Students take a break in the courtyard.

 Richardson Law School students in class.

Richardson is fifth least expensive among top law schools in the U.S.

News Release from University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Jun 3, 2014

There’s more good news for the University of Hawai‘i Law School.  According to a new survey of the country’s top-ranked law schools by U.S. News & World Report, the William S. Richardson School of Law is ranked among the top five best bargains in the entire country, with respect of loans that students take out to finance their legal education.

Of the 10 most reasonably-priced law schools in the country, Richardson ranked in the top five.  Also, the U.S. News Short List also reported this week that, of those 2013 students who borrowed money for law school, Richardson graduates carry the 10th lowest level of debt.

The report found that the 2013 graduates who borrowed to attend Richardson carry an average debt load of $70,263 – almost $40,000 lower than the average debt carried by all 2013 law school graduates across the country.

Average law school debt for 2013 graduates who borrow is $109,756, according to the U.S. News data. However, the average debt of the 10 lowest-priced schools for 2013 graduates who borrowed was $63,008.

Dean Avi Soifer said that the Richardson Law School has long excelled at keeping costs low while providing an exceptional, personalized legal education for its students. Additionally, he pointed out that the Part-Time Evening Program at Richardson enables students to continue working at day jobs while attending the Law School.

Said Soifer, “Our founding mission was to provide the opportunity for an excellent legal education and training in leadership for those who otherwise might not have been able to attend law school.  We are working hard to realize the dream shared by Chief Justice Richardson and his allies when they fought to start this Law School 40 years ago.”

Earlier this year, U.S News reported that Richardson Law School was again ranked among the top tier of American law schools. In recent months Richardson also was lauded by Prelaw Magazine, which ranked it sixth in the nation for hands-on service learning, calling it one of America’s “Success Stories” because of its top rankings in diversity for the last two years in a row.

In November 2012, UH Law School was ranked 7th in the “Diversity Honor Roll” among America’s top 27 law schools by National Jurist magazine, also placing among the top 20 U.S. schools for overall diversity and among the top seven with the highest diversity of faculty.

For the past two years in a row, in both October 2012 and 2013, Princeton Review listed Richardson as one of the “Best 168 Law Schools” in the country, ranking Richardson No. 1 as the “Best Environment for Minority Students.”

For more information, visit: https://www.law.hawaii.edu/