New Tax Law Rankings

Because I am sure every last one of you was waiting on pins and needles during the last month in eager anticipation of the new law school rankings to be released this morning, I thought I ought to share them with you. Ok, maybe it was just me waiting in eager anticipation.

The following is the rank, according to U.S. News and World Report, of the top tax departments, evaluating all two hundred or so law schools in the U.S.

• 1. NYU (#1 last year)
• 2. Florida (#2)
• 3. Georgetown (#3)
• 4. Northwestern (#4)
• 5. UCLA (#7)
• 6. Harvard (#5)
• 6. Miami (#6)
• 8. Boston University (#8)
• 9. Virginia (#10)
• 10. Michigan (#13)
• 10. Texas (#9)
• 10. Yale (#10)
• 13. Loyola-L.A. (#16)
• 13. Stanford (#13)
• 15. U. of Washington (#18)
• 16. San Diego (#10)
• 17. Chicago (not ranked)
• 18. Duke (#15)
• 19. Columbia (#21)
• 19. Denver (#21)
• 19. Penn (#18)
• 22. SMU (#17)
• 22. USC (#21)
• 22. Villanova (#18)

My brief analysis:
* Remember that these rankings are very, VERY fallible.
* No law school is coming close to taking NYU's top spot.
* Teaching quality may be better at UF (#2) than #3 (G'Town), but quality of students and career prospects are probably better at G'Town.
* Northwestern has quickly put together a very solid tax program. Unfortunatley for them, I doubt they will rank higher than #4 for many years (NYU, UF, and G'Town have a tight grasp on those top three slots).
* I'm shocked UCLA ranks so high. I'm doubtful they really have a better program that Miami or Boston.
* The drop from 10 last year to 16 for San Diego is surprising. USD takes their tax department quite seriously, so I am sure that this drop will hurt recruiting next year.
* Villanova and SMU have made a lot of noise about their tax department over the last year. They seemed to be a strong choice for the "third tier" tax students. This change will probably cause a lot of people to go elsewhere next year (unless they have ties to the area).
* I'm sure Loyola tax people are celebrating right now.