KU Law specialty programs earn top-30 recognition from U.S. News
LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas School of Law continues to earn national recognition for excellence in legal education. Three of the school’s specialty programs — legal writing, environmental law and dispute resolution — rank among the top 30 in the nation, according to the 2025 U.S. News and World Report of Best Law Schools released this month.
KU Law’s legal writing program jumped 40 spots to No. 17 in the nation, while the environmental law program moved up 22 spots to No 25. Dispute resolution rose to No. 29, an increase of seven spots from the previous year. Among public law schools, these programs were ranked No. 10, No. 12 and No. 14 respectively.
“Our lawyering skills professors are committed to teaching in a way that prepares our students to excel in their first summer legal experience and their upper-level skills courses,” said Pam Keller, clinical professor and lawyering skills director. “I hope employers see this as yet another indication that our KU Law students are practice ready.”
Keller was among the first faculty members hired to launch KU Law’s Lawyering Skills Program in 1999 and has directed the program since 2006, helping thousands of Jayhawk lawyers build a solid foundation in legal writing.
KU Law’s environmental law program has also continued to rise in national stature.
“KU Law has a long tradition of excellence in environmental, energy and natural resources law,” said Uma Outka, William R. Scott Law Professor. “We built on that excellence this year by bringing one of the nation’s top water law scholars, Professor Robin Craig, to the KU Law faculty – this elevates our scholarly profile and allows us to expand our law school’s curriculum for our students. KU Law can now offer Environmental Law, Energy Law and Water Law every year, in addition to core courses like Administrative Law and Federal Indian Law, and a wider array of specialized courses, such as Climate Change and Toxic Torts.”
Craig, the Robert A. Schroeder Distinguished Professor of Law, is the 17th most cited environmental law scholar in the country, according to the latest Sisk Scholarly Impact Rankings Study — a leading measure of legal academic productivity.
KU Law’s dispute resolution program features two of the 10 KU Law professors listed in that Scholarly Impact study. John M. Rounds Professor of Law Chris Drahozal is a reporter of the Restatement of the U.S. Law on International Commercial Arbitration as well as the author of books on arbitration and contracts. Frank Edwards Tyler Distinguished Professor of Law Stephen Ware writes widely used treatises on arbitration and alternative dispute resolution.
“Much of the credit for KU Law’s dispute resolution program goes to lawyering skills faculty, who integrate mediation training into the first-year curriculum, ensuring every student receives formal training and a full simulated mediation session, and to expert mediator Shawn Watts, who offers our students intensive mediation skills training and the opportunity to mediate live cases with actual clients,” Ware said.
In addition, the program offers simulation courses in both transactional and dispute negotiation and the opportunity to participate in negotiation competitions.
“This training puts our students at the forefront of law practice and in the best position to serve clients,” Watts said.
Beyond specialty rankings, KU Law continues to be recognized as a top-tier law school, earning an overall rank of No. 50 in the nation and No. 24 among public law schools. This marks the third consecutive year KU Law has maintained its top-tier status.
The law school’s peer assessment score — a key metric of reputation within the legal academic community — continues to improve. This score reflects how KU Law is viewed by law school leaders across the country.
“We hope our alumni community is proud of what KU Law students and faculty have accomplished in recent years,” said Dean Stephen Mazza. “Due to alumni support, the law school has achieved a new level of national recognition.”
KU Law’s scholarly excellence continues to garner national attention. Last fall, the law school ranked No. 19 among public law schools and No. 43 overall in the Sisk Scholarly Impact Rankings Study. The study measures scholarly impact based on law journal citations to the work of tenured faculty members over the past five years.
More broadly, KU had 48 graduate programs ranked in the top 50 among public universities by U.S. News this year. The law school led the way with 10 specialty programs recognized among the best in the nation.