Indiana law schools decline in US News 2021 rankings

The annual U.S. News & World Report rankings of the best law schools in the country brought disappointing results for Indiana as all three law schools still being ranked fell in their positions.

Indiana University’s two law schools posted the biggest declines in the 2021 U.S. News rankings while Notre Dame Law School slipped but was still within the range of where it has been consistently ranked for the previous few years.

The tumble was led by Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, which took a nosedive to the 122^nd place in the 2021 rankings, down from the 108^th position in the 2020 rankings. The Indianapolis institution also fell among part-time programs to the 40^th slot from the 30^th.

Indiana University Maurer School of Law dropped to the 38^th slot from the 34^th position in last year’s tally of full-time programs. Meanwhile, Notre Dame was ranked 22^nd, a dip from 21^st place the year prior. 

Yale University, Stanford University and Harvard University occupied the top three slots, respectively.

Valparaiso Law School is no longer included in the survey since it is no longer accepting students and has announced plans to close in the summer of 2020. 

Andrew Klein, dean of IU McKinney, said he was disappointed in his law school’s ranking but does not believe the number accurately reflects the quality of programming provided by the Indianapolis institution. He said he is unsure why IU McKinney fell in the rankings, noting the school’s reputational score given by academic peers and members of the legal community is unchanged from last year and the median LSAT score has ticked up by a point.

“Clearly the number doesn’t reflect what we are doing,” Klein said. “We’re proud of our program and we’re proud of providing the most lawyers in Indiana.”

IU Maurer declined to comment. Notre Dame did not respond to a request for comment by IL deadline.

U.S. News ranks the 194 law schools accredited by the American Bar Association based on a weighted average of 12 measures. These measures include assessment scores by peers in academia as well as judges and lawyers, median LSAT and GRE scores, median undergraduate GPA and bar passage, as well as job placement. The data for the 2021 rankings was collected in the fall of 2019 and early 2020.

Both IU McKinney and IU Maurer have been declining in recent rankings. From the 2018 to the 2019 listings, IU McKinney slumped from the 88^th place to 98^th while IU Maurer slipped from 30^th to 32^nd.

Notre Dame also declined from the 20^th position to the 24^th. 

The 2021 rankings also included specialty programs. Programs and rankings by Hoosier law schools are as follows:

Dispute Resolution

• 56^th IU Maurer and Notre Dame

Clinical Training

• 44^th Notre Dame
• 82^nd IU Maurer
• 86^th IU McKinney

Environmental Law

• 31^st IU Maurer
• 55^th Notre Dame
• 85^th IU McKinney

Health Care Law

• 15^th IU McKinney
• 40^th IU Maurer
• 102^nd Notre Dame

Intellectual Property Law

• 21^st IU Maurer
• 25^th Notre Dame
• 85^th IU McKinney

International Law

• 28^th IU Maurer and Notre Dame
• 83^rd IU McKinney

Legal Writing

• 24^th IU McKinney
• 51^st IU Maurer
• 76^th Notre Dame

Trial Advocacy

• 25^th Notre Dame
• 78^th IU Maurer
• 121^st IU McKinney

Tax Law

• 20^th IU Maurer
• 45^th Notre Dame
• 98^th IU McKinney

Business – Corporation Law

• 23^rd IU Maurer
• 37th Notre Dame
• 95^th IU McKinney

Contracts – Commercial Law

• 23^rd IU Maurer
• 34^th Notre Dame
• 81^st IU McKinney

Criminal Law

• 43^rd IU Maurer and Notre Dame
• 111^th IU McKinney

Constitutional Law

• 18^th Notre Dame
• 44^th IU Maurer
• 83^rd IU McKinney