The US News rankings are out, and as usual, they are controversial. In the overall law school rankings, their methodology is questionable as all kinds of factors are counted and law schools have (shocker) learned how to game the system. In the specialty rankings, my understanding is that the rankings are based purely on reputational scores voted on by law school faculty. While that may not be the best method to do a ranking (it could be a lagging indicator among other problems), it certainly is better than the overall rankings.
Setting aside the discussion of whether the rankings are good or bad, here is the list of the top ten schools in the Dispute Resolution category.
1. Pepperdine
2. Missouri
3. Harvard
4. Hamline
5. Ohio State
6. Marquette
7. Oregon and Yeshiva University (Cardoza) – tie
9. UNLV
10. Fordham
Congrats to the schools on the list and if anyone has access to the full list, please let us know who else is on it.
For more on how the US News overall rankings are suspect, see
http://lightandliberty.rationalmind.net/2009/04/the-absurdity-of-usnews.html
There really hasn’t been much change since last year has there?
2008:
1. Pepperdine
2. Harvard, University of Missouri-Columbia
4. Hamline
5. Ohio State University, Moritz College of Law
6. Marquette
7. University of Oregon
8. Cardozo
9. UNLV
10. Fordham
http://gb8.254.myftpupload.com/?p=97
Mizzou distinguished themselves from Harvard, and Oregon and Cardozo tied.
For me, I repeat my last year’s sentiment: GO MARQUETTE! WOOO!