GWU Law School Plummets in USNEWS Rankings

WASHINGTON - May 11, 2023 - PRLog -- The George Washington University Law School has plummeted in the influential ranking of U.S. law schools by USNEWS from #25 last year to a tie for #35 (therefore effectively #37).

It ranks below Georgetown [#15] and now below George Mason [#32 tied], notes public interest law professor John Banzhaf.

Another influential rating, by Above The Law, has not included GWU within the top 50 spots in its annual law school rankings since 2018, when it ranked GWU at #44; down (not as highly ranked) 10 positions since the previous year.

Similarly, The National Jurist's Prelaw magazine recently had an article entitled "Best Schools For Practical Training."  It listed practical training programs at almost 50 law schools, including Georgetown and George Mason.

The George Washington University Law School was not even listed.

So the law school whose students and faculty started no fewer than three major public health movements - the modern antismoking movement (and especially the use of legal action as a weapon against smoking), the nonsmokers' rights movement (which has spread worldwide and even includes smoking bans outdoors and in apartments and private homes), and the sue-fat litigation movement (which has had many successes, and inspired a failed attempt to stop it by national legislation) - isn't listed by USNEWS as among the top schools for Clinical Law, and its program in Health Care Law is ranked only #20.

The law students who, as part of a course in Legal Activism, sued Agnew to force him to return to money he received in bribes, beat the national railroads in the U.S. Supreme Court in a landmark case establishing environmental standing, forced McDonald's to pay over $12 million to settle a deceptive advertising suit over its french fries, beat Hertz in court, successfully fought against discriminatory higher prices for women, helped get ingredient labeling on supermarket foods and more accurate labeling on birth control pills, safety standards for school buses, and much more are now longer permitted - much less encouraged - to explore new legal frontiers and to go where no law students have gone before.

JOHN F. BANZHAF III, B.S.E.E., J.D., Sc.D.
Professor of Public Interest Law Emeritus
George Washington University Law School
"The Man Behind the Ban on Cigarette Commercials"
FAMRI Dr. William Cahan Distinguished Professor
Fellow, World Technology Network
Founder, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
Inventor of the "Banzhaf Index"
(202) 994-7229 // (703) 527-8418
http://banzhaf.net/   jbanzhaf3ATgmail.com   @profbanzhaf