Boston College Law School: A Comprehensive Overview of Rankings, Academics, and Opportunities
Boston College Law School (BC Law), a private Jesuit research university located in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, has consistently been recognized as one of the top law schools in the United States. While provisions for a law school were included in Boston College's original charter, ratified in 1863, BC Law was formally organized in 1929. This article delves into the various aspects that contribute to BC Law's reputation, including its rankings, academic programs, experiential learning opportunities, and career prospects.
Rankings and Recognition
BC Law has consistently performed well in various law school rankings, reflecting its commitment to academic excellence and student success. In the U.S. News & World Report's latest edition of best law schools, BC Law moved up three spots to #25. The Law School also did well in a number of US News specialty rankings, including #18 for the Law Schools with Most Grads at Big Law Firms, a new list this year.
U.S. News & World Report’s 2025 law school rankings placed BC Law as the 25th best law school in the country. In 2025, the magazine ranked BC Law's tax program tied for 12th in the nation, its intellectual property law program tied for 31st, and its International law program tied for 29th.
BC Law scores well in a number of other rankings. The school comes in at #15 in National Law Journal’s ‘Go-to Law Schools’ for big firm hiring. Princeton Review ranks BC Law #9 for Best Quality of Life and #10 for Best Classroom Experience, while Boston College Law Review is ranked #16 in Washington & Lee’s ranking of top journals.
Above the Law (ATL) also publishes its own law school rankings, which prioritize employment outcomes to determine the value of a school's education. The ATL rankings are determined based on six metrics: quality of jobs score (40%), employment score (30%), projected cost (10%), first-time bar passage (10%), federal judges (5%), and SCOTUS clerks (5%).
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Academics and Curriculum
The Boston College Law School is a Jesuit institution that provides a holistic legal education balancing theory and practice. The school “does a nice job of blending high academic expectations and a sense of community,” which fosters a commitment to social justice in its students.
BC Law offers a comprehensive first-year law program that includes foundational courses such as constitutional and criminal law, civil procedure, contracts, property, and torts. Students also participate in a two-semester legal reasoning, research, and writing course called Law Practice, which provides three experiential learning credits and a foundation in critical thinking, analysis, and communication. There is also a 1L experiential-based elective in the spring semester.
When Boston College Law School redesigned its first-year curriculum, it wasn’t just to check a box. “Recruitment has moved earlier and earlier in the law school lifecycle,” said Daniel Lyons, professor and associate dean for academic affairs. That includes writing legal memos as if they were first-year associates, practicing oral arguments, drafting agency comments, and working on real-world legal simulations - all within the first year. BC Law requires all students to complete six credits of experiential coursework in the 1L year, the maximum required by the American Bar Association. “We’re helping students go beyond memorizing black-letter law,” Lyons said. “They’re learning how to think critically - to analyze what a court did and why, and whether that was right.
The School offers programs abroad through the Semester-in-Practice International Program primarily based in Dublin and exchange programs with Bucerius Law School, Paris HEAD Law School, and Renmin University in China.
Experiential Learning Opportunities
BC Law places a strong emphasis on experiential learning, providing students with numerous opportunities to apply their knowledge and skills in real-world settings. This is done by providing opportunities to aid real clients in need via clinics (such as the Prison Disciplinary Clinic or the Ninth Circuit Appellate Program) or the Legal Services Lab, which offers legal services to the community. Attendees are also able to sharpen their courtroom skills via the Oral Advocacy Program.
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Externships represent a crucial part of a BC Law education: The flagship Semester-in-Practice Programs let students spend up to 37 hours a week working in the field either locally or around the world, all while still attending an accompanying seminar. Tethered Externships offer students the chance to combine a traditional course with an experiential seminar that features a part-time placement in the field. “We’ve built four separate classes that align with different types of externships,” Lyons said. “Firms like seeing associates who’ve been on the other side of the bench,” Lyons said.
Law Library
Opened in 1996 at a cost of $11.7 million, the 84,500-square-foot Law Library building was designed by the Boston firm of Earl R. Flansburgh & Associates and contains four levels organized in four wings around a unifying central atrium. It houses 500,000 print volumes covering all major areas of American law and primary legal materials from the federal government, Canada, United Kingdom, United Nations, and European Union. The library also features a substantial electronic volumes offering, treatise and periodical collection and a growing collection of international and comparative law material.
Law Reviews
Boston College Law School has two main, student-run publications: Boston College Law Review (BCLR) and the Uniform Commercial Code Reporter-Digest (UCC Reporter-Digest). The Boston College Law Review is the Law School's flagship journal and was ranked 16th in the 2023 Washington & Lee Law Review Rankings, the highest ranking in its history. It publishes 8 print issues and one electronic-only issue per year. It endeavors to publish high-quality pieces written by students and scholars on a wide variety of legal issues. In addition to articles written by outside academics, BCLR prints the work of its student staff, many of whom publish notes during their third year. The Uniform Commercial Code Reporter-Digest is published by Matthew Bender & Company, a division of LexisNexis.
Faculty
Mary Sarah Bilder, Founders Professor of Law, legal historian. Bilder is the author of multiple books, with the most well known being Madison's Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention. This book won the 2016 Bancroft Prize in American History and Diplomacy. She teaches broadly in the areas of property, trusts and estates, and American legal and constitutional history.
Career Services and Employment Outcomes
Employment outcomes are prioritized in order to determine if the school is worth the cost (money and time) of attendance. This measurement is corroborated by the new topline statistics for BC Law’s Class of 2023, which shows the class has a 97.9% employment rate, with 96.7% of graduates landing “Real Lawyer Jobs” (full-time, long-term, bar passage required, or JD advantage positions). In 2022, the overall bar examination passage rate for BC Law first-time examination takers was 91.77%.
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BC Law is one of the best law schools in the nation when it comes to helping graduates land jobs at law firms. Associate hiring is seeing some changes. Reversing the last two years’ trend, associate hiring increased among participating firms in 2024, with entry-level hires accounting for 55% of all new hires, outpacing lateral hires at 45%, driven primarily by the largest firms, according to The NALP Foundation’s annual Update on Associate Attrition. Most law firms want to hire law grads who are ready to go on day one. BC Law’s career services office offers more than general programming. “We tailor all our work through individual advising,” Bookbinder said. As students learn more about firm life, including size, structure and culture, they often refine their goals.
For those interested in BigLaw, spring brings tailored support, including law firm networking events, a half-day prep conference and application guidance. BC Law’s commitment to student success isn’t limited to academics or advising. The alumni network is another major asset. “Our alumni are a real partner with us,” Lyons said. “They’re incredibly responsive and generous with their time.
Additional Information
Boston College Law School is accredited by the American Bar Association and as such our JD program meets the educational licensure requirements to sit for the bar examination in all 50 US states. For states in which you seek legal licensure, we recommend you contact the individual jurisdictions bar admission agency directly for current information regarding all requirements. The LLM program is not designed to lead to a license to practice law in any of the 50 jurisdictions of the US. Each jurisdiction has its own criteria and procedures for admitted lawyers to practice. Foreign-trained lawyers who seek license to practice in the US should contact the relevant state bar authority to determine whether their educational background meets the state's eligibility requirements. For the class entering in 2024, 13.27% of applicants were admitted with 26.20% of admitted students enrolling. The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at BC Law for incoming students in the 2023-2024 academic year is $91,101. Deadline: March 1st.
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