We've had the top Bar Pass Rate in Ohio three of the past six years and in 2020, we had the nation's 20th best Bar pass rate at 95%.
Case Western Reserve University School of Law has had the top bar pass rate in the State of Ohio three of the past six years. And in 2020, our overall pass rate of 95% across the country placed us as one of the top 20 law schools in the nation according to The National Law Journal. A high bar pass rate translates into high employment numbers, and our most recent graduating class had a 90% placement rate (includes students enrolled in advanced degree programs).
Few law schools have so many top-ranked programs, and we are ranked #10 in Experiential Education.
The most recent U.S. News & World Report rankings issue ranked CWRU #10 in the nation in International Law and #11 in Health Law. And, in 2022-2023, preLaw magazine ranked us as a "Top School" in twelve specialty areas: Health Law (A+) (Back to School Issue 2022), International Law (A+) (Winter 2023), Intellectual Property Law (A+) (Spring 2023), Tech Law (A+) (Winter 2023), Trial Advocacy (A) (Winter 2023), Environmental Law (A) (Spring 2023), Business Law (A) (Fall 2022), Criminal Law (A) (Fall 2022), Entertainment Law (A) (Winter 2023), Human Rights Law (A-) (Back to School Issue 2022), Public Policy Law (A-) (Winter 2023) and 23rd best in the nation in Public Interest Law (Back to School issue 2021). PreLaw magazine also ranked us 10th best in the nation with an A+ in Practical Training (Spring 2023).
We have one of the top Moot Court/Mock Trial Programs in the country.
A recent study ranked CWRU the 8th best law school in the country in Moot Court and Mock trial success for 2022-2023. This past year, CWRU excelled at a number of prestigious national and international competitions, including: the Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition (Regional Champion, Regional Best Brief Award, Regional Best Speaker Award, Ranked Second in the International Rounds, Best Speaker in the International Rounds, Third Best Brief in the World); the International Criminal Court Moot Court Competition (Finalist in the America's Competition; Third Place Brief, Third Place Speaker Award); BLSA Constance Baker Motley Mock Trial Competition (Regional Champion, Second Place at Nationals), Vis International Arbitration Competition in Chicago (First Runner Up), National Mock Trial Competition (Regional Champion, National Quarterfinalist), and the Case Classic Mock Trial Competition (Semifinalist).
We lead the nation in study-abroad and work-abroad opportunities.
We have semester abroad programs with 17 foreign law schools on five continents, and three concurrent JD/LLM degree programs with universities in London, Paris, and Madrid. We also provide opportunities for students to spend a summer or semester interning at international courts and NGOs across the globe. Our multi-million dollar endowed Frederick K. Cox International Law Center provides funding to help defray travel and living expenses.
We're one of the nation's oldest law schools, with a strong commitment to racial and social justice.
We've trained exceptional minds in the theory and practice of the law for more than 125 years. Our commitment to social justice is equally historic: Our first class in 1892 included an African-American student; today, 20% of our students are under-represented minorities. We graduated the first African-American woman to sit on the Ohio State Supreme Court, the Honorable Sara J. Harper, and distinguished champions for justice in the civil rights movement such as Fred Gray and C.B. King. In 2017 we established the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Scholarships to help make it possible for students interested in public interest law to attend our school.
Learn more about how we continue to evolve our program of legal education to more effectively integrate racial justice more comprehensively into the curriculum, advocate for law reform at local and national levels and foster a more equitable, inclusive and welcoming environment in both the law school and our community.
We have a faculty of leading scholars.
The 2021 Sisk/Leiter Study ranks our Faculty #36 in the nation in scholarly impact. Their work has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court, the International Court of Justice, International Criminal Tribunals, and many other courts; they regularly testify before Congress and they frequently appear in the media -- and their first priority is the success of our students (Princeton Review ranks us 26th best in terms of quality of teaching).
We are located on a picturesque university campus in University Circle—the cultural hub of Cleveland.
The law school is just a short stroll from the Cleveland Museum of Art (ranked as the second-best museum in the U.S.), Severance Hall (home of the world-renowned Cleveland Orchestra), the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Cleveland Institute of Art, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Cleveland Botanical Gardens, the Cleveland Natural History Museum and Perkins Wildlife Center and Cosmic Dave’s Rock Club—where the law school faculty/student band regularly performs. In 2021, USA Today ranked University Circle as the #1 arts district in the United States.
Our students enjoy a comfortable lifestyle - Cleveland is ranked 15th best place to live in the U.S.
There are many high-quality, reasonably priced housing options near the law school, as well as excellent restaurants at affordable prices. The law school is a quick ride to the second-largest theater district in the United States, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and three professional sports teams including the 2016 NBA Champion Cleveland Cavaliers. The city is surrounded by natural beauty, including rolling hills reminiscent of New England, hundreds of miles of bike trails, state and national parks and Lake Erie, the 11th largest lake in the world. In September 2016, Time Out, the global entertainment guide, named Cleveland as the 15th best place to live in the U.S. based on affordability, cultural offerings, safety and green space.
We have the feel of a small college, the power of a national law school.
Case Western Reserve is a small, personal school where you don't get lost in a crowd. Yet our national recognition brings almost two-thirds of our students from outside the State of Ohio, and over two-thirds of our alumni live and work around the nation and the world.
We educate leaders.
Our more than 10,000 living alumni include Fred Gray (pictured), a 2022 Presidential Medal of Freedom winner who served as counsel to Martin Luther King, Jr. during the Civil Rights movement; Austin Fragomen, founder of the nation's largest immigration firm; Patty Inglis, Executive Vice President of the San Francisco 49ers; Martin Gruenberg, Chairman of the FDIC; Kathleen O'Malley, Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; Mohamed Chambas, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for West Africa; Michael Turner, U.S. Congressman; Michele Connell, Global Managing Partner of Squire Patton Boggs; and Justin Bibb, Mayor of Cleveland.