The website On Being a Black Lawyer has published its Black Student’s Guide to Law Schools. Included in the guide is a list of the 25 law schools which it editors believe offer the best opportunities for Black students to succeed in law school.
To be considered for the rankings, the Black law student population at the law school must equal or surpass the Black lawyer population of 4.8 percent; be included among the 50 “go-to law schools” as ranked by the National Law Journal; and have had at least one alumnus or alumna who served as a justice or clerk for the U.S. Supreme Court. The rankings use criteria such as cost, employment placement, local Black population, local legal opportunities, and other factors.
Harvard ranked first in the rankings. Historically Black Howard University School of Law ranked second followed by the Georgetown University Law Center. Other law schools in the top 10 include Columbia, the University of Virginia, the University of Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Alabama, Northwestern, and Stanford.
The five other law schools at Historically Black universities were at the top of the rankings for the “Best Bargain” law schools. The University of Mississippi’s law school was the highest-rated Best Bargain law school at a predominantly white university,
Founder and publisher of On Being a Black Lawyer, Yolanda Young stated, “We highly endorse the law schools that appear on our list. After months of careful and meticulous research, we are confident these law schools provide the clearest path to law school success for future black attorneys.”
Young is a graduate of Howard University and the Georgetown University Law Center. She is the author of On Our Way To Beautiful (Random House, 2003).
I think the interaction of African American students with the faculty at the University of Virginia School of Law School is the best in nation which has a lot to do with its graduates being hired by the top large and small law firms in the country.
Law School students need an idea environment to succeed in and the University of Virginia School Of Law along with the community of Charlottesville provides the perfect setting for successful outcomes.