These were uniformly top scholars in their respective fields, including law and economics, constitutional and public law, jurisprudence, property, comparative and international law, and commercial and corporate law, among other areas. This is a group unusually likely to have informed opinions about law school quality. The U.S. News top 25 was provided.
Nothing seems to be thought there.
I can't figure out how they make it above 15 by a generous review. It may, of course, seem mean-spirited to report these widespread critical sentiments. But given how quickly schools capitalize on their favorable U.S. News treatment, honesty in advertising demands some balance lest students be defrauded. Obviously, this comparison class strikes many distinguished academics as ludicrous. One might puzzle, of course, how Duke manages to rank 11th in academic reputation in the U.S. News surveys, given the kinds of opinions quoted above and expressed with such frequency by serious scholars at different schools.