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Lieter's new rankings are crap.

Brian Lieter released a new ranking of law schools today, entitled "The Top 15 Schools From Which the Most "Prestigious" Law Firms Hire New Lawyers, 2008."

Where does he get his data? Here's a direct quote:

We started with the most recent Vault list of the most prestigious law firms in the U.S. We had to go to #24 on that list to identify fifteen super elite law firms that had the right kinds of search engines to permit efficient identification of where associates at these law firms went to law school. The firms studied were: Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; Cravath, Swaine & Moore; Sullivan & Cromwell; Skadden Arps; Davis Polk & Wardwell; Simpson Thacher; Clearly [sic] Gottlieb; Kirkland & Ellis; Covington & Burling; Paul, Weiss; Williams & Connolly; Sidley Austin; Arnold & Porter; Jones Day; and Morrison & Foerster.

So, essentially, if you go to Latham, Weil, Debevoise, Gibson, WilmerHale, White & Case, Shearman, O'Melveny, or Clifford Chance, you're not counted.

1/3 of the omitted firms are west coast firms. If you're looking to be "elite" in California, you're likely at one of those firms. Further, 2/5 of the included firms don't operate west coast offices.

It's no wonder why Stanfurd and Berkeley score so low, and Columbia and NYU magically rise to the top.

Given his glaring bias/omissions, what's the point of releasing these rankings in the first place?

Full post as published by Nuts & Boalts on October 13, 2008 (boomark / email).