The Best Law Schools In The World (2025)

The government may be coming after some of the most successful law firms in the country, but we’ve got just what every member of the legal profession wants to see to get their minds off this dystopian nightmare: a ranking of the best law schools in the world.

Move over U.S. News, because we’re about to go global.

Before we get to the World Law School Rankings, let’s take a look at the methodology used by the Quacquarelli Symonds team at Top Universities. Researchers analyzed schools’ academic reputations, employer reputations, research citations per paper, H-indices, and international research networks. You can explore more in-depth explanations here if you’re interested.

We know you want to see if any American law schools made it, so we won’t keep you waiting. Here are the top 10 best law schools in the world:

1. Harvard University
2. University of Oxford
3. University of Cambridge
4. Yale University
5. Stanford University
6. London School of Economics and Political Science
7. University of California, Berkeley
8. Columbia University
9. New York University
10. National University of Singapore

USA! USA! USA! More than half of the world’s top 10 law schools are in America! In fact, almost half of the T14 is represented here. Unlike in the U.S. News rankings, Harvard continues to reign supreme, beating Yale and Stanford in this worldwide law school ranking. Harvard is still the most elite law school on the planet.

Farther down the list, but still within the top 25 law schools in the world, you’ll see Chicago (#11) and UCLA (#24). Going deeper, but still within the top 50 law schools in the world, you’ll find Georgetown (tied at #26), Penn (#29), Cornell (tied at #31), Duke (tied at #34), and Michigan (tied at #36).

Also representing for America in the top 100 law schools in the world are UVA (tied at #62), Northwestern (tied at #65), BU (#75), UT-Austin (tied at #90), American (tied at #97), and GW (tied at #100). Still within the top 150 law schools, we find UC Irvine, Notre Dame, U. Washington, and Vanderbilt. It’s great that so many U.S. law schools are ranked so highly on a global scale.

What do you think about these worldly law school rankings? Congratulate or condemn your alma mater — but be careful, the world is watching.

QS World University Rankings by Subject 2025: Law & Legal Studies [Top Universities]

Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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