Texas Tech School of Law had two programs ranked among the best in the nation for 2007 in the April issue of U.S. News & World Report.
Tech's trial advocacy program was ranked 14th in the nation, and the legal writing program was ranked 23rd.
Brian Shannon, associate dean for Academic Affairs and a law professor, said Nancy Soonpaa, associate dean for Student Affairs and director of the legal writing program, is nationally recognized for her work, which he said he believes has a positive effect on Tech's law program.
Soonpaa said she is proud of the program, but it was not all her doing.
"As the director of the program, I am very proud of the ranking," she said. "But it is not all about me, but rather the professors and how hard they work to make the program successful."
Shannon said Tech's law school has long had success with their trial advocacy program, and one of its students was named the best in oral advocacy.
Shannon said Tech law also had a trial advocacy team compete last year in nationals.
"Our team was ranked second in the U.S., and they won the world championship in Dublin, Ireland, last summer," he said. "Our team this year ranked fifth in the U.S."
Shannon said the rankings were determined by surveys sent out to practicing lawyers, judges and law school professors.
He also said some of the data in the rankings were from the American Bar Association assessment of students' GPAs and LSAT scores from various schools.
What is so important about this ranking, Soonpaa said, is that with the ranking so high in these areas, it will make the overall ranking of the law school go up.
Tech currently is ranked in the Third Tier of law school rankings, which are listed alphabetically and not ranked as the Top 2 tiers. Tech also was in the Third Tier in the 2006 rankings. The Top 2 tiers include the Top 100 law schools around the country.
"This rankings will have a snowball effect in the sense that once a student sees certain programs with high rankings, they will think the school itself has a high ranking and more students will want to attend," Soonpaa said. "It will build on itself in a very positive way."
Shannon said he believes this will help get the word out about the Tech's School of Law.
"It is a matter of letting the country know what we have known for a long time," he said. "Lawyers had no opinion of Tech because they didn't know about our school, but this will be a great way to get the word out."
Shannon said employers like to hire students from the Tech law school because of their educational background.
"Our students are well prepared, hard working and have good ethics, and these two programs help develop these skills in students," Shannon said.
Though administrators are pleased with the rankings, they are not the only ones.
Savannah Meyer, a first-year law student from Topeka, Kan., said the ranking is good for the school.
"It absolutely will help the school because it will increase the number of applicants and promote the school not only on the level of applicants, but also students being hired after graduation," she said.
Barbara Novak, a law student from Lubbock, said the ranking will help increase the attendance of the law school.
"Anytime you are talking about being ranked it will attract students," Novak said. "Because when students are picking out schools, they usually go by the rank of the school."
Shannon said the law school now has an even bigger goal in being ranked.
"We are now in the Third Tier and our goal is to be in the Top 100 in the near future," he said. "And the way to get there is to demonstrate excellence in these areas."
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