Law Schools

The Law Schools Whose Professors Have The Most Scholarly Impact (2024)

There was a little bit of movement in the rankings this year.

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Professor and students in the classroomWhat’s the best way to measure a law school’s scholarly impact? If you guessed that it involved calculating tenured professors’ citations, then you’d be right. In fact, U.S. News thought this was such a great idea that the publication decided to turn it into a (now abandoned) law school ranking. For those who are truly interested in which law schools are the “best” when it comes to their professors’ scholarship, then have we got a new ranking for you.

Earlier this week, Professor Gregory Sisk of the University of St. Thomas released the most recent version of his closely watched, long-awaited triennial ranking of the most-cited law school faculties, and there was a little bit of movement among the top 10 law schools this time around.

Behold, the top law schools for scholarly impact for 2024:

  1. Yale
  2. Chicago
  3. Harvard
  4. NYU
  5. Columbia
  6. UC Berkeley
  7. Penn (+1)
  8. Stanford (-2)
  9. Vanderbilt
  10. UVA (-1)

Here are more interesting facts about this year’s scholarly impact ranking:

The law schools with the highest rises in the 2024 Scholarly Impact Ranking are Florida, which has risen by 22 ordinal levels to #30; Emory, which has climbed by 18 ordinal levels to #18; Florida State up by 12 positions to #34; and the University of San Francisco rising by 10 positions to #47. Seattle and Texas A&M debut in the rankings at #52 and #56 respectively, with Washington & Lee and Rutgers rejoining the rankings at #47 and #60 respectively.

Many law faculties achieve a Scholarly Impact Ranking in 2024 well above the law school rankings reported by U.S. News for 2024.

NYU ranks at #4 and has consistently been in the top 5, but at #9 for U.S. News. Vanderbilt at #9 shows a significant gap with U.S. News Ranking at #19. And the University of California at Berkeley ranks at #6 for Scholarly Impact, but outside the top 10 at #12 for U.S. News.

In the Scholarly Impact top 25, the most dramatically under-valued law faculty is the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota), which continues to rank at #23 for Scholarly Impact, while being relegated by U.S. News to #98—a difference of 75 ordinal levels. In addition, George Washington rises to #17 in Scholarly Impact, while lagging at #41 for U.S. News. Emory has moved up to #18 in Scholarly Impact, but at #42 in U.S. News. The University of California-Davis shows even greater disparity, by being now at #18 in Scholarly Impact, while left well behind by U.S. News at #55. Fordham and the University of California-Irvine also rank in the top 25 at #20 and #22 respectively for Scholarly Impact, but at #33 and #42 respectively for U.S. News.

Congratulations to all of the law professors whose hard work made this ranking possible. The law schools you represent must surely appreciate your scholarship adding to their overall prestige.

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Scholarly Impact of Law School Faculties in 2024: Updating the Leiter Score Ranking for the Top Third [SSRN]
These law schools make the biggest ‘scholarly impact,’ study finds [Reuters]

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked 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 X/Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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