Media Company Bows To Law Schools’ Boycott of Its Annual Best Report

Harvard Law opted out of the U.S. News's best law schools ranking annual report in November 2022. Pictured is Langdell Hall at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., on May 10, 2010. (Darren McCollester/Getty Images)

In reaction to a mass defection of institutions participating in its annual rankings of the best law schools, U.S. News and World Report announced that it will change the methodologies and practices it uses in its evaluations.

The media company’s decision is a manifestation of a seismic change in higher education and the legal sector that is front and center of a heated national conversation on affirmative action and inclusion policies.

It is a dialogue getting hotter and it pits the position that change is needed against the tenet that a significant portion of that change is wokeness and political correctness run amok and will weaken America.

Yale Law School announced on Nov. 16, 2022, it would no longer participate in the U.S. News Best Law Schools issue. File photo from Feb. 7, 2007. (Public Domain)

Critics claim the metrics that U.S. News uses in its rankings encourage institutions to—in their quest to improve or hold on to their place—operate in a manner favoring applicants from comfortable socio-economic backgrounds, inhibits building a more diverse student body and discourages offering support to students seeking to pursue a career in public service.

U.S. News issued a release on Jan. 3 addressing concerns with its ranking methodologies and detailing the adjustments it is implementing.

“In the past few weeks, U.S. News has engaged more than 100 deans and representatives of law schools as part of our review of our Best Law Schools ranking,” said Kim Castro, editor and chief content officer for U.S. News.

“We listened to their recent feedback and are developing ways to be responsive while maintaining our independence, mission, and purpose.

“Based on those discussions, our own research, and our iterative rankings review process, we are making a series of modifications in this year’s rankings that reflect those inputs and allow us to publish the best available data.”

Prestigious and Influential

For more than 30 years, the rankings have wielded immense influence over prospective law students and their considerations as to which schools they will apply to, employers choosing who to hire, the desire of alumni to donate to their alma mater, and academics deciding where they would like to teach.

On Nov. 16, Yale Law, which has occupied the top spot on the U.S. News list since it first came out in 1987, rocked the world of legal education when it announced it would no longer participate in the U.S. News Best Law Schools issue.

Yale’s decision to no longer provide U.S. News with internal information and data launched a wave of law schools quickly following suit, with Harvard Law making its own announcement later that same day and University of California’s Berkeley Law doing so the following day.

By the middle of December, every school on the U.S. News top 14 (T14) list, except for University of Chicago Law and Cornell Law, was on board with the boycott.

University of Chicago and Cornell have not amended their decision to continue cooperating with U.S. News.

Push to Increase Diversity

The avalanche of law school departures from the U.S. News rankings—and the company’s response—stems from a broad-ranging push of an agenda by progressives in the interest of admitting more students of color.

A story in The Epoch Times published on Dec. 16 discussed the movement, also championed by progressives, of law schools to do away with the requirement that applicants take the Law School Admission Test (LSAT)—and how, starting in 2025, the American Bar Association, the organization that accredits law schools in the United States, will no longer require its members to mandate applicants submit LSAT scores.

Also discussed in the article are examples of growing resistance to affirmative action policy, namely, two cases being reviewed in the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the cases—Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College, and Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. University of North Carolina—the petitioner filed a lawsuit asserting that the schools “have employed and are employing racially and ethnically discriminatory policies and procedures in administering the undergraduate admissions program.”

Going Forward

Some who have taken issue with the U.S. News rankings have called on the publication to halt the annual feature.

U.S. News has rejected that demand and will continue to rank even law schools that do not share information and statistics with the publication.

The 2023-2024 U.S. News Best Law Schools issue will be released in the spring.

And what is the response of law school deans and those championing systematic change in higher education to the overtures of U.S. News and its commitment to adjust and make changes to its ranking methods?

Mixed—and even when positive, not enthusiastically so.

The response of at least one dean has to be just about the opposite of that for which U.S. News had hoped.

On Jan. 9, Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken issued a statement in which she said, “Having a window into the operations and decision-making process at U.S. News in recent weeks has only cemented our decision to stop participating in the rankings.”

No law school has announced that it will return to cooperating with U.S. News and World Report in the development of its best law schools segment.