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arbitrary
adjective
1. Based on random choice or personal whim, rather than any reason or system.
‘an arbitrary decision’
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The T14 distinction is not arbitrary. It is based on a “system.” That system is the U.S. News law school rankings. U.S. News has published law school rankings every year since 1990. The first rankings came out in 1987, but they took a year off or something. Since 1990, the same 14 law schools have been the top 14 law schools, every year. They’ve switched places among themselves, but the top 14 have always been, in some order, the top 14.
Maybe that’s a dumb system. Certainly, here at Above the Law we circulate our own law school rankings, which we think are a better reflection of the strength of various law schools. But the T14 are so-called because of their historic consistency.
If you thought there was a huge difference between Georgetown Law and UT-Austin or UCLA… until today, when Georgetown officially fell out of the T14… you are an idiot. If you think there is a yawning, qualitative difference between, say, the top 8, and the next 8, you are placing a relatively arbitrary line between UVA and Duke. I can make credible arguments for my own arbitrary lines. I’d slice it up: T1, T3, T12, T15, T30, T65, T127 with a gun to your head, T-Schools that should probably be shut down.
The T14 wasn’t an important distinction, but it was, and probably still is, a useful shorthand. All that people are trying to say when they’re talking about the “T14” is that there are a limited number of top-end schools whose degrees are valuable in every market. Never forget that law school is professional school, and if you don’t pass a bar exam and get a job when it’s over, it hasn’t been the best use of your time.
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But most law schools are regional affairs. You go to law school in the place you intend to practice, because that’s where the job opportunities are going to be. There are only a few schools that credibly break out of that and give you anything approaching “national” job prospects. Those schools are, more or less, the T14. At least, that’s how the story goes.
Now, I don’t know how true that old saw really is, anymore. If you are trying to work in Miami, I don’t know that your T13 degree from Cornell is really more valuable than your T15 degree from UCLA. Again, I’d arbitrarily place the national/regional line around 12, and you could convince me to limit it to HYS, CCN (Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Chicago, Columbia, NYU) without too much argument. But all the T14 distinction is trying to capture is that there is some kind of national name recognition for certain top schools that other really, really good schools lack.
With Texas finally hurdling over Georgetown, it doesn’t mean that T15 is the new T14. Now that would be freaking arbitrary. It doesn’t mean that there are now 16 law schools more nationally relevant than all the rest (somewhere, there’s a dude at Vanderbilt thinking, “screw all y’all.”). It just means that there’s some cluster of schools that dominate their market but will still help you if you have to move across the country. That cluster has probably always included Georgetown and Texas, Northwestern and Vanderbilt, UCLA, USC, and Berkeley.
The T14 is now like the Big Ten Athletic Conference. The number wasn’t arbitrary when it was coined, it was accurate. Now, even though conference expansion has rendered the number meaningless, the distinction still represents a certain “thing,” a certain “style.” In sports, the Big Ten stands for “go… forward” football offense and “why can’t we have six fouls,” half-court defense.
In law, the T14 stands for “national-ish” law schools. Today, that number becomes arbitrary, but the distinction is still probably still relevant.
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Earlier: It’s Official — There’s A New T14 In Town! (2018 USNWR Rankings Are Here)
Leaked: Are These The 2018 U.S. News Law School Rankings?