The school was placed 71st among 149 law schools, according to the report. It shared the position with American University, Pennsylvania State University and University of San Diego, according to the ranking list.
U.S. News and World Report also ranked UNM School of Law’s Clinical Training program 10th in the country.
“We look at the rankings as useful information on some of the factors used in the overall ranking. The overall ranking is not very helpful,” said David Herring, dean and professor of law at the school.
The primary factors that give strength to the School of Law in the rankings are the support the school receives from the state and the University, along with strong employment outcomes, he said.
According to the report, UNM’s School of Law has 66 faculty members and 344 full time students, which strengthened its position on the ranking list. Another indicator of the success of the School of Law is the success of its students in finding jobs in the market. According to U.S. News and World Report, 57 percent of students are employed at graduation.
“Our future goals are to continue attracting highly qualified students for the law school and provide these students with a high level of financial aid. We also want to continue support for faculty achievement in teaching and scholarship,” Herring said.
U.S. News ranks professional school programs in business, education, engineering, law and medicine every year, according to their website.
The report mentioned areas of study unique to UNM’s law school, including extracurricular law groups like the Alternative Dispute Resolution Student Association, the Environmental Law Society and the Mexican American Law Students Association.
“The University of New Mexico School of Law is a public institution with unique programs in areas including Indian law and natural resources law. The UNM School of Law has a high law school ranking in clinical training and offers programs for law students such as the Business and Tax Clinic, the Community Lawyering Clinics and the Southwest Indian Law Clinic,” the report states.
The organization also surveyed businesses and professionals in the fields of business, education, engineering, law and medicine who hire new graduates, according to the website.
“To gather the peer assessment data, we asked deans, program directors and senior faculty to judge the academic quality of programs in their field on a scale of 1 (marginal) to 5 (outstanding),” the website states.
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The School of Law is undertaking active fundraising efforts to support the work of students and faculty, Herring said.
“The largest indicator of success here is the incredible support of our alumni and the entire legal community in this state,” he said.
Sayyed Shah is the assistant news editor at the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted at assistant-news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @mianfawadshah.
