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Generally clear. Low 18F. Winds light and variable.
Updated: December 20, 2022 @ 9:23 pm
A banner is shown at the University of New Hampshire School of Law during a 2013 ceremony. The UNH School of Law is becoming the UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law.
A banner is shown at the University of New Hampshire School of Law during a 2013 ceremony. The UNH School of Law is becoming the UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law.
Joining top law schools across the country, the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law has suspended its participation in U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings.
Megan Carpenter, dean and professor of law, said the “monolithic ranking system” is detrimental to legal education and the legal profession.
“It is our opinion that the rankings are seriously flawed, have an outsized negative influence on legal education, and are inconsistent with our values,” she said in a statement.
UNH Franklin Pierce ranked No. 8 in intellectual property law and No. 105 overall in the 2023 ranking of law schools, according to the U.S News website.
The school became the 18th to distance itself from the rankings, after Harvard and Yale on Nov. 16. Georgetown and Columbia law schools also have withdrawn from the rankings.
Yale, which has topped the list for three decades, said the list doesn’t recognize the importance of public interest careers, need-based aid or welcoming working-class students into the profession.
UNH Franklin Pierce’s Carpenter said the for-profit magazine puts too much weight on standardized tests and undergraduate grade-point averages.
“Some information collected by U.S. News isn’t publicly available nor is it subject to vetting or authentication. The rankings erode support for public interest careers, disadvantage students who have to take out loans to go to school, discourage innovation and do not reflect the realities of a modern law degree,” she said.
The rankings are not based on curriculum, employment, program breadth or depth, but rather on professors’ rankings of schools on a scale of one to five, according to the school.
The school will share relevant data with prospective students.
“Having this one monolithic ranking system of U.S. News … disadvantages students and schools, fails to promote equity, doesn’t celebrate innovation and ends up wasting tuition dollars on law schools’ marketing to one another,” Carpenter said. “That is not good for legal education and it’s not good for students.”
U.S. News & World Report says it will continue to rank all fully accredited schools regardless of whether they participate in the data collection process.
“U.S. News has a responsibility to prospective students to provide comparative information that allows them to assess these institutions,” the magazine wrote in a statement.
“The U.S. News Best Law Schools rankings are designed for students seeking to make the best decision for their legal education,” the statement reads. “We will continue to pursue our journalistic mission of ensuring that students can rely on the best and most accurate information, using the rankings as one factor in their law school search.”
jphelps@unionleader.com
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