Law Schools

The 2019 U.S. News Law School Rankings Leak: The Top 100

Which law schools made the Top 100 this year?

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Earlier today, we published a leak of the Top 50 law schools from the 2019 edition of the U.S. News law school rankings. In closing, we mentioned that we’d be awaiting the remainder of the rankings on their scheduled publication date of March 20 — unless, of course, there was another leak before that time.

Luckily for you, that time has already come.

Today’s U.S. News rankings leaks come to us courtesy of Mike Spivey of the Spivey Consulting Group, who broke the news. For the past several years, Spivey has obtained the law school rankings ahead of their official publication, and they are always accurate. You can review them here, or at his blog here.

UPDATE (03/14 9:30 p.m.): The full rankings have leaked. Check them out here.

We’ve already discussed them, but here’s a quick refresher on the Top 50:

1. Yale University
2. Stanford University
3. Harvard University
4. University of Chicago
5. Columbia University
6. New York University
7. University of Pennsylvania
8. University of Michigan—Ann Arbor
9. University of California—Berkeley (+3)
9. University of Virginia (-1)
11. Duke University (-1)
11. Northwestern University (-1)
13. Cornell University
14. Georgetown University (+1)
15. University of Texas—Austin (-1)
16. University of California—Los Angeles (-1)
17. Vanderbilt University
18. Washington University in St. Louis
19. University of Southern California
20. University of Minnesota (+3)
21. University of California—Irvine (+7)
22. Boston University (+1)
22. Emory University
24. George Washington University (+6)
24. University of Notre Dame (-4)
26. Washington and Lee University (+2)
27. Arizona State University (-2)
27. Boston College (-1)
27. University of Alabama (-1)
27. University of Iowa (-7)
27. University of Wisconsin—Madison (+3)
32. Indiana University—Bloomington (-2)
32. Ohio State University (-2)
32. University of Georgia (-2)
32. University of Washington (-2)
32. Wake Forest University (+4)
37. Fordham University (-1)
37. University of California—Davis (+2)
37. University of Illinois—Urbana-Champaign (+7)
37. William & Mary Law School (+4)
41. Brigham Young University (+5)
41. George Mason University
41. University of Arizona (+7)
41. University of Florida
45. University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill (-6)
46. University of Colorado—Boulder (-10)
47. Florida State University (+1)
47. Temple University (+6)
49. University of Maryland (-1)
50. Baylor University (+1)
50. Southern Methodist University (-4)
50. University of Connecticut (+4)
50. University of Richmond (+7)

With that out of the way, let’s take a sneak peek at the law schools outside of the Top 50, i.e., the law schools that make up the rest of the Top 100, starting with Nos. 54 through 74. This section of the rankings was especially erratic, with three ties, one four-way tie, one six-way tie, and one nine-way tie (seriously?). Here we saw several schools sink like stones or rise like phoenixes with double-digit gains and losses.

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54. Tulane University (-3)
54. University of Utah (-10)
56. University of Houston (-2)
56. Yeshiva University (Cardozo) (+9)
58. University of California—Hastings (-4)
59. Pennsylvania State University—Carlisle (Dickinson) (+6)
59. Pepperdine University (+13)
59. Seton Hall University (-2)
59. University of Nevada—Las Vegas (+3)
63. University of Denver (Sturm) (+13)
63. University of Oklahoma (+9)
65. Case Western Reserve University (-3)
65. Georgia State University
65. Loyola Marymount University
65. University of Cincinnati (+7)
65. University of Kentucky (-8)
65. University of Miami (+12)
65. University of Missouri
65. University of Tennessee—Knoxville (-8)
65. Villanova University (+12)
74. Loyola University Chicago (+8)
74. Northeastern University (-9)
74. Pennsylvania State University—University Park (+8)
74. Rutgers The State University of New Jersey (-12)
74. University of Kansas (-9)
74. University of Pittsburgh (+8)

The biggest winners here were Pepperdine, Denver, Miami, and Villanova, each gaining 12 places in the rankings. The biggest losers in this segment of the rankings were Utah and Rutgers, with 10- and 12-spot drops, respectively. Utah’s loss was another law school’s gain in this year’s edition of the rankings, as the school politely showed itself out of the Top 50 after the State Bar emailed a picture of a topless woman to every attorney licensed in the jurisdiction. It was later determined that the inappropriate email was “a result of human error,” and we have a feeling that “human error[s]” — like class credentials, employment statistics, and bar passage rates — were also responsible for Utah Law’s rankings drop. As for Rutgers, which posted a 30-spot gain last year after merging its two campuses — one of the largest gains in U.S. News rankings history, mind you — a 12-spot loss is perhaps an expected correction for the school. Let’s see what happens next year to see if this is where the law school belongs.

The rest of the leaked rankings are available on the next page.

2019 USNWR Rankings (2018 Release) Are Here! [Spivey Consulting]

Earlier: The LEAKED 2019 U.S. News Law School Rankings Are Here

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Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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