University of Illinois College of Law | |
---|---|
Established | 1897 |
School type | Public |
Endowment |
$2.403 billion (systemwide) |
Dean | Vikram Amar |
Location | Champaign, Illinois, US |
Enrollment | 543 |
Faculty | 111 (full- and part-time) |
USNWR ranking | 40 |
Bar pass rate | 85% (2017) |
Website | law.illinois.edu |
$2.403 billion
The University of Illinois College of Law (UIUC Law) is a tier-one flagship law school located in Champaign, Illinois, and one of the professional graduate schools of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It is regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the Midwest and one of the best public law schools in America.
The College of Law was established in 1897, and offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in law. The College of Law also hosts visiting scholars, visiting researchers and a number of legal research centers. The school offers 10 scholarly areas of research, teaching, and coursework, called specialty programs. These are not majors or concentrations in the traditional sense but areas of academic interest and strength within the College of Law. The specialty programs include Business Law and Policy; Comparative Labor and Employment Law Policy; Constitutional Theory, History and Law; Criminal Law and Procedure; Health Law and Policy; Intellectual Property and Technology Law; International and Comparative Law; Law, Behavior and Social Sciences; Law and Philosophy; and Legal History.
The College of Law is currently ranked 40th in the U.S. News & World Report Rankings, but typically ranks within the top 25, and has been ranked as high as 17. In 2010 and 2011, the College of Law placed 21st and 23rd, respectively, in the U.S. News and World Report rankings - before reports surfaced that a school administrator had submitted inaccurate admissions data. Illinois ranks 27th in the 2014 Above The Law rankings of U.S. law schools and 26th in The National Law Journal's 2015 "Go-To Law Schools" Ranking. The school has the 14th largest law library in the United States of America.
Graduates of the College of Law have enjoyed strong employment prospects, with 72.3% of the Class of 2013 obtaining full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation. This places Illinois in the top 25 for legal employment among all U.S. Law Schools.
Prof. Brian Leiter, a University of Chicago law professor and well known for his blogs about law schools and law school rankings, said that the University of Illinois College of Law is a top 20 law school. In its annual ranking of “Go-To Law Schools,” the National Law Journal has ranked the University of Illinois College of Law 16th in the number of alumni associates promoted to partner in 2011. The College of Law tied with the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Emory University School of Law.