to creating a non-discriminatory environment for gays and lesbians. The ABA Journal reports:

In 2006, the first year law firms were included in the Human Rights Campaign survey, 12 got a perfect rating of 100 percent [on the Corporate Equality Index]. This year an unprecedented 88 law firms got perfect ratings, “eclipsing every other industry represented on the index,” according to a press release. The group evaluated 127 law firms in all; 124 of them were among the nation’s largest 200 law firms.

Our industry deserves a large pat on the back. In a time of massive layoffs, it is great that law firms are still committed to equality when it comes to sexual orientation.

Check out the list of firms that are good for gays here (PDF).

Top Law Firms for Equality - 2010 [Human Rights Campaign]
Law Firms Outshine Other Companies in Ranking by Gay Rights Group [ABA Journal]

Earlier: Which Law Firms Are Down With the Gays?

Does your alma mater contribute to the social good? Or is it just another soul-sucking institution, hell-bent on training young people to do evil things like “make money” or become lawyers?

Well, Washington Monthly has released its annual rankings of colleges and universities. But the magazine ranks the schools by their “contributions to society.” Here is the magazine’s methodology, from Tax Prof Blog:

Community Service (33.3%)

* % of Alumni in Peace Corps
* % of Students in Army/Navy ROTC
* % of Work-Study Grants Spent on Community Service Projects

Research (33.3%)

* Research Expenditures
* % of Students Earning Ph.Ds
* Number of Science & Engineering Ph.Ds Awarded
* % of Faculty Receiving Prestigious Awards
* % of Faculty in National Academies

Social Mobility (33.3%)

* % of Students Receiving Pell Grants
* Actual Graduation Rate v. Predicted Graduation Rate

Oh dear. Where to begin? First off, the community service metric is FUBAR. The army counts; but students who become, say, firefighters, are left out? Meanwhile, surely not all research expenditures contribute to society. And if all research does, then schools should get credit for graduates who go on to work for Merck.

It would physically hurt my brain to break down the myriad problems with their “social mobility” metric.

But … whatever, their bleeding hearts are in the right place. Check out the top ten and the bottom ten universities, after the jump.

Do you want to purchase a discount legal education, but you don’t know where to look? A new list from the National Jurist will point you in the right direction. Tax Prof Blog reproduces the list of which law schools give you the most bang for your buck. Here are the top 15:

How do you come up with a list that ranks N. Carolina Central the best at anything? Check out the methodology after the jump.

The official Vault law firm rankings for 2010 are out today. This list will define law firm prestige for the year to come. Many law students, associates, and partners — especially partners involved in the recruiting process — care greatly about these influential rankings.

Here are the top five most prestigious law firms, according to Vault. This year’s top five is substantially similar to last year’s:

Skadden has flipped-flopped with Sullivan & Cromwell. Otherwise the top five remain unchanged from last year.

After the jump, the rest of the brand new Vault top ten, and a note from Vault’s managing editor about what’s new in this year’s rankings.

This year’s U.S. News Law School Rankings saw Loyola Law School (L.A.) drop from #63 to #71. Despite the back-and-forth between Above the Law and Loyola Law dean Victor Gold, the drop had nothing to do with us.

Apparently, the drop didn’t have anything to do with any legitimate factor. Brian Leiter is on the case:

This really takes the cake for carelessness on the part of U.S. News. Loyola Law School in Los Angeles dropped from 63 to 71 in the overall U.S. News ranking this past spring, and for one primary reason: its reputation score among academics dropped from 2.6 to 2.3. But that kind of drop is extraordinary: the academic reputation scores move .1 in either direction all the time, without rhyme or reason, but only once in the last eight years did another school’s peer reputation score drop that much….

So with only a 1 in 1,000 chance of this kind of movement, what else might explain the precipitous drop in academic reputation? Unfortunately, the explanation seems to be clear: U.S. News unilaterally changed the school’s name on the survey: from “Loyola Law School” to “Loyola Marymount University.” Loyola was the only school whose name was changed on last year’s survey.

This is the story that Dean Gold is going with too. More details after the jump.

If you enjoyed making crucial decisions on where to receive your undergraduate and post graduate education based on a list in a magazine, you are going to love what is coming next. The WSJ Law Blog reports that U.S. News & World Report will be getting into the business of ranking law firms.

US News & World Report, in connection with the folks who bring you the Best Lawyers survey, have announced that they’ll soon be, yes, ranking the best law firms….

We checked in with a spokesperson at Best Lawyers, who told us that it’s actually going to be two surveys — the best law firms and the best law firms to work for. The best law firms survey, at least, will be based partly on a survey sent to lawyers, general counsel and others, and partly on hard data. They’re still apparently working on nailing down the criteria they plan to use.

Will these new rankings be useful? Will they provide critical information to law school graduates trying to make the best choice about where to start their career? Who cares!

My milk shake brings all the boys to the yard,
and they’re like, its better than yours,
damn right its better than yours.

More details on how U.S. News intends to make sure lawyers carry a huge chips on their shoulders for all their livelong days, after the jump.

American Lawyer has released its A-List for 2009. The rankings try to measure the qualities that make an elite law firm:

This list, which we launched in 2003, aims to measure and quantify the qualities that define an elite law firm, making an effort to look beyond profits. We examine four factors: revenue per lawyer, commitment to pro bono, diversity among lawyers, and associate training and satisfaction. Our formula gives more weight to the first two factors; we double a firm’s scores for revenue per lawyer and pro bono, and then add scores for diversity and associate satisfaction.

This year’s A-List? The elite of the elite? The top three firms are:

1. Munger, Tolles & Olson
2. Hughes Hubbard & Reed
3. Latham & Watkins

I’ll pause to give laid off Latham associates an opportunity to finish screaming. Please return after the jump.

We know how much everybody loves rankings. By now, everybody has had time to digest the new law school pecking order — even George Washington Law School students.

But true prestige whoring begins much earlier than law school. U.S. News has just released (hat tip: Tax Prof Blog) a list of the top 400 colleges and universities in the world.

I’m not sure how useful these rankings are, to anybody, anywhere, ever. But I’m sure they will make some people feel good about themselves — and other people mercilessly attack the schools that are more highly ranked than their alma maters.

Of course, U.S. News just did this eight months ago. We posted about it and everything. How many different ways can this magazine come up with to slobber all over Harvard and Yale?

In any event, this time U.S. News is ranking the top 400 universities, instead of the top 200.

After the jump, take a look at the top 10.

Last month, we mentioned the plans of Chambers and Partners, the U.K.-based publisher of law firm guides, to launch an online guide to U.S. law firms called Chambers Associate. Already well-known for its rankings of top firms in different practice areas — which firms love to tout in their PR materials, since they’re always good news — Chambers now seeks to supplement its coverage with a resource for law students and laterals.

The Chambers Associate site is now live. Enter a firm’s name in the search box to find its profile, or use the advanced search feature to find firms by region, practice area, or some other criterion.

How does Chambers Associate compare to other resources in the market? The field is already crowded, with players such as Vault and the new ATL / Lateral Link Career Center. Editor Michael Lovatt, whom we met at the NALP conference, explained Chambers Associate:

The emphasis we have gone for is away from the Vault prestige ranking model, and toward the notion that there isn’t a ‘best’ firm, rather that an individual’s specific interests and ambitions make different firms — with their various cultures, policies, practice strengths and identities — the right fit.

Getting law students and lawyers to look beyond prestige, in a profession as status-obsessed as the law, may be a challenge. But at least Chambers has done its homework:

For each firm, we write an overview based on the detailed practice area rankings from Chambers USA, then write 10 sections of editorial based on anonymous telephone interviews with a random, representative sample of junior associates at that firm. It’s an in-depth, substantive approach that we think gets under the skin of law firms in more detail than any other publication.

Present company excluded, of course; here at ATL, we pride ourselves on the ability to “get[] under the skin of law firms.” We checked out a few of the Chambers Associate profiles, and they struck us as comprehensive, if a bit tilted towards the positive.

Press release, after the jump.

My mother always said that if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

Wait a minute. She never said that. Instead, my mother said: “Using spellcheck instead of committing to learn the basic rules of phonics is really going to come back and bite you in the ass one day.”

With that in mind (the nice thing, not the phonics thing), I bring you the Fourth Tier Law schools — according to the U.S. News law school rankings. Check out the full list of fourth tier law schools here.

When we discussed the third tier, many commenters argued that going to one of those schools and graduating in the top of your class still allows you to access many of the glories of Biglaw, without crushing educational debt.

Does that argument hold up for fourth tier schools?

Let’s take a look at goals after the jump.

Well, here we are. The third-tier law schools. We’ve given students and alumni at the top 100 law schools a chance to sound off on the good (and bad) about their law schools. Hopefully prospective students will take note.

We won’t list all the the third-tier schools, but you can refresh your memory here.

Some might ask: in this market, what kind of jobs can you expect to get with a degree from a third-tier law school? The economy is so bad right now for lots of lawyers. Does it get worse without the most sterling credentials? Or are the kinds of jobs these students historically have taken still available in this market?

If you really applied yourself, could you become a Supreme Court clerk? Justice Scalia doesn’t think so.

Let’s get into the discussion, after the jump.

Vroom, Vroom, the party starter?

The people over at SubtleDig have put together a list of the top party law schools:

Though these rankings pages purport to rank the “party-ness” of the top 102 law schools, they might better be described as “quality-of-life” rankings. Why the misnomer? Sensationalism mainly. Don’t be too disappointed though, these “quality-of-life” rankings have far more utility than any strict “party” rankings could provide. Below you will find the top 5 and bottom 5 Party Law Schools. Please consult the navigation bar above for more.

This list seems totally appropriate given the state of the economy. There’s no point in going to law school if you’re looking for an actual job, might as well pick a school where you can have some fun for three years while you wait out the market crisis.

Here’s the top ten party law schools:

Can you come up with one other list that would show Alabama and Harvard tied for something? Anything? I have this vague idea of the most interesting law school mixer of all time, met on the neutral ground of Washington, D.C. or something.

Meanwhile, how the heck did ASU beat out Tulane? Tulane students party so hard they manage to cross the line in NOLA. “Say what you will about the tenets of nationalized socialism, but at least it’s an ethos.” Then again, all ASU law students do is beat the bag out of would be criminals.

We have to check out SubtleDig’s methodology, after the jump.