Here’s What Happened When a Law School Dean Challenged a U.S. News Ranker

There are many law school rankings, published by various outlets and based on a variety of criteria, but one ranking gets almost all the attention: U.S. News & World Report’slist of America’s best law schools, published annually since 1987.

The rankings are based on a number of factors: acceptance rates, LSAT scores, placement success, and a school’s “reputation,” for example. Because theU.S. Newsrankings are taken so seriously, law school deans often find themselves obsessing over — and perplexed by — these metrics.

On Saturday, at the American Association of Law Schools’ annual meeting in New York, the AALS’s ...