Top Law Schools Snub ‘US News’ Rankings, Marking Shift in Legal Industry

  • At least 11 of the top 14 schools have spurned US News list
  • Their rejection comes as industry undergoes generational shift
The Sterling Law Building at Yale Law School.Photographer: Enzo Figueres/Moment Mobile ED/Getty Images
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When Elizabeth Samuels began applying to law schools in 2020, her highest priority was to get into a T14 school — one in the top 14 according to US News & World Report, the go-to source for such rankings.

“It was hammered in from the moment I started applying that it’s all about getting into a T14 school, if not a T6 school,” said Samuels, a second-year law student at fourth-ranked Harvard Law School. “I was told by many different people that if you go to those schools, you’re gonna have every opportunity in the world.”