U.S. News and World Report published its first ranking of law schools in November 1987. Their second ranking of law schools occurred in 1990 and since then they have been published annually.
The U.S. News and World Report Top Forty-Four of the nineties
Bubbling Under the Top Forty-four.
THE TOP FORTY-FOUR LAW SCHOOLS OF THE NINETIES
The March 1990 to March 1993 rankings were limited to the top 25 law schools; only 18 law schools were ranked in the top 25 for all of these four years. As the following table makes abundantly clear, those eighteen law schools were clearly the top 18 law schools of the nineties and, as it turns out for, also for the second millennium up to at least April 2007. In the following table, the average rank for each of these eighteen law schools is simply the average of their ten rankings from March 1990 to March 1999 (inclusive). For the law schools that were ranked in at least six but at most nine of the ten rankings from March 1990 to March 1999 (inclusive), we calculated their average rank using the average of their six best rankings; these six rankings are in a lavender-filled cell. The color coding for the top eighteen law schools indicates a pattern (e.g. the grey indicates that, with the exception of March 1997, from March 1992 to, at least, March 1999 inclusively, Harvard and Stanford were consistently ranked second or third, in some order. All these color-coded patterns have continued into the next millennium.
Nov
Mar
Apr
Mar
Mar
Mar
Mar
Mar
Mar
Mar
Mar
Aver
LAW SCHOOL
1987
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
Rank
Yale U (CT)
1.5
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1.05
Harvard U (MA)
1.5
5
2
2
2
2
2.5
2
2
2.5
2.5
2.45
Stanford U (CA)
4.5
3
4
3
3
3
2.5
3
4
2.5
2.5
3.05
U Chicago
6
2
3
4
4
4
4
4
3
4.5
6
3.85
Columbia U (NY)
4.5
4
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
4.5
5
4.85
New York U
9
6
7
7
6
6
6
6
6
6
4
6.00
U Michigan
3
7
6
6
7
8
9
7
7
9.5
8.5
7.50
Duke U (NC)
12
8
9
9
9
7
9
10
10
9.5
8.5
8.90
U Virginia
8
10
8
8
8
14
7
9
9
9.5
7
8.95
U Pennsylvania
10
9
10
10
11
9
11.5
8
11
9.5
12.5
10.2
UC Berkeley
7
13
12
12
12
10
9
12.5
8
7
10.5
10.6
Georgetown U (DC)
13
12
11
11
10
13
13
12.5
14
13
14
12.4
Cornell U (NY)
15
14
13
14
14
11
14
11
12
13
10.5
12.7
Northwestern U (IL)
16
11
14
13
13
12
11.5
14
13
13
12.5
12.7
Vanderbilt U (TN)
15
17
16
16
15
16
16
17
16
16.5
16.1
U Southern California
17.5
17
16
18
18
18
15
15
15
15
18.5
16.6
UCLA
14
18
18
17
17
16
24
17
16
17
16.5
17.7
U Texas, Austin
11
16
15
15
15
21
17
18
18
31
15
18.1
U Minnesota, TC
19
22.5
21
25
17
18
21
23
18
18.5
18.9
Washington and Lee U
24.5
23
21
20
20.5
19
20
20.6
U Illinois, UC
17.5
24.5
28
20
19
19
20.5
23.5
21.1
U Iowa
19
24.5
23.5
19
19
33
28
24
23.5
21.3
Boston College
20
22.5
19
24
26
26
22
22
27
21.6
Emory U (GA)
23.5
22
25
23.5
29
26.5
28
24.8
U Washington
22.5
25
34
23.5
25
23
25.5
24.1
George Washington U
23.5
22.5
24.5
21
44
22
22
24
20.5
25.5
21.9
U Notre Dame (IN)
19
24.5
20
20
26
39
25
20.5
26.5
21.5
20.9
U Georgia
27
27
27
27
35
37.5
30.1
U North Carolina
21
24.5
32
32
34
34
26.5
21.5
26.3
Fordham U (NY)
33.5
33
28
26
26.5
41
31.3
C William and Mary
29
28
30
36
35
33.5
31.9
Boston U
38
35
29
31
31
33.5
32.9
UC Davis
22
30
30.5
41
39
31
33.5
31
U Wisconsin, Madison
20
21
22
37
23
43
38
37.5
30
25.5
Washington U (MO)
48
29
31
37
31
33.5
34.9
Brigham Young U (UT)
43
48
32
33
31
30
36.2
UC Hastings
20
19
23.5
20
45
45
41
30
25.6
Indiana U, Bloomington
33.5
37
37
44
37.5
37.5
37.8
Wake Forest U (NC)
36
44
35
35
35
43.5
38.1
U Arizona
31
30.5
50.5
40
40
37.5
38.3
U Colorado, Boulder
35
47
39
30
46
45
40.3
U Connecticut
41
46
38
32
48.5
41
41.1
Ohio State
46
38
48
45
42
43.5
43.8
Tulane U (LA)
41
50
49
48
46
41
45.8
BUBBLING UNDER THE TOP FORTY-FOUR LAW SCHOOLS OF THE NINETIES
The average rank for these five law schools is the average of their five rankings.
