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The top 100 law schools in the US are the highest-ranked ABA-approved schools on the U.S. News list, spanning the T14 and the schools below them. The current top is Stanford 1st, with Chicago and Yale tied 2nd and Penn and Virginia tied 4th, per U.S. News 2026-27 (via LSD.law); the list individually ranks about 174 schools, so the full 100 falls well within the ranked range.
By Ali Unar, JD candidate at Georgetown Law and founder of Lovare Institut. Last updated August 2026. Every figure on this page was verified in August 2026 against the sources listed below.
The top 100 law schools in the US are the hundred highest-ranked ABA-approved schools in the U.S. News list, from the T14 at the top down through strong national and regional schools. The table shows the current top of that list with the numbers that most affect your odds; the full ranking continues to the hundredth school. The rank column reflects the U.S. News 2026-27 edition and the medians come from each school's 2025 ABA Standard 509 report.
RankLaw schoolMedian LSATEmployed at 10 months1Stanford Law School173See ABA employment report2 (tie)University of Chicago Law School174See ABA employment report2 (tie)Yale Law School174See ABA employment report4 (tie)University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School173See ABA employment report4 (tie)University of Virginia School of Law173See ABA employment report6Harvard Law School174See ABA employment report7 (tie)Duke University School of Law171See ABA employment report7 (tie)NYU School of Law172See ABA employment report9 (tie)Columbia Law School173See ABA employment report9 (tie)Northwestern Pritzker School of Law173See ABA employment report
Rankings are from the U.S. News 2026-27 Best Law Schools list (via LSD.law); median LSAT comes from each school's 2025 ABA Standard 509 report. Graduate employment rates are not in the verified data used here and are published in each school's ABA employment summary.
Ranks 11 through 100 continue down the current U.S. News list, running through schools such as University of Denver (Sturm) at 91st and Rutgers, Case Western Reserve, and Syracuse tied at 100th, per U.S. News 2026-27.
U.S. News and World Report builds the ranking from reputation surveys of academics and of lawyers and judges, incoming LSAT and GPA medians, graduate employment, bar passage, and per-student spending. The exact weights change each cycle and are published in the U.S. News Best Law Schools methodology rather than captured in the verified data used here. The underlying admissions and outcome numbers come from each school's ABA Standard 509 report.
The T14 hire nationally: their graduates compete for elite firm jobs, federal clerkships, and academic posts across the country. Schools ranked below the T14 within the top 100 are typically strong within a region or state, placing most graduates near campus. Both groups can offer excellent value, but the reach of the degree narrows as you move down the list, which is why fit with your target market matters.
Treat the top 100 as a menu, then narrow it with your own numbers and goals. Compare your LSAT and GPA to each school's medians (each school publishes its median LSAT and GPA in its 2025 ABA Standard 509 report) to sort schools into reach, target, and likely, and weigh employment outcomes and cost after scholarships. A regionally dominant school in your target city can serve you better than a higher-ranked school far away.
There are roughly 196 to 199 ABA-approved law schools in the United States, per the American Bar Association, plus a smaller number of non-ABA schools in a few states. U.S. News ranks most of the ABA-approved schools, so the top 100 represents a little over half of them. Only ABA-approved degrees qualify graduates to sit for the bar in every state.
The T14 refers to the fourteen law schools that have effectively always ranked in the U.S. News top 14: Yale, Stanford, Chicago, Columbia, Harvard, Penn, NYU, Virginia, Berkeley, Michigan, Duke, Northwestern, Cornell, and Georgetown. They anchor the top of the top 100 and hire nationally. Their internal order changes yearly; in U.S. News 2026-27 it runs Stanford 1st; Chicago and Yale tied 2nd; Penn and Virginia tied 4th; Harvard 6th; Duke and NYU tied 7th; Columbia, Northwestern, and Michigan tied 9th; Cornell tied 13th; Berkeley tied 16th; and Georgetown tied 18th, per U.S. News 2026-27.
The schools usually called the best are the T14; in the U.S. News 2026-27 list the top five are Stanford 1st, Chicago and Yale tied 2nd, and Penn and Virginia tied 4th, per U.S. News 2026-27. The best school for you, though, is the one where your LSAT and GPA are competitive and that places graduates in the market you want to work in.
Law school rankings are compiled by private publishers, mainly U.S. News, not by the ABA or any government body. U.S. News scores each school on reputation surveys, incoming LSAT and GPA medians, graduate employment and bar-passage rates, and per-student spending to produce the rank. The exact weights change periodically and are published in the U.S. News Best Law Schools methodology.
Verified August 2026.
August 21, 2026
August 21, 2026