US News just released its 2020 law school rankings. The top five law schools remain Yale, Stanford, Harvard, University of Chicago and Columbia in that order. Also in the T14, UVA and Michigan changed places at eighth and ninth, respectively. Finally, there is now a three-way tie for tenth place. Berkeley, Duke and Northwestern all now lay equal claim to that spot.
We noticed three big movers outside the T14. University of Florida climbed ten spots to #31. Carolina Law climbed 11 spots to #34. (Which is still too low a ranking in our opinion). And, thirdly, Emory fell four spots to #26 and is now just outside the Top 25.
What a great segue to remind our readers to take this and all rankings for that matter with a proverbial ‘grain of salt.’ Chances are strong at least one of the twelve top ten schools will fall out of next year’s top ten. (How many more ties do you expect us to see in the future?) However, we do have one near-guarantee certainty to share with you. If you choose to attend a school based on fit, you are far more likely to be happy with your decision regardless of where that school lands in any future rankings list.