Top 40 law faculties in scholarly impact, 2015

MOVING TO FRONT FROM AUGUST 11, FOR THOSE WHO MAY HAVE MISSED IT

Gregory Sisk & colleagues have updated their scholarly impact ratings (last edition), looking at mean and median citations to tenured faculty scholarship for the years 2010-2014 inclusive, using 2015-16 faculty rosters as the benchmark.  (Sisk et al. rank 70 faculties; I print the top 40, below.)  The weighted score represents the sum of the mean citations for the tenured faculty times 2, plus the faculty median.  Where the median is low relative to the immediate competition that's an indicator that a few highly cited faculty are carrying the school; in other cases, where the median is quite high, it's an indicator of more across the boards scholarly output.  By noting age, one can see that some faculties are heavily dependent on their most senior members for their citations.  Ties reflect the normalized weighted scores.

Citations to faculty scholarship is, of course, only one metric of scholarly distinction.  Some schools that experts would reasonably assess as top 20 (like Southern California) underperform by this measure.  Still, the metric is a useful check on uninformed opinions, and tracks rather well the actual scholarly output of different schools.

In the fall, I hope to put together new lists of the most-cited scholars by specialty utilizing the Sisk data.

Detailed Scholarly Impact Ranking of Law Faculties, 2015-16

(based on citations for the period 2010 through 2014)

Ranking	Law   School	Weighted   Score	Mean,   Median	10   Most Cited (Tenured) Scholars (* indicates 70 or older in 2015)
1	Yale University	1766	638,   490	*B.   Ackerman, A. Amar, I. Ayres, J. Balkin, W. Eskridge, D. Kahan, H. Koh, J.   Macey, R. Post, R. Siegel
2	Harvard   University	1384	520,   344	R.   Fallon, J. Goldsmith, L. Kaplow, L. Lessig, M. Minow, S. Shavell, C.   Sunstein, *L. Tribe, *M. Tushnet, A. Vermeule
3	University of Chicago	1300	468,   364	D. Baird,   O. Ben-Shahar, T. Ginsburg, B. Leiter, S. Levmore, R. McAdams, M. Nussbaum,   E. Posner, G. Stone, D. Strauss
4	New York   University	1123	397,   329	R. Barkow, S. Choi, *R. Epstein, B. Friedman,   S. Issacharoff, *A. Miller, G. Miller, R. Pildes, *R. Stewart, J. Waldron
5	Stanford   University	1013	369,   275	*L. Friedman, *P. Goldstein, *R. Gordon, P.   Karlan, M. Lemley, M. McConnell, M. Polinsky, D. Rhode, D. Sklansky, A. Sykes
6	University of   California, Irvine	994	392,   210	D. Burk, J. Chacón, E. Chemerinsky, C. Fisk, B.   Garth, R. Hasen, C. Leslie, C. Menkel-Meadow, A. Reese, G. Shaffer
7	Columbia   University	945	348,   249	R. Briffault, *J. Coffee, K. Crenshaw, R. Gilson,   *K. Greenawalt, T. Merrill, *H. Monaghan, *J. Raz, *R. Scott, *P. Strauss
8	Duke University	910	312,   286	M. Adler,   J. Boyle, C. Bradley, J. Cox, M. Gulati, L. Helfer, H.J. Powell, A. Rai, S.   Schwarcz, E. Young
9	Vanderbilt   University	812	303,   206	L. Bressman, C. Guthrie, N. King, J.   Rossi, E. Rubin, J.B. Ruhl, S. Sherry, C. Slobogin, R. Thomas W.K. Viscusi
9	University of   California, Berkeley	808	300,   208	*R. Cooter, S. Davidoff Solomon, D. Farber, *M.   Feeley, I. Haney Lopez, P. Menell, R. Merges, P. Samuelson, J. Yoo, *F. Zimring
11	University of Pennsylvania	780	289,   202	T. Baker M. Berman, S. Bibas, W. Bratton, S.   Burbank, J. Fisch, G. Parchomovsky, D. Roberts, P. Robinson, E. Rock, D.   Skeel, C. Yoo
12	Northwestern   University	756	277,   202	R. Allen,   B. Black, S. Calabresi, D. Dana, S. Diamond, A.   Koppelman, J. McGinnis, J. Pfander, *M. Redish, D. Rodriguez, D. Schwartz
13	Cornell   University	748	273,   202	G.   Alexander, J. Blume, *K. Clermont, M. Dorf, V. Hans, M. Heise, E. Peñalver,   J. Rachlinski, S. Schwab, L. Stout
13	University of   California, Los Angeles	733	272,   189	S.   Bainbridge, D. Carbado, K. Crenshaw, J. Kang, R. Korobkin, H. Motomura, N.   Netanel, K. Raustiala, J. Salzman, E. Volokh, A. Winkler
15	Georgetown   University	636	239,   158	R. Barnett, J. Cohen, D. Cole, L. Gostin, N.   Katyal, D. Langevoort, D. Luban, L. Solum, R. Tushnet, R. West
15	University of Michigan,   Ann Arbor	640	230,   180	R. Avi-Yonah, S. Bagenstos, D. Crane, R.   Eisenberg, S. Gross, J. Litman, C. MacKinnon, A. Pritchard, C. Schneider, B.   Simma
17	University of Virginia	608	231,   146	D. Brown, J. Duffy, B. Garrett, J.   Jeffries, D. Laycock, C. Nelson, S. Prakash, F. Schauer, A. Spencer, *G.E.   White
17	George   Washington University	600	226,   148	M. Abramowicz, N. Cahn, B. Clark, R. Glicksman,   O. Kerr, W. Kovavic, *R. Pierce, J. Rosen, M. Selmi, D. Solove
19	University of   Minnesota, Twin Cities	564	203,   158	J. Carbone, T. Cotter, R.A. Duff, R. Frase, K.   Hickman, C. Hill, B. Karkkainen, A. Klass, H. Kritzer, B. McDonnell, R.   Painter, M. Tonry
20	University of   Texas, Austin	554	199,   156	R. Bone, R. Chesney, F. Cross, D. Jinks, *S.   Levinson, T. McGarity, *L. Sager, C. Silver, W. Wagner, *J. Westbrook
21	George Mason   University	537	196,   145	D. Bernstein, H. Butler, D. Ginsburg, M. Greve,   B. Kobayashi, N. Lund, A. Mossoff, I. Soomin, J. Wright, T. Zywicki
21	Washington   University, St. Louis	533	193,   147	S. Appleton, L. Epstein, P. Joy, P. Kim, D.   Law, S. Legomsky, *D. Mandelker, N. Richards, H. Sale, B. Tamanaha
21	Boston   University	532	192,   148	J. Beermann, S. Dogan, J. Fleming, *T. Frankel,   W. Gordon, K. Hylton, G. Lawson, T. Maclin, L. McClain, M. Meurer
24	University of   California, Davis	519	191,   137	A. Bhagwat, A. Chander, G. Chin, W. Dodge, A.   Harris, D. Horton, K. Johnson, P. Lee, M. Sunder, D. Ventry, R. Villazor
25	Case Western   Reserve University	479	171,   137	J. Adler, C. Burke Robertson, G. Dent, *P.   Gianelli, B. Hill, S. Hoffman, K. McMunigal, L. Mitchell, C. Nard, M. Scharf
25	University of   Notre Dame	468	161,   146	R. Alford, A. Bellia, *J. Finnis, N. Garnett, R.   Garnett, M. McKenna, J. Nagle, N. Newton, M. O’Connell, J. Tidmarsh
27	University of   Illinois, Urbana-Champaign	467	169,   129	V. Amar, P. Heald, D. Hyman, J. Kesan, K. Lash,   R. Lawless, J. Mazzone, *M. Moore, J. Robbennolt, S. Thomas, R. Wilson
27	Emory University	460	161,   138	R. Ahdieh, J. Bailey, M. Dudziak, M. fineman, T.   Holbrook, M. Kang, J. Nash, *M. Perry, R. Schapiro, J. Witte, *B. Woodhouse
29	Cardozo Law   School/Yeshiva University	442	154,   134	B. Frischmann, M. Gilles, M. Hamilton, M. Herz,   A. Reinert, M. Rosenfeld, B. Scheck, A. Sebok, A. Stein, S. Sterk, E.   Zelinsky
29	University of Arizona	441	160,   121	J. Anaya, D. Bambauer, K. Engel, *R. Glennon, D.   Marcus, T. Massaro, M. Miller, *C. Rose, W. Sjostrom, R. Williams
29	University of Colorado,   Boulder	437	154,   129	A. Gruber, M. Hart, P. Huang, S. Moss, *C.   Mueller, H. Norton, P. Schlag, A. Schmitz, P. Weiser, *C. Wilkinson
29	Ohio State   University	434	160,   114	M. Alexander, D. Berman, G. Caldeira, M.   Chamallas, S. Cole, R. Colker, J. Dressler, D. Merritt, P. Shane, D. Tokaji
33	University of North   Carolina, Chapel Hill	431	150,   131	A. Brophy, J. Conley, V. Flatt, M. Gerhardt, T.   Hazen, M. Jacoby, W. Marshall, R. Mosteller, G. Nichol, M. Papandrea, G.   Polsky, J. Wegner
33	Brooklyn Law   School	421	150,   121	W. Araiza, M. Baer, A. Bernstein, D. Brakman   Reiser, I. Capers, M. Garrison, E. Janger, *R. Karmel, E. Schneider, L.   Solan, N. Tebbe, *A. Twerski
35	Indiana   University, Bloomingon	414	141,   132	H. Buxbaum, F. Cate, K. Dau-Schmidtz, C. Geyh, M.   Grossberg, W. Henderson, M. Janis, D. Johnsen, L. Lederman, A. Parrish
35	University of Utah	413	149,115	R. Adler, A. Anghie, P. Cassell, R.   Craig, L. Davies, A. Guiora, F. Hessick, C. Hessick, C. Peterson, *A. Reitze
35	Fordham   University	408	145,   118	J. Brudney, N. Davidson, H. Erichson, M.   Flaherty, S. Foster, J. Gordon, B. Green, S. Griffith, C. Huntington, T. Lee,   E. Leib, R. Pearce, B. Zipursky
35	University of   San Diego	399	159,   81	*L. Alexander, D. Dripps, V. Fleischer,   O. Lobel, D. McGowan, F. Partnoy, M. Ramsey, M. Rappaport, T. Sichelman, S.   Smith
39	Florida State   University	395	140,   115	F. Abbott, K. Alces, R. Atkinson, S. Hsu, S.   Johnson, W. Logan, D. Markell, E. Ryan, M. Seidenfeld, N. Stern, F. Tesón, M.   Utset
39	Arizona State   University	393	142,   109	*K. Abbott,   D. Bodansky, R. Clinton, *I. Ellman, A. Fellmeth, J. Hodge, E. Luna, G.   Marchant, *J. Murphy, M. Saks, R. Tsosie
39	University of   Southern California	393	142,   109	J. Barnett, R. Brown, S. Estrich, A.   Gross, A. Guzman, G. Hadfield, G. Keating, E. Kleinbard, E. McCaffery, R.   Rasmussen, D. Simon
39	University of   St. Thomas (Minn.)	393	147,   99	T. Berg, T. Collet, R. Delahunty, *N. Hamilton,   L. Johnson, J. Nichols, M. Paulsen, G. Sisk, S. Stabile, R. Vischer