Faculty News: Professor Gerald R. Powell

Baylor Law School's Advocacy Program rated 6th in nation
03/31/2006

Baylor Law School and its trial advocacy program and other Baylor graduate programs, including business, education, and biological sciences, are ranked in the 2007 edition of “America’s Best Graduate Schools” announced today (Friday, March 31) by U.S.News & World Report.

A number of other graduate programs at Baylor currently are featured in the categories that U.S. News chose not to "newly rank" this year. They include clinical psychology, health services administration, nursing, physical therapy, social work, and speech language pathology.

The Law School ranks 51st in the magazine’s “Top 100 Schools” listing, one spot higher than last year’s 52nd place, while Baylor’s trial advocacy program is again rated as the sixth best in the United States. Baylor is the only law school ranked at number six in this latest trial advocacy survey. Last year, Baylor shared sixth place with six other law schools.

U.S. News rankings for Baylor’s trial advocacy course show impressive gains in recent years. The program has jumped five places from its 11th-place ranking in 2003, and 10 places from the 2002 survey, when it was ranked 16th nationally by U.S. News.

The law speciality rankings, such as trial advocacy, are based solely on votes by law faculty nationwide who are listed in the AALS (Association of American Law Schools) Directory of Law Teachers 2004-2005 as teaching in the field or by directors of clinical or legal writing programs. “They named up to 15 of the best in each field,” the magazine points out. “Schools receiving the most votes are listed.”

Baylor Law School is tied for its 51st-place overall ranking with Case Western Reserve University, Ohio. For its 2007 rankings, the magazine evaluated 180 accredited law schools nationwide, using 12 “measures of quality.” Only three other Texas law schools join Baylor in the Top 100 list -- the University of Texas in 16th place; Southern Methodist University, tied with six other schools for 43rd place; and the University of Houston, tied with six other schools for 70th place.

One other Texas law school is ranked in the publication’s third tier, and four others are ranked in the fourth tier. Rankings are only given to schools included in the Top 100 Schools category. The third and fourth tiers are listed alphabetically.

Baylor is one of seven Big 12 schools included in the Top 100 Law Schools listing. The others are the University of Texas; the University of Colorado-Boulder (tied for 43rd place spot); the University of Missouri-Columbia (tied for 60th place); the University of Kansas and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (tied for 70th place); and the University of Oklahoma (tied for 80th place).

Among published statistics for the Texas and Big 12 law schools ranked by U.S. News, Baylor has the highest percentage of graduates employed nine months after graduation – 97.8 percent. Baylor Law School also has the highest entering undergrad GPA figures (3.51-3.92, 25th-75th percentile) among the Texas and Big 12 law schools in the Top 100 list.

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