Seton Hall University School of Law

One of New Jersey's two law schools moved slightly up, while the other slid a bit, in this year's U.S. News & World Report law school rankings—released at a time when deans have more pressing matters in mind with the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Our every effort at this point in time is to keep our students healthy, and enable them to finish the semester," Seton Hall University School of Law Dean Kathleen Boozang said in a statement. "I have to admit that [the coronavirus] puts things in perspective."

Seton Hall Law slipped three spots, to a five-way tie at No. 62. The firm's overall score decreased by one point, to 49.

There weren't many changes in the scores in categories that make up the overall score, such as peer assessment. Its 25th percentile/75th percentile undergraduate GPA (for the 2019 academic year) was 3.18-3.69, changed slightly from 3.15-3.7. Its 25th percentile LSAT score did fall one point, to 153 from 154. Meanwhile, acceptance rate decreased, and student-faculty ratio decreased, to 6.8 from 7.1.

The school shares the 62nd spot with Loyola Marymount University, Pennsylvania State University-Carlisle, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, and Villanova University.

Boozang in her statement pointed up the school's track record of postgraduate employment.

"My bottom line is that the entire class of 2019 had a first time bar pass rate of 90.4%. The rankings show that Seton Hall Law has the tenth best employment record in the country. I can't think of a better assessment of the quality of a Seton Hall Law education," she said.

Rutgers Law School climbed one spot, to a seven-way tie at No. 76, while maintaining the same overall score (45).

Its employment rates at graduation and 10 months out improved, to 70% from 60%, and to 84% from 82%, respectively. Acceptance rate also was down 5 percentage points, to 44%, and 25th and 75th percentile GPAs improved, to 3.13-3.63 from 3.08-3.6. Although student-to-faculty ratio increased, to 7.3 from 5.4.

The other schools sharing the 76th spot are American University, Case Western Reserve University, Georgia State University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Oklahoma, and University of Pittsburgh.

Rutgers Law School Co-Deans Kimberly Mutcherson and David Lopez said in a statement: "Rutgers Law School is one of the nation's flagship public law schools that provides an outstanding law school experience to all of our graduates. We are known for our excellent faculty and broad curriculum across our two locations, our robust community engagement and clinical offerings, affordability, diversity, and strong post-law school employment numbers.

"The work that we do and the superlative education that we provide will continue to be our focus, rather than any arbitrary and malleable system of rankings," they said.

Other area law schools fared well in the rankings. Boasting the biggest climb is Fordham University School of Law, which shot up 12 spots to No. 27. And Columbia Law School moved up one spot to a two-way tie at No. 4 with the University of Chicago Law School.

The top rankings were unchanged: Yale Law School (No. 1), Stanford Law School (No. 2) and Harvard Law School (No. 3).