The 2016 'Go-To' Law Schools

Columbia Law School is the top Go To Law School for the third straight year

Columbia Law School is the top Go To Law School for the third straight year


It’s the time of year when law school administration offices across the country are gearing up for bottle popping or finger pointing. It’s rankings season. With the 2017 U.S. News rankings soon to drop, the National Law Journal released their rankings last week. The National Law Journal’s rankings might be the most simplistic of all the law school rankings. It boils down to which schools had the highest percentage of 2015 graduates take associate positions at country’s 100 largest law firms based on lawyer head-count.
This year’s top school is familiar with the apex of the list. Columbia Law School has taken the top spot for the for the third straight year. Taking advantage of its New York City location, Columbia has once again placed more than half its 2015 graduates into Big Law jobs. The University of Pennsylvania Law School and the University of Chicago Law School remained in the exact same positions as last year in second and third, respectively.
The school making the biggest move in the top 10 was Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law, which leaped from seventh to fourth. Meantime, New York University School of Law fell from fourth to sixth. If any of the top schools could use some good news, it’s UC Berkeley’s Law School, which saw its dean, Sujit Choudhry, step down from his post amid a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by his executive assistant. And UC Berkeley climbed back into the top 10 at 10th after falling completely out last year. One surprise from the top 10 is Harvard Law School fell completely out and Stanford Law School just barely remained in the top 10 at ninth.
National Law Journal’s Top 10 Go-To Law Schools

  1. Columbia Law School
  2. University of Pennsylvania School of Law
  3. University of Chicago School of Law
  4. Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
  5. Duke Law School
  6. New York University School of Law
  7. Cornell Law School
  8. University of Virginia School of Law
  9. Stanford Law School
  10. UC Berkeley School of Law

The good news nationally, is the top 50 Go To Law Schools sent 23% of their 2015 graduates into Big Law associate positions–the same as 2014. Meantime, the top 50 schools sent 1.8% less graduates into the job market in 2015 compared to 2014. This is a significant improvement from the 4% drop from 2013 to 2014. To see all of the top 50 Go To Law Schools, see the National Law Journal.
Source: Above The Law
DON’T MISS: THE 2015 ‘GO TO’ LAW SCHOOLS