Brian Leiter's Law School Reports

Nice presentation on the U.S. News ranking methodology...

...from Pitt Dean William Carter, who had the unhappy task of dealing with a big drop in Pitt's overall rank in U.S. News.  As with all such movements, it has nothing to do with the real world, and everything to do with artifacts of the ranking method.  I commend Dean Carter's approach to the matter as a sensible one.  (As you will see if you watch Dean Carter's analysis, there have been some minor and largely cosmetic changes in the U.S. News methodology since I wrote the "Guide for the Perplexed" ten years ago.)

Corporate Practice Commentator's "Top 10" Articles for 2012

The full list is here; the authors of the 11 articles are:  (1) John Armour (Oxford), Bernard Black (Northwestern), and Brian Cheffins (Cambridge); (2) Oren Bar-Gill & Ryan Bubb (both NYU); (3) Robert Bartlett (Berkeley); (4) Michal Barzuza (Virginia); (5) William Bratton & Michael Wachter (both Penn); (6) Matthew Cain (Notre Dame, Business) & Steven Davidoff (Ohio State); (7) Cheffins (Cambridge), Armour (Oxford), & Black (Northwestern) again, for a different piece; (8) Jill Fisch (Penn); (9) Edward Rock (Penn); (10) Richard Squire (Forhdam); and (11) Randall Thomas (Vanderbilt) & Robert Thompson (Georgetown).

Another Employment-Outcome Rankings

From the University of Denver--it depends on self-reported data by the schools, of course, but it does provide a simple way to see the import of that data.

New ATL Law School Rankings Do Not Include JD Advantage Jobs...

...which is probably a mistake for reasons noted by Northwestern Dean Dan Rodriguez.

Faculty Quality Based on Membership in the American Academy

Updated for 2013.

Yes, yet another ranking of law schools

Although unlike the recent National Jurist fiasco, this one is not nuts and contains some useful information.  More detail about response rates from the student and alumni surveys would be welcome.  And the weighting of the different factors is, of course, inexplicable.   It is, I think, useful for prospective students to see that some more regional schools in fact have very good employment outcomes.

(Thanks to Rick Hasen for the pointer.)

UPDATE:  More thoughts here.

Is the job market for new lawyers, even from lower-ranked schools, really that bad?

Some interesting contrarian evidence from Ben Barros (Widener).

Law schools with JD Alumni on the Teaching Market

MOVING TO FRONT FROM SEPTEMBER 13, 2012--AS HIRING SEASON NEARS ITS END, AND PRAWFS COMPILES HIRING DATA, THIS INFO IS TIMELY AGAIN (candidates who accepted offers, please submit your info at the Prawfs site--I knnow the information there is not complete as it presently stands)

UPDATED AND CORRECTED

This is from the first FAR distribution, which is the most important one, and typically includes the most viable candidates (meaning also the candidates the school knew about!).  The school name is followed by the number of graduates on the market this year, the average recent class size, and then two ranks:  how the school ranks over a long period of time in per capita placement in law teaching; and how the school ranks more recently in placement of graduates at leading law schools.

1.  Harvard (57 candidates; average class size circa 550) (#2, #2)

2.  Yale (37 candidates; average class size circa 200) (#1, #1)

3.  NYU (31 candidates; average class size circa 450) (#9, #9)

4.  UC Berkeley (20 candidates; average class size circa 250) (#7, #5)

5.  Columbia (18 candidates; average class size circa 400) (#5, #6)

5.  Georgetown (18 candidates; average class size circa 600) (#14, #14) 

7.  Cornell (14 candidates; average class size circa 200) (#10, outside top 15)

7.  Northwestern (14 candidates; average class size circa 250) (#10, #11)

9.  Duke (13 candidates; average class size circa 250) (#10, #9)

9.  Michigan (13 candidates; average class size circa 350) (#5, #6)

9.  Stanford (13 candidates; average class size circa 200) (#4, #3)

12. Chicago (12 candidates; average class size circa 200) (#3, #4)

13. Texas (11 candidates; average class size circa 425) (#14, outside top 15)

Among the elite law schools, others had smaller number of alumni in the first FAR this year:  for example, there were eight from UCLA, seven from Virginia, four from Southern California, and three each from Penn and Vanderbilt.  Other major law schools with comparable numbers include George Washington (7) and Wisconsin (5).

ADDENDUM:  It is striking how weak the correlation is between the total numbers on the teaching market compared to past success in placement.

So which areas of law deserve more attention in the legal academy?

The results of our earlier poll, with over 200 votes cast:

1. Consumer Law  (Condorcet winner: wins contests with all other choices)

2. Energy Law/Natural Resources Law/Water Law  loses to Consumer Law by 109–73

3. Employment Law  loses to Consumer Law by 115–73, loses to Energy Law/Natural Resources Law/Water Law by 91–85

4. Alternative Dispute Resolution  loses to Consumer Law by 106–80, loses to Employment Law by 89–83

5. Immigration Law  loses to Consumer Law by 118–67, loses to Alternative Dispute Resolution by 87–86

6. Family Law  loses to Consumer Law by 123–61, loses to Immigration Law by 99–72

7. Insurance Law  loses to Consumer Law by 130–53, loses to Family Law by 100–77

8. Comparative Law  loses to Consumer Law by 117–68, loses to Insurance Law by 91–87

9. Elder Law  loses to Consumer Law by 135–47, loses to Comparative Law by 88–80

10. Wills, Trusts & Estates  loses to Consumer Law by 126–58, loses to Elder Law by 88–79

Thoughts from readers?  Signed comments only:  full name and valid e-mail address. 

Post-graduation employment minus school-funded jobs

Interesting list here, though as we noted before, school-funded jobs are often the crucial route into public sector positions for many graduates, and schools with big investments in getting graduates into public interest will necessarily have a good number of these.  On the other hand, it is certainly true that in many other cases, school-funded jobs are make-work position meant to boost employment statistics, not help launch careers.