U.S. News & World Report has, at last, released its rankings of the best law schools in the country, and several Texas institutions saw gains for 2024 over 2023.
A preview of the rankings was initially released to the universities in April, then rescinded for further review after leaders at some law schools raised alarms about issues with the data. U.S. News said in a news release in April the delay was due to “an unprecedented number of inquiries” about the rankings, which came on the heels of a decision by many leading law schools to boycott the rankings altogether.
U.S. News responded to the boycott by changing some of its methodology, relying only on publicly-available data rather than data that had to be furnished by the universities. One category no longer being considered, for example, is the amount of student loan debt graduates are carrying when they leave the law schools.
Texas’ flagship law school, The University of Texas School of Law, jumped one spot in the 2024 rankings to 16 to remain the best-ranked in the state.
Here is the list of where Texas law schools ranked for 2024:
- #16 — University of Texas School of Law
- #29 — Texas A&M University School of Law
- #45 — Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law
- #49 — Baylor Law School
- #60 — University of Houston Law Center
- #71 — Texas Tech University School of Law
- #153 — St. Mary’s School of Law
- #162 — South Texas College of Law, Houston
- #167 — University of North Texas at Dallas College of Law
Texas Southern University’s Thurgood Marshall School of Law found itself in the bottom 25 percent of law schools, to which U.S. News does not assign an official ranking but identifies as being between 180 and 196.
For context, here’s where Texas law schools ranked in 2023:
- #17 — University of Texas School of Law
- #46 — Texas A&M University School of Law
- #58 — Baylor Law School; Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law; University of Houston Law Center (tie)
- #105 — Texas Tech University School of Law
In 2023, South Texas College of Law Houston, St. Mary’s University School of Law and Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law were all in the unranked, bottom 25 percent of law schools. And the University of North Texas at Dallas College of Law wasn’t accredited by the American Bar Association in time to be part of the 2023 rankings.
Texas A&M School of Law Dean Robert B. Ahdieh spoke to The Lawbook about the rankings, why A&M never considered joining the list of schools boycotting them, and what goals are on the horizon for the fast-rising school that was acquired by Texas A&M 10 years ago from Texas Wesleyan University.
He said some of A&M’s jump can be attributed to the changing metrics relied on by U.S. News, namely the decision to weight more heavily certain outcomes — how students do on the bar exam and what their employment results are.
“We recruited strong new faculty who enhanced the reputation of the law school,” he said. “We recruited a better caliber of students. But also, we’re singularly focused on how to ensure students are passing the bar exam to the highest extent possible and finding good jobs on the back end. The confluence of those two things produced this jump.”
For the February bar exam, Texas A&M notched a 100 percent pass rate.
Ahdieh said the university did not consider withdrawing from participation in the rankings because, despite any flaws in the methodology, the list still provides valuable information to prospective students trying to decide which law school to go to.
“If there were two or five rankings our there with a significant degree of visibility and salience … that can be, I think, valuable, and I think the legal education field would be better served if there were multiple rankings,” he said. “But we’re not in that world yet, and until we get to that world, our view is U.S. News is providing that.”
While A&M law school leadership certainly keeps an eye on where UT law is ranked and aims to compete with that, Ahdieh said the true competition, in his view, is with schools in California.
“If you look at the number of law schools in the Top 10, California has two and Texas has zero,” he said. “If you look at the Top 30, California has four and we’ve got two in Texas. There’s no good reason for that.”
“From my vantage, what I would love to see in the rankings is that all of [the Texas schools] are rising,” he said. “Because growth of the legal market in Texas and the ability to compete with the market in New York and other places will in part be a function of what’s the caliber of legal education we have here in the state. Really, that’s the real goal, is that legal education in Texas as a whole should rise.”
SMU Dedman School of Law Dean Jason P. Nance issued a statement to The Lawbook that the law school was pleased it moved up in the rankings.
“We are also pleased that the U.S. News rankings system is now more closely aligned with metrics that are very important to us, such as employment outcomes for graduates and bar passage rates,” he said.
Baylor declined to comment on the rankings Thursday.
In a February interview with The Lawbook about his decision to step down as dean of the law school and return to the faculty July 1, Bradley Toben said Baylor had not and will not consider withdrawing from participation in the U.S. News & World Report rankings as some prestigious universities have recently decided to do.
“And here’s why: The U.S. News & World Report methodology is unquestionably flawed, but whether you like it or not, it’s the coin of the realm for those considering law school,” he said. “We’re kind of proud of the data that we send to U.S. News each year, and if you pull out they have to develop that data themselves, and I’d rather furnish accurate data.”
He said in the wake of the decision of some law schools to stop participating in the rankings, he received a phone call from the publication and had an honest conversation with its leadership about how Toben felt the methodology could be improved.
“And as you know, some methodology is going to be changed now,” he said in February.
Messages requesting interviews with leaders at Texas Tech School of Law, UH Law Center and UT Law were not returned.