Like many of you, I have received my USNews ballot for ranking law school ADR programs.  I have yet to fill mine out, and will in the next few days.  But some interesting news came to my attention this morning about the value that USNews places on our field. According to tax professor Paul Caron, his ballot for the Tax specialty rankings states:

The survey instructs voters to “[i]dentify up to fifteen (15) schools that have the highest-quality alternative dispute resolution courses or programs. [emphasis added] ln making your choices consider all elements that contribute to a program’s academic excellence, for example, the depth and breadth of the program, faculty research and publication record, etc.”

That’s right:  the tax rankings will be based on the quality of alternative dispute resolution courses or programs!  Colleagues receiving ballots in several of the other seven U.S. News specialty rankings (Clinical, Environmental Law, Intellectual Property, International Law, Legal Writing, and Trial Advocacy) report that those rankings also will be based on the quality of alternative dispute resolution courses or programs.

I’m glad to see that someone finally has given the dispute resolution field its due recognition.

hat tip – TaxProf