U.S. News & World Report on Thursday released its 2010 law school rankings, which undoubtedly will renew the ongoing conversation about the usefulness of this enterprise, The National Law Journal reports.
There were few shakeups at the top of the list this year. Yale Law School, Harvard Law School, Stanford Law School and Columbia Law School remained in the top four places, in declining order.
Critics have long faulted the U.S. News rankings for being overly simplistic, easily manipulated and unreflective of the unique strengths of individual schools. The rankings have a core group of supporters, however. Northwestern University School of Law Dean David Van Vandt this week wrote a post on the legal blog Above the Law arguing that they provide important information to would-be law students even if they are imperfect.
Colorado’s law schools remained steady.
The University of Colorado Law School ranked 38th on the list. It did not release a public statement.
The University of Denver said:
For the ninth straight year, the University of Denver (DU) Sturm College of Law is ranked among the top 100 law schools in the country by U.S. News & World Report while five of the school’s specialized programs are listed among the highest ranked programs in the country.
The publication’s “America’s Best Graduate Schools,” released April 15, lists the Sturm College of Law among the nation’s top-tier schools, tied at No. 80 with Louisiana State University; Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, campuses in Camden and Newark, N.J.; the University of Oregon; and the Illinois Institute of Technology.
DU ranked No. 12 in the country for tax law; No. 14 for environmental law studies; No. 18 for part-time legal education; No. 19 for legal writing (tied with Lewis & Clark College and Ruters-Camden); and No. 25 for clinical training.
