Law School Rankings

Choosing which law school to attend can be a hard decision. Not only will the school impact where you live during your college years, but the schools location is usually a place where many new graduates end up finding jobs. There are 194 accredited law schools in the United States. We have compiled a list of the top 10 law schools in the country, according to studies by the Gourman Report and the U.S. News and World Report.

The Gourman Report was the first established academic report that measured the academic quality of graduate and undergraduate schools. The originator, Dr. Gourman, is a professor at Cal State- Northridge, and unfortunately, his last findings (the ones below) are from 1997. The U.S. News and World Report is the most popular report for most professions, including all national law school rankings. The rankings below were conducted in 2010.

Below is a comparison chart of the two reports. You’ll notice that even though the reports are 13 years apart, not much has changed, as 8 out of the 10 Gourman Report schools are ranked among the Top 10 for this year’s U.S. News and World Report top ranked law schools. Coincidentally, Duke and Cornell are ranked #11 and #13 for this year’s U.S. News and World Report top ranked law schools.

U.S. News and World Report	Gourman Report
1. Yale University	1. Harvard University
2. Harvard University	2. University of Michigan- Ann Arbor
3. Stanford University	3. Yale University
4. Columbia University	4. University of Chicago
5. University of Chicago	5. UC Berkeley
6. New York University	6. Stanford University
7. UC Berkeley	7. Columbia University
8. University of Pennsylvania	8. Duke University
9. University of Michigan- Ann Arbor	9. University of Pennsylvania
10. University of Virginia	10. Cornell University