“Onward and upward,” remarked LSU Law Chancellor Jack Weiss when asked to comment on the 2009 U.S. News and World Report Rankings of Best Graduate Schools. Rankings released today placed the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center at number 88 and within the top 100 American Bar Association (ABA) law schools. The Center was tied at number 88 with six other schools, including Catholic University, DePaul, Northeastern, St. John’s, University of Denver and University of Nevada-Las Vegas. Chancellor Weiss hopes to see the school move even higher in the next few years.
The Law Center’s rankings have improved dramatically over the past 10 years, moving from fourth tier ranking into the top 100 schools of law beginning in 2004. The Law Center was ranked 91 in the 2008 report.
“Our continued focus on recruitment of outstanding students is certainly paying off for the Law Center,” said Chancellor Weiss, who was appointed Chancellor of the Law Center in July 2007. Undergraduate grade point average (GPA) and Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) scores, along with acceptance rates, figure heavily in the peer ranking methodology used by the magazine. “When word gets around about our new clinical program, our outstanding new faculty hires, and the extraordinary students we’re attracting both from Louisiana and beyond, I’m optimistic that we can improve our ranking even more in the years to come.”
U.S. News and World Report ranks all 184 accredited American Bar Association law schools. The rankings are derived from various subcategories related to selectivity in the admission process, student success in employment, and bar passage. Among the subcategories are: the past year’s entering class statistics and acceptance rate; faculty/student ratio; and peer assessment scores provided through surveys of selected lawyers, judges, law school deans, administrators and tenured faculty. Rankings in the various subcategories are combined to derive an overall score.
For more information, contact Karen Soniat, 225/578-8645 or ksonia2@lsu.edu
