It's a Bad Year for Boston-Area Law Schools

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Bad news for Harvard Law: The school has slipped from its No. 2 spot in the “Best Law Schools” report, just released by U.S. News and World Report. Harvard is now ranked No. 3, behind No.1 Yale and No. 2 Stanford.

This is the first time that Harvard has dropped in the rankings in more than two decades. Until this year, it had been consistently ranked as the second-best law school in the country since 1990.

Other Boston-area law schools also moved down in the rankings. Boston University fell four spots, from No. 22 in 2011 to No. 26 this year. Boston College dropped two, from No. 27 in 2011 to No. 29 this year. And Northeastern University was knocked down to No. 76 this year, after being ranked 71st in 2011.

The rankings are based on a weighted average of 12 measures of quality, including median LSAT scores, assessments by selected lawyers and judges, and employment rates for graduates.

Reasonable doubt exists that these schools will adjust their tuition — ranging from $41,818 to $48,786 annually — to reflect the drop.

Update 07/10/ 7:16 a.m.: This post has been edited to correct the Boston College ranking. The correct ranking is No. 27 in 2011 to No. 29 this year. We regret the error.