FEATURE – EXCERPT FROM THE JANUARY 2000 RICHARDSON –
LAW SCHOOL BOUND NEWSLETTER - 2000 CANADIAN LAWYER LAW SCHOOL RANKINGS
Richardson LSAT Prepartion - Toronto, Canada
The Canadian Lawyer Law School Report Card is an annual
tradition. The 2000 edition was released last week. The report is
compiled based on surveys to graduates of a given school within
the preceding 5 years. The graduates rate the school in the
following 6 categories: overall curriculum; quality of the
to the actual practice of law. The responses are then
teaching faculty; overall percentage of caring and competent
faculty; quality of fellow students; standards of testing;
adequacy of facilities and technology; and the relevance of their
education converted to a letter grade.
The survey makes it clear that: The eternal debate over whether
law school is a "trade school" or "house of higher learning"
continues. In other words, should law schools teach practical
lawyering skills or should they be teaching legal theory? The
article suggests that most graduates think the law schools should
be teaching more practical lawyering skills.
The Canadian Lawyer Law School Report Card is interesting
reading. It is not, however, a basis for a pre-law student
evaluating a law school and is certainly not a basis for choosing
a law school. At most it should be used as the basis for asking
specific questions about a school. In my view it is impossible to
assign grades to the schools or rank them comparatively. Having
said that, here are the grades and rankings in order:
Ranking School Grade %Recommending School
1. Calgary B+ 100
2. U. of T. B+ 97
3. Victoria B+ 100
4. Moncton B+ 100
5. New Brunswick B+ 100
6. Western B+ 96
7. McGill B 93
8. Alberta B 94
9. Windsor B 100
10. Montreal B 100
11. Dalhousie B 100
12. Manitoba B 100
13. Osgoode B 80
14. Queen's B 86
15. Saskatchewan B- 100
16. UBC B- 67
17. Ottawa C+ 88
Notes:
1. The University of Quebec at Montreal, Laval and Sherbrooke
drew insufficient responses to be included in the survey.
2. Sherbrooke, Montreal and Laval are civil law schools.
3. Moncton is a French language common law school.
Judging by the percent of respondents who would recommend their
school, it looks like the Canadian law schools are doing a fine
job!