For the ninth straight year, the University of Denver Sturm College of Law is ranked among the top 100 law schools in the country by U.S. News & World Report, while five of the school’s specialized programs are listed among the highest-ranked programs in the country.
The publication’s “America’s Best Graduate Schools,” released April 15, lists the Sturm College of Law among the nation’s top-tier schools, tied at No. 80 with Louisiana State University; Rutgers; the University of Oregon; and the Illinois Institute of Technology.
DU ranked No. 12 in the country for tax law; No. 14 for environmental law studies; No. 18 for part-time legal education; No. 19 for legal writing (tied with Lewis & Clark College and Rutgers-Camden); and No. 25 for clinical training.
Sturm College of Law Dean Martin Katz says DU remains committed to consistently improving its law programs. In recent years, the school has continued adding faculty, creating new initiatives to build diversity, reducing class sizes, building new law programs relevant to today’s legal climate, raising the standards for admission, increasing financial aid to attract the best students, and implementing a comprehensive bar passage program.
“These are excellent results,” Katz says. “To have this number of programs top-ranked makes it clear that we are a school with a wide range of quality.
Katz says the college of law has a long-term vision for ongoing development.
“We are committed to improving all measures of quality, including but not limited to those areas measured by U.S. News and World Report,” Katz says. “In the changing world of law practice and legal education, clinical education and legal writing programs will play an increasingly important role. Our programs in these areas are strong and getting stronger. Perhaps most importantly, our strategic planning process is reshaping our program of legal education in ways that we can expect to improve our reputation and the ability of our graduates to find good jobs. I remain optimistic and excited about our prospects.”
U.S. News & World Report ranks law and other graduate programs, incorporating expert opinion and statistical data collected on more than 1,200 programs. In addition to the law school, DU’s Department of Psychology was ranked 91st, tied with George Washington University, University of Carolina-Greensboro and Colorado State University.