Law School Facts

For almost 150 years, the University of Michigan’s Law School has offered its students one of the world’s finest legal educations in a setting of stunning physical beauty. Among Michigan Law’s nearly 20,000 alumni can be found leaders in law, business, and public service in countries across the globe.

So what explains the Michigan difference? While students certainly gain access to a collegial community of scholars who work at the top of their fields, they also come into contact with each other – with a diverse body of talented students whose cooperative spirit helps bring out the best in faculty and student alike.

Browsing the rich variety of events and news clips offers a glimpse into a dynamic intellectual world.

• Evan Caminker is the 16th and current Dean of the Law School.



• Michigan's Law Quadrangle is the finest living/learning environment in the world of legal education.



• Michigan has 81 full-time faculty members: 60 tenured and tenure track and 21 clinical and legal practice.



• Law School Professors Phoebe C. Ellsworth, Yale Kamisar, Richard O. Lempert, and Rebecca J. Scott all hold Distinguished University Professorships.



• The University of Michigan Law School is an international center for interdisciplinary legal scholarship and teaching.



• Michigan is among the top law schools in placing the largest percentage of graduates in the most prestigious national law firms.



• Michigan Law class of 2006 (the most recent information available) has a 99.41 percent employment rate.
   
• Michigan ranks in the top 5 for the number of alumni teaching in U.S. law schools, and in the top 3 for tenure- and tenure-track positions.



• Michigan's Law Library has one of the world's most comprehensive collections of foreign, comparative, and international law materials.



• At Michigan, legal writing is taught by 9 full-time legal practice professors, not adjuncts or students.



• Michigan Law Library's comprehensive collection and superb services support research on any topic in any jurisdiction.



• With over 975,500 volumes, the Law Library has one of the world's premier collections and is staffed by experts in legal librarianship.



• The National Jurist magazine has ranked the University of Michigan Law Library fourth out of a total of 183 law school libraries in the nation in 2004.



• Michigan offers 14 different dual-degree programs, or students can design their own.



• Michigan has clinics in trial and appellate litigation, child advocacy, community development, mediation, environmental law, and poverty law.



• Michigan has the most progressive Debt Management Program in the country.



• Michigan is the world's center for the study of refugee and asylum law.



• Michigan has externships in South Africa, Geneva, and human rights organizations worldwide.



• On average, 1 or 2 Michigan Law School graduates clerk with the U.S. Supreme Court every year; fifteen have done so in the last decade.



• Michigan is ranked 3rd in the country for the number of top law firms recruiting on-campus.



• Michigan is 1 of the top 3 of our peer law schools in the percentage of graduates taking their first job in public interest (judicial Clerkship, public interest, and government).



• Two Michigan Students were selected by the International Court of Justice for its university traineeship program in the Law School's first year of participation.



• Michigan students come from 257 undergraduate institutions and about 75% of students are from other states.



• There are 1,148 J.D. Students enrolled at the Law School.



• The Law School wireless network allows students internet connections within Hutchins Hall, Legal Research, the library, the Law Quadrangle, and beyond.



• Already unsurpassed for the beauty of its architecture, Michigan Law is also ranked among the top law schools for technology by The National Jurist.



• Michigan has 6 student-edited journals and more than 50 student organizations.



• Michigan Law has over 20,000 graduates worldwide.



• Ann Arbor is considered among the best places in the United States to live, work, raise children, and acquire an education.



• Restaurants, clubs, coffee shops, bookstores, shopping, and athletic facilities are within a few blocks of the Law Quadrangle.



• The variety of workshops, symposia, and student activities reflects the Law School's strong institutional interest in global affairs.



• Half of our students take advantage of one of Michigan Law's many established clinical offerings.