March 29, 2022

Dear Berkeley Law Alumni,
 
There is no other law school quite like Berkeley Law. We are distinguished by the excellence of our terrific faculty and students, our public mission which is embodied in all aspects of the Law School, and our warm, collegial, intellectually vibrant community.
 
I have great ambivalence about the rankings which come out every spring. On the one hand, they do not capture so much that makes Berkeley Law special and there is much about them which is arbitrary. But at the same time, we cannot deny the existence or influence of rankings. And it can be useful to have a sense of how we are regarded by others and how by some metrics, however flawed, we compare to other law schools.
 
In this spirit, I am pleased to share with you some good news from the 2023 U.S. News Best Graduate Schools Rankings released today.
 
Berkeley Law remains #9 overall, with a whopping nine top-10 specialty rankings for our programs, three of which are ranked #1 in the country.
 
Specialty rankings are evaluated by U.S. News based on surveys administered to faculty who teach in those areas at all 199 ABA-approved law schools. No other law school has more programs ranked among the top 10 than Berkeley Law, and only three others have as many.
 
  • Our Intellectual Property program again ranked #1
  • Our Environmental Law program again ranked #1
  • Our Business/Corporate Law program ranked #1
  • Our Criminal Law program ranked #2
  • Our Contracts/Commercial Law program ranked #7
  • Our International Law program ranked #7
  • Our Constitutional Law program ranked #8
  • Our Clinical Training program ranked #8
  • And our Trial Advocacy program has risen to #10 
 
One of the things that makes Berkeley Law special is our excellence across many different disciplines.
 
It also is worth mentioning that several other rankings have been released that reflect Berkeley Law’s excellence. Our faculty ranks sixth nationally in scholarly impact, according to the latest version of a study that tracks citations as a measure of professors’ influence. We also rank #8 in Law.com’s 2022 Go-To Law Schools report, analyzing which law schools sent the highest percentage of 2021 graduates to associate jobs at the nation’s largest 100 law firms. And QS Quacquarelli Symonds — a global higher education think tank — placed Berkeley Law ninth in the world and sixth in the United States in its 2021 ranking of law schools based upon academic reputation, employer reputation, and research impact. You can read this announcement online.
 
It is also wonderful to be part of UC Berkeley, rated the world’s top public university by U.S. News, benefiting from sustained collaborations with other great schools and colleagues throughout the campus. So many schools and departments across the Berkeley campus received outstanding rankings in the U.S. News report which was released today.
 
Our excellent rankings are a result of enormous hard work by our faculty, staff, and students. They also are a product of essential support from our alumni. I feel so tremendously fortunate to be a part of this amazing community.
 
Warm regards,