Wayne Law jumps to No. 72 in U.S. News & World Report rankings

Over the last four years, Wayne State University Law School has jumped 28 spots in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Law School rankings to No. 72 in the country — a historic best this year, and the second-highest ranked law school in Michigan. The Law School is also ranked No. 24 in part-time law programs — the best in the state and No. 3 in the Midwest.

Wayne Law is Detroit’s only public law school and consistently has the lowest tuition in Michigan. The Law School is No. 47 in the country for placing recent graduates in full-time, long-term jobs that require bar passage or for which a J.D. is an advantage, according to an analysis of the American Bar Association’s 2020 employment data.* The National Jurist and preLaw magazines have ranked Wayne Law a Best Value Law School for seven consecutive years.

The U.S. News & World Report rankings for law schools are based on a weighted average of 20 measures of quality, with peer assessment and five individual measures making up placement success receiving the most weight. Other analysis areas include incoming 1L median LSAT scores and undergraduate GPAs, acceptance rate, and reputational assessments by practicing lawyers and judges. New this year, U.S. News & World Report analyzed graduate indebtedness. Separate specialty rankings are determined based on peer reviews by law school faculty who teach in each area.

*Analysis based on the number of graduates from each school working in full-time jobs for which a J.D. is an advantage divided by the total number of graduates from each school. For the complete ABA data analyzed, please visit law.wayne.edu/aba.