Law school rankings by magazines have historically been a fruitless and misleading exercise, but The Week may have just bucked that trend.

Well, slightly, anyway.

As a welcome change from the ludicrous (perhaps paid) rankings of every year, The Week has come up with a list that is more acceptable, with a few exceptions.

Each law college is ranked in order of its “Composite Score”. It comes as no surprise that NLSIU Bangalore tops the list, followed by NALSAR Hyderabad and Faculty of Law, Delhi University. WBNUJS Kolkata is in fourth, followed by NLIU Bhopal, NLU Jodhpur and Faculty of Law, Banaras Hindu University. GNLU Gandhinagar, ILS Pune and Symbiosis Pune complete the top ten.

There are five other CLAT law colleges that feature in the top 35: HNLU Raipur at 13^th, RMLNLU Lucknow at 14^th, RGNUL Patiala at 16^th, NUALS Kochi at 17^th, and CNLU Patna at 23^rd.

Here is the list of the top 35 law colleges:

But every list has its share of anomalies, and this is no different. Take NLU Delhi’s low ranking of 19 for instance, or Faculty of Law BHU’s high ranking of 7. Perhaps if the components behind this “Composite Score” was revealed, we could get a better idea of the basis for assigning the ranks to the above mentioned colleges.

Despite the fact that this list gives prospective law students a more accurate idea of the top law schools in the country than India Today’s, the fact remains that there is an element of subjectivity that creeps into these exercises. The Week’s rankings are after all based on the perception of 57 experts and 151 current students from various colleges.

Here is a list of the top private law colleges:

Image taken from here.