UW College of Law and Legal Writing Program ranked in U.S. News and World Report

UW College of Law and Legal Writing Program ranked in U.S. News and World Report

The University of Wyoming College o f Law has moved up 21 spots in the U.S. News and World Report 2016 rankings of best law schools and is in its highest ranked place of 108^th. The College of Law has worked hard for this increase, and the upward trend in the rankings is one that the law school hopes to continue on its path to crack the top 100. 

In a climate where legal education has been in crisis, the UW law school has worked to leverage its strengths to not only remain competitive and maintain the level of excellence we believe is important in legal education, but to improve areas of expertise and further develop opportunities for our students.  The increase in our rankings is a result of these efforts, coupled with our consistent transparency in reporting. 

“At the College of Law we continually work to provide the very best education we can at an affordable price. While upward movement in the U.S. News rankings, as well as our top 10 ranking as a “Best Value” law school, and our A- ranking for our clinical programs are nice recognition for our efforts, at the end of the day what we care about most is providing an excellent education for our students,” says Interim Dean Jacquelyn Bridgeman.

The law school ranking comes among other good news. The Legal Writing Program at the UW College of Law, which was previously ranked 14^th in the nation, has moved up as well. U.S. News and World Report has ranked the Legal Writing Program at UW 12^th in the nation for 2016.

The College of Law has made a commitment to distinguish itself nationally in its areas of strength – legal writing being one of those areas. The continued national visibility is due to the devoted efforts of our legal writing professors and administration.

“The U.S. News ranking of legal writing programs is based on surveys of legal writing directors across the country,” says Michael Smith, Director of Legal Writing and Director of the Center for the Study of Written Advocacy.  “The legal writing professors at the Wyoming College of Law have continued to draw national attention to our program by developing state-of-the-art legal writing courses, publishing cutting-edge scholarship, giving presentations at local, regional, and national conferences, undertaking leadership roles in national organizations, and pursuing the activities of the Wyoming Center for the Study of Written Advocacy, which is housed at the law school.  This latest increase in the national rankings shows that our colleagues around the country admire and appreciate Wyoming’s commitment to ground-breaking legal writing instruction and scholarship.”

The legal writing program continues its efforts to promote excellence it written advocacy by hosting a national conference in the fall 2015. The Psychology of Persuasion Conference will be held at the University of Wyoming College of Law September 18-19, 2015. The conference will feature nationally recognized scholars in the fields of legal advocacy and psychology who will discuss of the variety of ways in which psychology influences the practice of law. More details on the conference can be found on the College of Law website.