The Above the Law law school rankings are a little bit late this year. Sorry. But we still have the only rankings that take into account this year’s ABA employment data. So, you’re welcome.
That employment data has in part driven a change at the top. According to our metrics, the best law school in the country for getting a high-paying job is… The University of Virginia School of Law.
That should be an even better recruitment tool than the Kool-Aid drenched video UVA submitted for this year’s Law Revue contest.
UVA Law jumped to the pole position this year on the strength of its Biglaw employment score. With our methodology, even a five percent bump in Biglaw employment score can shuffle a school’s position. This year, UVA’s Biglaw employment score jumped 13 percent.
Of course, you can’t talk UVA School of Law without talking about the school’s natural enemy: sobriety. No no, I’m just kidding. Come on, you’re number one, act like you’ve been there before. No, UVA’s natural enemy is Duke Law School, of course, and Duke is stalking UVA by our metrics. Duke Law School is at number two, as it enjoyed a 15 percent bump in its Biglaw employment score.
We can’t tell if these bumps represent exceptionally strong classes at UVA and Duke, exceptionally weak classes at the Ivies and Stanford, or a broader realignment of Biglaw firms paying more attention to the talent that comes out of these schools.
Last year’s number one, the University of Chicago, slipped to number three this year. But clearly it remains a great school for high-paying jobs and judicial clerkships. Rounding out the top five are Northwestern and Cornell.
There are 10 new schools in our top 50 that weren’t here last year, including the University of Nebraska, which I didn’t even know had a law school.
Check out our full rankings here. Enjoy today. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about everything that is wrong with this list.
Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and a contributor at The Nation. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He will resist.