Yale Law School

Yale Law School (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2025 acceptance rate was 4.1%, the lowest of any law school in the United States. Its yield rate is often the highest of any law school in the United States. Each class in Yale Law's three-year J.D. program enrolls approximately 200 students. Yale's flagship law review is the Yale Law Journal, one of the most highly cited legal publications in the United States. According to Yale Law School's ABA-required disclosures, 83% of the Class of 2019 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required or JD-advantage employment nine months after graduation, excluding solo practitioners. Yale Law alumni include many prominent figures in law and politics, including U.S. presidents Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton, U.S. vice president JD Vance, U.S. secretaries of state Cyrus Vance and Hillary Clinton, U.S. secretaries of the treasury Henry H. Fowler and Robert Rubin, and nine U.S. attorney generals. Other alumni also include current U.S. Supreme Court justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor and Brett Kavanaugh, as well as multiple former justices, including Abe Fortas, Potter Stewart and Byron White; several heads of state, including German president Karl Carstens, Philippine president Jose P. Laurel, and Malawi president Peter Mutharika; U.S. senators, governors, and officials.