The UA School of Law is in the top tier of the U.S. News and World Report graduate school rankings.

UA School of Law ranked 94th in the nation

By: Jack Willems

Posted: 4/29/09

U.S. News and World Report has ranked the UA School of Law 94th in its 2010 "America's Best Graduate Schools" edition, putting the school in the top tier of law schools in the country.

"We are thrilled to be included among the top-tier law schools," said Cynthia Nance, dean of the UA School of Law. "This ranking is a testament to the outstanding work done by our faculty and students and the remarkable achievement of our alumni. It's heartening to know that colleagues nationwide are taking note of our great strides."

The UA School of Law is tied for 94th with the law schools at St. Louis University, Catholic University of America and Northeastern University, receiving a score of 42 out of a possible 100, according to the U.S. News and World Report Web site. There were 184 schools ranked. Arkansas' legal writing program was ranked 22nd in the country.

"I am very pleased that the School of Law is being recognized as one of the best in the nation," Chancellor G. David Gearhart said. "As an alumnus of the school, I am doubly pleased. The law school's success reflects positively on the entire UA, and I thank Dean Nance, the faculty, staff, students and alumni for their good work."

All law schools ranked in the top 100 are considered to be in the top tier. All other schools are unranked and fit into either the third or fourth tiers. The UA-Little Rock's Bowen School of Law is in the third tier. There is no second tier.

"Many prospective students go to the U.S. News and World Report first when deciding to go to law school," said Andy Albertson, director of communications at the law school.

This ranking means that other law schools recognize the good work that is done at the UA, Albertson said. The increased recognition is a result of professors having their work published in prestigious law reviews such as the Yale Law Review and Vanderbilt Law Review, he said. Also, faculty members have published three books this year, and Nance has traveled the country promoting the law school, Albertson said.

The ranking of the law schools is based on the assessment of peers in other law schools, the assessment of lawyers and judges, the median LSAT scores of all students, the median undergraduate grade point average of all students, the acceptance rate, the rate of employment for graduates, the bar passage rate for graduates, the faculty resources, the amount of money spent on each student, the student/faculty ratio and the library resources, according to the Web site.

Kathryn Sampson, a professor in the legal writing department, is pleased that her department was ranked 22nd in the nation because the faculty have been working hard at getting the word out, she said. The legal writing program at the law school is comprised of three classes, one for the first three semesters of law school, that are worth seven hours total, she said.

Orientation and Legal Research and Writing I is the first class, and it requires that law students write two 15-page memorandums and teaches those students to use legal research materials and methods.

In the second semester, students take Appellate Research: Legal Research and Writing II, and they are required to write an Appellate's brief and make an oral argument before a professor and alumni judges.

In the third semester, students must take Pretrial Practice: Legal Research and Writing III, where they must prepare client letters, pleadings, discovery documents and other documents. The classes include one-on-one time with professors to review drafts of documents, Sampson said. Each class is taught by five professors: Sampson, Angela Doss, Karen Koch, Kim Coats and Ann Killenbeck.

"We see ourselves as a working unit," Sampson said.

Exposure is important to the law school, and to gain that exposure, members of the legal writing department have joined committees on and off campus, Sampson said.

"It is a double-edged process," she said. "You have to have a good program, and you have to tell people about it."

Lauren Ruff, a third-year law student from Fairbanks, Alaska, works with the legal writing department as a clerk, and she is thrilled at its rank.

"I don't think we could ask for a better legal writing faculty," she said.

The legal writing program teaches students how to use many legal research tools, and it should be promoted in upcoming years, said Christopher Antus, a second-year law student from Freehold, N.J.

The law school should perhaps even be ranked higher because of its legal writing program, said Jordan Voor, a second-year law student from Houston.

"I have friends at other law schools, and their legal writing programs do not even compare to ours," Voor said.