US News releases its 2023 law school rankings; who switched spots?

Law Schools

By Stephanie Francis Ward

March 28, 2022, 11:01 pm CDT

Yale Law School kept its No. 1 spot on the 2023 U.S. News & World Report rankings, which were released Tuesday, and the University of Chicago Law School moved up—from No. 4 to No. 3 on the list.

Meanwhile, Harvard Law School dropped from No. 3 to No. 4 on the list, tying with Columbia Law School. Stanford Law School remained in its No. 2 spot.

Methodology changes for the rankings this year included changing how first-time bar passage rates are treated to incorporate all first-time test-takers, according to a press release. The data is based on 2020 test-takers.

“Specifically, the bar passage rate indicator scored schools on their 2020 first-time test-takers’ weighted bar passage rates among all jurisdictions (states), then added or subtracted the percentage point difference between those rates and the weighted state average among ABA accredited schools’ first-time test-takers in the corresponding jurisdictions in 2020,” according to a press release.

Another change, according to the press release, was “paring down the library resources metrics to a single factor pertaining to student support by professional librarians.”

Here are the schools that made the top 20 on U.S. News & World Report’s list of 2023 best law schools:

1) Yale University

2) Stanford University

3) The University of Chicago

4) Columbia University (tie)

4) Harvard University (tie)

6) The University of Pennsylvania

7) New York University

8) The University of Virginia

9) The University of California at Berkeley

10) The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor

11) Duke University