Best Law Schools in the USA

James E. Rogers College of Law, University of Arizona

Tucson, Arizona, United States

JD / professional law degree · Legal studies master’s · LLM / Master of Laws · PhD / SJD / JSD · +1 more

Arizona's Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy program pairs three year-round clinics with a partnership with the university's Native Nations Institute, so students can take accelerated Native nation-building courses alongside their law classes. A Congressional internship route in Washington, D.C. and an Indigenous Rights and Protected Areas Initiative widen the options. The college also lists an LLM, SJD and an MLS for non-lawyers, which suits applicants who want Indigenous law either as a JD focus or as graduate study.

Stanford Law School

Stanford, California, United States

LLM / Master of Laws · JD / professional law degree · Legal studies master’s · PhD / SJD / JSD · +1 more

Stanford publishes 23 formal joint-degree programs and invites students to design their own, which makes it the clearest example in this list of law studied alongside another discipline. Its W. A. Franke Global Law Program adds a ten-week Global Quarter in international law and finance, and about 20 policy practicums sit beside the Mills Legal Clinic. For graduate study it offers LLM specialisations, a Master of Legal Studies for people without legal training and a JSD aimed at future legal scholars.

UC Berkeley School of Law

Berkeley, California, United States

LLM / Master of Laws · JD / professional law degree · PhD / SJD / JSD

Berkeley Law's clinical program is split between seven on-campus clinics and eight at the East Bay Community Law Center, and it reaches beyond conventional litigation: the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic works on technology law and the Global Rights Innovation Lab Clinic uses data science for advocacy. A Death Penalty Clinic and an Environmental Law Clinic cover capital defence and environmental justice. It is a fit for students who want both social-justice and technology-law client work, with LLM and JSD routes also on offer.

Colorado Law, University of Colorado Boulder

Boulder, Colorado, United States

LLM / Master of Laws · JD / professional law degree

Colorado Law houses the Getches-Wilkinson Center, which focuses on natural resources law and policy in the American West, including water, land, climate and the rights of Tribes and Indigenous Peoples. Its American Indian Law Clinic is described as one of the first of its kind, giving faculty-supervised experience on tribal sovereignty and Native lands matters. The pairing of a research centre with a long-running clinic suits students aiming at water, energy or Indian law.

Yale Law School

New Haven, Connecticut, United States

PhD / SJD / JSD · JD / professional law degree · LLM / Master of Laws · Legal studies master’s

Yale lets students begin taking clinics in the spring of the first year and houses nine of them in the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization, a single in-house firm. It lists more than 30 clinics, 24 centres and 12 workshops, and simulation courses in appellate advocacy and M&A drafting. Its graduate degrees are deliberately scholar-oriented: the LLM is open generally only to those committed to teaching law, and the JSD and PhD in Law prepare people for academic careers.

Georgetown University Law Center

Washington, Washington, DC, United States

JD / professional law degree · LLM / Master of Laws · PhD / SJD / JSD

Georgetown runs 17 in-house clinics and says the typical student-to-teacher ratio is five-to-one, with most clinic students working 25 to 35 hours a week on their cases. The offer includes a Federal Legislation Clinic, in which students work with nonprofit clients on legislative advocacy, and the Washington setting suits policy-oriented practice. The Law Center also offers an LLM and an SJD, so international and research-minded students are served as well as JD candidates.

Emory offers faculty-led clinics such as the Barton Policy and Legislative Advocacy Clinics, the Appeal for Youth Clinic and the International Humanitarian Law Clinic, with for-credit clinics counting toward a six-credit experiential requirement. The humanitarian-law and juvenile-appeals clinics are specific to Emory. JD, LLM, legal-studies masters and doctoral study are all offered.

William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawai'i at Manoa

Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

LLM / Master of Laws · JD / professional law degree

Richardson's Pacific-Asian Legal Studies program, established in 1983, supports study abroad and externships in places such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, Cambodia and Micronesia, with placements in judges' offices, law firms and UN agencies. A separate Certificate in Environmental Law anchors an environmental program with moot court teams, externships and a clinic. Together they give the school a Pacific and Asia focus.

Northwestern Pritzker School of Law

Chicago, Illinois, United States

JD / professional law degree · LLM / Master of Laws

Northwestern's Bluhm Legal Clinic is organised into named centres, including Wrongful Convictions, Wrongful Convictions of Youth, MacArthur Justice, Appellate Advocacy and International Human Rights, alongside Entrepreneurship and Investor Protection clinics. The school states that typically 90 percent of each graduating class takes part. It suits students who want sustained client work in criminal-justice reform or appellate advocacy.

Chicago lists 15 clinics for second- and third-year students, ranging from the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic's civil-rights, immigration and housing work to a Jenner & Block Supreme Court and Appellate Clinic, a corporate lab clinic and an Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship. Beyond the JD it offers a JD/MBA with Booth on an expedited timeline, a JSD, and a one-year MLS for PhD students and established scholars, so the offer leans academic as well as practical.

Tulane teaches common law and civil law side by side in a dual curriculum that it says it adopted more than 160 years ago. Its Maritime Law Center coordinates the school's maritime programs and legal scholarship, and JD candidates can earn a Certificate in Maritime Law. Tulane also lists online master's programs in labor and employment, energy and environmental law.

Harvard Law School

Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

JD / professional law degree · PhD / SJD / JSD · LLM / Master of Laws

Harvard's clinics are tied to classroom components and open to 2L, 3L and LLM students, and its clinical office runs in-house, externship and independent placements. The degree-programs page lists joint programs with business, government, public health and urban planning, a coordinated JD/PhD and a joint JD/LLM with the University of Cambridge. With an LLM and SJD also available, it is a broad choice for students who want to combine law with another field.

Northeastern University School of Law

Boston, Massachusetts, United States

JD / professional law degree · LLM / Master of Laws

Northeastern is built around its Cooperative Legal Education Program: students complete three full-time legal work experiences within a three-year JD, which the school contrasts with part-time or summer placements. It also runs eight clinics, including Prisoners' Rights, Public Health Advocacy and Intellectual Property, and offers an on-campus LLM, an online LLM and a FlexJD. Choose it for sustained full-time practice experience rather than a purely classroom curriculum.

Michigan's clinics place students in first-chair responsibility for real clients, and it offers a 1L Advocacy Clinic that lets first-year students handle cases, something the school describes as rare. The clinic list also includes an AI Law and Policy Clinic, a Child Welfare Appellate Clinic and a Human Trafficking and Immigration Clinic. The one-year LLM is open to law graduates from anywhere, and most admitted SJD students come from Michigan's own LLM.

Minnesota combines a large clinical program, with more than 25 clinics and over half of students enrolling in at least one, with unusual graduate options: an LLM in business law or a general LLM with 12 concentrations, and a one-year patent-law master's for STEM graduates. A separate Master of Science in Patent Law is delivered fully online and asynchronously over four semesters. It suits students who want clinics plus a technology or intellectual-property pathway.

UNM requires every JD student to complete a six-credit clinical course, which the school says has been mandatory for about 50 years. Students choose among five sections: Community Lawyering, Child and Family Justice, Economic Justice, Natural Resources and Environmental Law, and Southwest Indian Law. For a student who wants guaranteed supervised client work and exposure to Indian and natural-resources law, the model is distinctive.

Columbia Law School

Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

LLM / Master of Laws · JD / professional law degree · PhD / SJD / JSD

Columbia runs its clinics through an in-house nonprofit firm, Morningside Heights Legal Services, where students act as the lawyer for clients in matters ranging from immigrants' rights and family defence to mediation, entrepreneurship and climate justice. The school says it offers multiple clinics in each type of practice, including transactional, policymaking and legislative lawyering. Graduate options include an LLM, an Executive LLM and a JSD.

New York University School of Law

Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

LLM / Master of Laws · JD / professional law degree · PhD / SJD / JSD · Legal studies master’s · +1 more

NYU lists more than 35 clinics and over a dozen externships, open to 2Ls, 3Ls and, in some cases, LLM students. Its graduate side is unusually broad: the school offers eight LLM specializations, including taxation, corporation law, environmental and energy law, and legal theory, plus a JSD for those heading to academia. That breadth makes it relevant to both practice-oriented and research-oriented applicants.

Duke University School of Law

Durham, North Carolina, United States

JD / professional law degree · LLM / Master of Laws

Duke's 12 clinical courses operate collectively as a public-interest law firm housed in its own wing of the law school, with a separate externship program. The Appellate Litigation Clinic prepares appeals for people without counsel in federal courts, and the Civil Justice Clinic is a partnership with Legal Aid of North Carolina. The structure suits students who want closely supervised litigation experience.

Lewis & Clark Law School

Portland, Oregon, United States

JD / professional law degree · Legal studies master’s · LLM / Master of Laws

Lewis & Clark is notable for environmental, natural resources and animal law: Earthrise is its domestic environmental law clinic, representing municipalities, public-interest groups and tribes, and the school hosts a Center for Animal Law Studies, a Green Energy Institute and the Northwest Environmental Defense Center. Clinics also cover crime-victim litigation, criminal justice reform, low-income taxpayers and small business. It is a strong pick for students aiming at environmental advocacy.

The University of Texas School of Law (Texas Law)

Austin, Texas, United States

JD / professional law degree · LLM / Master of Laws

Texas Law runs 16 clinics, each with a classroom and a casework component, covering areas as varied as actual innocence, capital punishment, disability rights, immigration, and law and religion. A Supreme Court Litigation Clinic sits alongside housing and entrepreneurship clinics. Graded pass/fail with no final exam, the clinics are aimed at hands-on casework, and an LLM complements the JD.

Vermont's Environmental Law Center reports six legal clinics, seven centres and institutes, more than 60 environmental law courses and 76 environmental faculty, with JD concentrations in animal, climate, energy, food and agriculture, land use and water resources law. The school also offers a post-JD LLM in Animal Law, plus residential, online hybrid, accelerated and extended JD tracks. It is an option for students committing to environmental or food-and-agriculture law.

UVA organises elective courses into more than 20 listed concentrations, among them constitutional law, law and technology, legal history, national security, and law, philosophy and humanities, and notes that concentrations are optional and not shown on transcripts. Experiential learning combines clinics, for-credit externships in government and nonprofits, and simulation courses. It also offers an LLM and SJD, so the school suits students who want flexibility to shape a curriculum.

University of Washington School of Law

Seattle, Washington, United States

JD / professional law degree · LLM / Master of Laws

UW Law's clinical programme includes a Tribal Court Clinic, a Technology Law & Public Policy Clinic, a Regulatory Environmental Law & Policy Clinic, an Immigration Law Clinic and a Veterans Clinic. In 2025 a Washington Supreme Court Justice swore in 145 students for the Clinical Law Program, which gives a sense of scale. It offers JD, several LLM programmes and a PhD in Law.

Wisconsin's clinical tradition runs through the Frank J. Remington Center and the Economic Justice Institute, among its earliest clinical programs. Its Center for Patient Partnerships is an interdisciplinary health-advocacy centre where students handle insurance appeals, public-benefit enrollment and medical decision making. The school also offers a Health Advocacy certificate, which suits students interested in health and disability law.