College of Law Ranked No. 8 in Nation for Educational Value

A study by the nonprofit legal education group AccessLex Institute ranked the University of La Verne College of Law No. 8 in the nation and No. 1 in Southern California based on student performance.

The Value-Added Ranking of Law Schools compared law schools’ “predicted performance” – a student’s credentials upon entry into law school – with how well those students performed upon graduating, such as bar passage rates and 9-month employment averages.

AccessLex conducted the study to provide a different perspective on measuring the quality of law school education over rankings provided by U.S. News and World Report.

Study authors wrote that the U.S. News law schools rankings have remained relatively unchanged in 30 years. Critics attribute part of this to basing 40 percent of a school’s score on a reputational quality assessment. People surveyed include deans, professors, judges, and lawyers.

The AccessLex study provides students a view of the value of attending a particular law school.

“This ranking system informs the discussion about value that law schools add to their students’ post-graduate outcomes and is thus an ideal metric of a law school’s value to its potential and current students,” authors wrote.