June 28, 2023
Mike Fox

The University of Virginia was ranked No. 3 in Above the Law’s annual law school rankings, among other accolades for the UVA Law community.

The ATL rankings, which focus on employment outcomes, draw from the latest American Bar Association employment data. The online blog also factored in law school debt and costs, and regional cost of living adjustments. Duke University School of Law topped the list.

UVA Law had the highest job placement rate in the country last year for permanent, full-time jobs that require passing the bar, with more than 95% of graduates from the Class of 2022 securing such positions within 10 months of graduation. The ’22 class also had the fifth-highest rate of graduates serving in federal clerkships, at 13%.

At nine months  after graduation, when the ABA collects its data, 98.5% of UVA Law’s 2022 graduates were employed and earning a median salary of $215,000.

Schwartzman Testifies Before Congress

Professor Micah Schwartzman ’05 discussed balancing civil liberties and public health regulations before a U.S. House select subcommittee on the COVID-19 pandemic on June 21. Schwartzman’s scholarship focuses on law and religion, jurisprudence, political philosophy and constitutional law. He is the Hardy Cross Dillard Professor of Law and the Roy L. and Rosamond Woodruff Morgan Professor of Law. He also co-directs the Karsh Center for Law and Democracy.

Law Review No. 4 in SCOTUS Cites

The Virginia Law Review ranks No. 4 among law journals cited by the U.S. Supreme Court from the 2021 term through June 8. An Empirical SCOTUS analysis found that the law review was cited seven times, including three times by Justice Clarence Thomas. The Virginia Law Review was cited twice each by Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, who cited no other law journals in that span. The Yale Law Review led with 28 citations.

Clinic Receives Grant

The Decarceration and Community Reentry Clinic was awarded a $4,000 grant from the University’s Mellon Race, Place, and Equity Program to help fund the creation of a law student-taught educational program for people in Virginia prisons, in partnership with Resilience Education. In 2020, the Mellon Foundation made a $5 million investment in UVA for developing research, teaching, curriculum and community partnerships around the intersections of race, place and equity.

3L Places in Writing Competition

Caitlin Flanagan ’24 won third place and a $1,000 cash prize in Notre Dame Law School’s Program on Church, State & Society annual writing competition. Her paper “Peering Over the Wall of Separation: Carson v. Makin, Church Autonomy, and the Monitoring of Religious Institutions” explores the implications of the Supreme Court’s abandonment of the distinction between religious status and religious use. Flanagan wrote the paper for her class Constitutional Law II: Religious Liberty, taught by Professor Micah Schwartzman ’05.

Student Startup Joins i.Lab

Peter Lee Hamilton J.D.-MBA ’24 is part of this year’s 20-team i.Lab Incubator, a goal-oriented, guided-learning program for students who launch innovative ventures. The i.Lab is hosted by the Batten Institute at the Darden School of Business. Hamilton founded ema.ai, a personal assistant AI that calls users daily to record their memories and collects them in a digital journal. As members of the annual i.Lab cohort, founders and their ventures receive grant funding, access to workshops, legal advice and  mentor support. They are also eligible to apply for the Kathryne Carr Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence, which in 2023 included a $25,000 grant.

2L Wins Award for CPA Exam

Timothy Dragonette ’25 won the American Institute of CPAs’ Elijah Watt Sells Award, which was presented to 2022 CPA candidates who passed all four sections of the Uniform CPA Examination on their first attempt, with a cumulative average score above 95.50.

2Ls Named Scholars at Akin

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld named John Elias ’25 and Ashley Lo ’25 Strauss Diversity & Inclusion Scholars, and Courtney Douglas ’25 a Pro Bono Scholar for this summer. Elias, based in Houston, and Lo, based in Washington, D.C., will be involved in firm diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and will build relationships with members of the firm’s resource affinity groups, according to Akin. Douglas will work on pro bono matters in Akin’s D.C. office before interning at a public interest organization of her choice under Akin’s sponsorship.

Founded in 1819, the University of Virginia School of Law is the second-oldest continuously operating law school in the nation. Consistently ranked among the top law schools, Virginia is a world-renowned training ground for distinguished lawyers and public servants, instilling in them a commitment to leadership, integrity and community service.

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