Law School Rankings by Practice Area

[chrisi]

Does anyone know where I can find law school rankings by practice area?  I've looked at the 8 or so subject area US News ranks and am looking for additional practice areas.

thanks for the help.

[john4040]

Does anyone know where I can find law school rankings by practice area?  I've looked at the 8 or so subject area US News ranks and am looking for additional practice areas.

thanks for the help.

Please, do yourself a favor and disregard any ranking system that purports to rank law schools based on "practice area."  If you told us which practice area you are interested in, we might be able to point to schools that offer a variety of classes in, or place particular emphasis on, that area of the law.

[MikePing]

For non-ranked specialties, you should find a school with one or two professors who are famous in that area.  There are a lot of practice focus' that you will have trouble finding very many classes on.  Expertise in those areas isn't generally available from law school. 

[chrisi]

How about litigation program rankings?  Also, tax is an area I am interested in.

Do rankings like these really not exist. Like I said above, I have seen US News', I was just looking for more rankings.

Thanks

[john4040]

How about litigation program rankings?  Also, tax is an area I am interested in.

Do rankings like these really not exist. Like I said above, I have seen US News', I was just looking for more rankings.

Thanks

Litigation program rankings are a joke.  Litigation is learned on-the-job, not in school.  For tax, your best bet is probably the schools that have top tax LLM programs:  NYU, University of Florida, Georgetown University, and Northwestern University.

[MikePing]

US News does both tax and litigation rankings:

Litigation Rankings.

Tax Rankings.

[chrisi]

Thanks John, I appreciate the advice. Is there somewhere online where I can find LLM rankings?

Thanks Mike, I had reviewed those and was just checking if there are alternate rankings I could find.


Thanks again.

[MikePing]

I would suggest that you compile your own personalized rankings. Ranking systems can't really do anything but tell you a school's reputation.  US News is remarkably close on that. 

The most important factor that you should be considering is where you want to work/practice after graduation.  Going to University of Iowa (#27) won't help you much if you want to work in NYC.  Different schools have different reputations in thier community for specialties. 

Good example is South Texas, a T4 school, which is in the top 10 trial advocacy schools.  Graduating from South Texas (if you are on the moot court team) gives you the same opportunities in Texas that UT (#15) does.
   

[chrisi]

Thanks Mike, I will compile my own list.

[john4040]

Good example is South Texas, a T4 school, which is in the top 10 trial advocacy schools.  Graduating from South Texas (if you are on the moot court team) gives you the same opportunities in Texas that UT (#15) does.
 

Mike, your guidance is usually spot-on (e.g., "The most important factor that you should be considering is where you want to work/practice after graduation"), but I disagree with the statement in the box above.  Graduating from South Texas, even if you are on the moot court team, will NOT give you the same opportunities in Texas that UT does.  For one, most bigger firms (or boutiques that are formed from large-firm partner defections) will not even look at a South Texas grad for an entry-level position unless he/she is within the top 5% of the class.  Those firms would, however, be willing to consider a UT grad that was further back in the class rankings.

But, I digress. So, back to the OP: 
Once again, I stress that litigation skills are learned by doing and watching, not by reading or sitting in a classroom.  Litigation skills are most effectively learned on-the-job.

As an aside, I have served as a witness and sat as a judge in two separate regional mock trial competitions.  As a witness, I was told by "my attorneys" to make up additional facts that were not in the standard fact pattern given to each school.  The reason:  To throw the opposing counsel off, thereby, hindering their performance.  As a mock Judge and a (real life) district court clerk, I was able to compare the in-court experience the mock litigants received with the in-court experience I have received watching and being involved in numerous trials.  Those experiences were worlds apart and I can say with certainty that mock trials, although similar, are not a true reflection of real-life litigation.

My $.02:  Get a feel for being a trial/appellate attorney with moot court / mock trial.  But, realize that it is not a reflection of reality and don't expect the experience to set you apart from other litigators in the long-run.