With thousands of students enrolling in law school each year, all with their own vision of servicing their community, it’s crucial to understand which schools provide the best chances of realizing those dreams. While many students aspire to bring about change, only a select few choose to accept lower salaries aligning with their altruistic career goals. Consequently, certain law schools excel at equipping their graduates to secure these invaluable positions.
Recently, preLaw Magazine released its ranking of the best law schools for public service, highlighting those institutions that excel in preparing students for their future roles as public interest and government lawyers. The ranking assigned schools’ scores based on three factors: Employment in the field (50% for public interest and government), Curricula related to the field (40% for public interest and government), and Debt and loan repayment options (10%). For public defenders/prosecutors, employment counts for 35%, and curricula accounts for 55%.
The report declared the following as the top 10 best law schools for their respective categories:
PUBLIC INTEREST
- CUNY
- Northeastern
- Berkeley
- U. Cincinnati
- West Virginia
- UCLA
- Oregon
- Yale
- UC Law SF
- U. Washington
GOVERNMENT
- Albany
- Regent
- Indiana-Bloomington
- U. District of Columbia
- Temple
- Florida State
- UNH Franklin Pierce
- New York Law School
- Stetson
- Indiana-McKinney
CRIMINAL
- UC Law SF
- Brooklyn
- Northern Illinois
- Utah
- Yale
- Cincinnati
- U. District of Columbia
- Indiana-McKinney
- U. Arizona
- CUNY
To view the rest of the rankings, visit the aforementioned preLaw report.
A hearty congratulations to each of the law schools that made the list.