| University of Illinois College of Law | |
| Type: | Public law school |
| Parent: | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign |
| Parent Endowment: | $3.46 billion[1] |
| Head: | Jamelle Sharpe |
| City: | Champaign |
| State: | Illinois |
| Country: | United States |
| Students: | 519 (Fall 2023) |
| Faculty: | 137 (Fall 2022) |
| Ranking: | 36th (tie) (2024)[2] |
| Bar Pass Rate: | 72.48% (2023; first-time takers)[3] |
The University of Illinois College of Law (Illinois Law or UIUC Law) is the law school of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a public land-grant research university in Champaign and Urbana, Illinois. It was established in 1897 and offers the Juris Doctor, Master of Laws, and Doctor of Juridical Science degrees.
The University of Illinois College of Law was founded in 1897 and is a charter member of the Association of American Law Schools.[4] The law honor society known as the Order of the Coif was founded at Illinois Law in 1902.
The University of Illinois College of Law is located on the south end of the main University of Illinois campus in Champaign, near Memorial Stadium and the State Farm Center. Illinois Law has the 14th largest law library in the United States of America, and the college has several notable alumni in law firms, politics, the judiciary, and academia, including: Albert E. Jenner Jr., name partner at the law firm Jenner & Block, Annette Lu, Vice President of the Republic of China from 2000 to 2008, and Philip McConnaughay, current dean of Peking University School of Transnational Law and former dean of Penn State Dickinson Law.
On September 11, 2011, The News-Gazette reported that the University of Illinois College of Law posted inaccurate information on its website about the LSAT scores and GPAs of its incoming first-year law students.[5] Two months later, the law school announced that a report commissioned from Jones Day and Duff & Phelps had found admission data for six of the seven previous years to have been manipulated by the Assistant Dean of Admissions Paul Pless, that Pless had acted alone and would no longer work for the College.[6] [7]
For the class entering in 2023, the University of Illinois College of Law accepted 43.69% of applicants, with 21.57% of those accepted enrolling. The average enrollee had a 165 LSAT score and 3.75 undergraduate GPA.[8]
The College of Law offers the Juris Doctor (J.D.), the professional degree in law, as well as the Master of Laws (LL.M) and Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D.), academic graduate degrees in law.
The flagship law review is the University of Illinois Law Review; the law school also publishes two specialized law journals, the Elder Law Journal and the Journal of Law, Technology & Policy,[9] which in 2007, ExpressO then ranked as the #4 Science & Technology law journal.[10] The College is also the home institution for the Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal, and for Law and Philosophy.
The Albert E. Jenner, Jr. Memorial Library is the college's law library. It is among the largest academic law libraries in the United States.[11]
According to the College of Law's official 2016 ABA-required disclosures, 78.92% of the Class of 2016 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment 10 months after graduation.[12] This was then the 19th highest out of all law schools in the United States.[13] Law School Transparency under-employment score is 10.8%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2016 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job 10 months after graduation.[14]
In 1957, the Chicago Sunday Tribune released the first modern rankings of law schools, and included Illinois among the top 10 law schools in America.[15]
In the 2024 U.S. News & World Report ranking, the college was ranked 36th in the country, tied with four others. In 2023, Above the Law ranked the college 19th in the nation.[16]
In its annual 2011 ranking of "Go-To Law Schools," The National Law Journal then ranked the University of Illinois College of Law 16th in the number of alumni associates promoted to partner.[17] In 2012, the National Jurist named the University of Illinois College of Law in its list of the 20 most innovative law schools, based on more than 40 submissions.[18]
See main article: University of Illinois College of Law alumni.