Responding to the New U.S. News Rankings: The Parade of Butthurt Deans Begins Now

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS COLLEGE OF LAW — DEAN BRUCE SMITH — 2014 U.S. NEWS RANKINGS

Dear Members of the College of Law Community:

Earlier today, U.S. News & World Report published its 2014 rankings of top law schools. This year, the College of Law was ranked 47th, having been ranked 35th in the 2013 rankings cycle.

We are disappointed by this assessment. It fails to capture many of the College’s most important institutional achievements and values: the College’s new Chicago Program; the best bar passage rate in the state of Illinois in summer 2012; the College’s ranking of 17th in terms of alumni ascending to partnership in the nation’s largest and most prestigious law firms; and our fundamental commitment to accessibility, affordability, and transparency.

Among the nation’s top 50 law schools, rankings fluctuate. But the College’s core fundamentals do not. We continue to have an outstanding faculty, superb students, and highly respected alumni who excel at the highest levels of the legal profession across the state, nation, and world. And we look forward to sharing with you the results of our new initiatives – including those in the areas of affordability, professional development, and placement – in the months to come.

Sincerely,

Bruce

Bruce P. Smith
Dean and Guy Raymond Jones Faculty Scholar
University of Illinois College of Law

UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF LAW — DEAN WILLIAM CARTER — 2014 U.S. NEWS RANKINGS

Dear Law School Community,

As you know by now, Pitt Law’s score in the US News rankings released on March 12 declined substantially. This decline is deeply troubling to me, both personally and as Dean. Although I believe that the rankings are profoundly flawed, and they should be but one factor among many in assessing a law school’s quality and stature, I am also acutely aware that they matter to people we care about (all of you).

Because these rankings were just released, and because US News has not yet provided law schools with the full underlying data forming the basis for this year’s rankings, we have not yet been able to identify which factors may have contributed to the decline. As soon as full data is available, we will undertake a detailed analysis of any year-over-year differences between the data reported for the 2010-11 academic year (which largely formed the basis for last year’s ranking) versus the 2011-12 academic year (which largely formed the basis for this year’s ranking).

In the meantime, I want to note that even as a relative newcomer to Pitt Law, it is readily apparent to me that there have been no significant negative changes during the time period in question that could possibly justify such a dramatic shift in our ranking. Indeed, we continue to make strong progress on many fronts. As just a few examples from this past year:

• The Law School was recently ranked #39 in absolute terms (and #31 in adjusted per capita terms) in the production of partners at the “NLJ 100” law firms (the country’s 100 largest firms). This again places us ahead of most of our peers and many of our aspirational peers;

• The Law School’s faculty was recently ranked 47th in scholarly impact. Faculty members have testified multiple times before the U.S. Congress and state legislative bodies, having a real impact on the development of the law;

• The class of 1Ls that entered the Law School in fall 2012 included 23% minority students, which is the most diverse class that the Law School has seen in at least the last decade; and

• Our students continue to excel, earning prestigious honors, awards and fellowships (and more fellowships).

I will keep you all informed as to what our analysis of this year’s ranking reveals. But rest assured that what it does not reveal is any diminishment in the quality or impact of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. We will address the rankings issue head-on, but we will not lose sight of what ultimately matters most: the quality of the education we provide and the well-being and success of our students, alumni, and community.

Finally, you may find the following article (written the last time Pitt Law experienced an inexplicable and abrupt change in our US News rankings) to be of interest:

http://www.lawjobs.com/newsandviews/LawArticle.jsp?id=1202427136135

Best,

Dean Carter

BROOKLYN LAW SCHOOL — DEAN NICK ALLARD — 2014 U.S. NEWS RANKINGS

To the BLS Community:

Today, U.S. News released its 2013 Best Graduate Schools rankings. U.S. News has publicized that this year it significantly changed its methodology, and that has resulted in many schools experiencing changes in their rankings. Although BLS’s overall ranking is lower than last year, we are heartened that the underlying trends in the core categories are by no means entirely negative. In fact, even in an unusually difficult environment, our admissions statistics have remained strong, and in several important categories – reputation among practitioners and judges, student-faculty ratio, and bar passage rate – the numbers reveal a sustained upward trajectory that has been in progress over several years.

The obvious and troubling counterexample is employment data. Our reported figure for 2011 graduates employed nine months after graduation reflects a significant drop in this category from previous years. This is a trend that nearly all law schools experienced (with the exception of a select few). Notably, our employment figure is comparable to, or even higher than, the figures for our peer institutions in the NYC Metro area. Quite apart from their impact on the rankings, our employment statistics are a clear concern for BLS’s leadership, and one that we are working tirelessly to address. We have committed significant new resources to help our students pursue and obtain the jobs that they want and deserve.

Our “9 months out” employment rate, however, does not alone explain our unexpected decline in the rankings. We believe that it is the result of our decision not to report a figure for the percentage of graduates employed at graduation. The information U.S. News requested for that category was changed dramatically this past year. They asked for details that we did not collect in 2011, and we (like some other schools) decided that rather than attempting to construct after the fact an imprecise number to answerU.S. News’s question, we simply would not provide an answer for that category. This was done in an effort to ensure that our reported figures were completely accurate and transparent. Obviously we did not realize that we would be penalized harshly for not reporting data we did not collect at that time, nor that it would impact our ranking so starkly.

If our available information, which was an overall percentage of 34.1% of the 2011 graduates employed at graduation, had been submitted, we believe it is fair to assume that our ranking would have held steady and possibly even improved. We have changed our practices for collecting employment data at graduation so that going forward we will be able to be responsive to the information now being sought by U.S. News.

Nick

LEWIS & CLARK LAW SCHOOL — DEAN ROBERT KLONOFF — 2014 U.S. NEWS RANKINGS

Dear Students:

US News just came out. I wish I could report happy news, as I have done for so many years. Unfortunately, we dropped from 58 to 80. Environmental law is still number 2. On the positive side, our part time program ranking (which is based entirely on a reputation survey) increased from 23 to 9.

With respect to the full time ranking, our reputation score remained high. What appears to have caused most of our loss also caused massive losses among several other West Coast law schools: the extremely difficult job market in this part of the country. By way of example, U San Francisco dropped from 106 to 144; Pepperdine dropped from 49 to 61; Seattle dropped from 82 to 102; McGeorge dropped from 101 to 124; U of Oregon dropped from 82 to 94; U Washington dropped from 20 to 28; and and Willamette dropped from 129 into the bottom unrated tier.

Although US News is controversial and only one benchmark, I know that many of you follow these rankings closely. Thus, I wanted to provide the news right away.

Sincerely,

Bob Klonoff

Earlier: The 2014 U.S. News Law School Rankings
Law School Making Excuses About Its Low Ranking Before U.S. News Is Even Released