Columbia Law School regains top ranking

Columbia Law School replaced the University of Pennsylvania Law School in the top spot among U.S. law schools for placing the highest percentage of its graduates in associate jobs at large law firms during 2013, according to The National Law Journal’s annual Go-To Law Schools report.


The survey ranks the 50 law schools that send the highest percentage of their new graduates into jobs at NLJ 250 firms, the largest U.S.-based law firms according to attorney headcount.

“Our survey found that associate hiring ticked up for a second consecutive year in 2013,” said Beth Frerking, editor in chief of ALM’s The National Law Journal. “We also found that among the 50 law schools most popular for hiring by the nation’s 250 largest law firms, 27 percent of their graduates landed associate jobs, up from 25 percent in 2012. It’s the highest percentage reported in three years.”

The special Go-To Law Schools report appears in the February 24th issue of the newspaper and is also available online at www.nlj.com. 

Columbia Law School regained the No. 1 ranking it last held during 2007 and 2008 and saw its percentage of new graduates at the country’s largest law firms rise from 53 percent last year to 65 percent in 2013.
The University of Pennsylvania Law School had held the No. 1 position for two years straight.

Rounding out the Top 10 were the New York University School of Law at No. 2, Harvard Law School at No. 3, University of Chicago at No. 4, Penn at No. 5, Northwestern University School of Law at No. 6, Duke Law School at No. 7, Stanford Law School at No. 8, Cornell Law School at No. 9, and the University of California, Berkeley School of Law at No. 10. All of these law schools ranked within the Top 10 in 2012.

U.C. Berkeley School of Law was the highest-ranking public law school on the list, a distinction it has held each year since 2011. New to the top 50 list were Ohio State University Michael E. Moritz College of Law; Tulane University Law School; the University of Iowa College of Law; Brigham Young University J. Reuben Clark Law School; Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law; and Yeshiva University Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

The data were provided by law firms surveyed for the NLJ 250. For firms that did not submit new associate numbers, The National Law Journal relied on data from ALM’s RivalEdge database and independent reporting.

The rankings do not reflect law graduates who took jobs as judicial clerks following graduation.