Other top-tier law schools are secretly fist-pumping today

Because that’s what you do when the GOAT announces their retirement. According to a press release published yesterday, Yale Law School is dropping its participation in the prestigious US News and World Report annual rankings of law schools – a list the college has topped since 1990.

And while the list isn't without its scandals (more on that later), that’s not why Yale is dropping out. The school’s dean, Heather Gerken, called US News’ methodology profoundly flawed since it devalues programs that encourage public interest jobs, and rewards schools that give scholarships for high LSAT scores instead of ones that focus on a student’s financial needs.

• This has a negative impact on the law profession, according to Gerken, because it adds barriers to those who can’t afford expensive LSAT prep courses or tuition. It also discourages students from taking a service-focused career path, she says.

📸 Big picture: The US News and World Report rankings, just like Ron Burgundy, are kind of a big deal. For decades, participating schools have highlighted their placement to prospective students, and some university leaders even get paid bonuses if their schools move up the rankings.

This, as you might expect, has contributed to more scandals than in the show Scandal (s/o Olivia Pope). The most recent of which occurred in September, when Columbia University admitted to submitting inaccurate data to US News, a move that dropped it from #2 to #18 in the rankings year-over-year.

+Monkey see: A few hours after Yale’s announcement, Harvard Law also said it was dropping out of the US News rankings.