Yale Law School is the law school of Yale University, located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Established in 1824, Yale Law offers the J.D., LL.M., J.S.D., M.S.L., and Ph.D. degrees in law. The school's small size and prestige make its admissions process the most selective of any law school in the United States. Whereas less than 1 in 10 applicants are offered admission, roughly 8 in 10 admits ultimately matriculate, which marks the best yield rate among the top U.S. law schools. Yale Law has been ranked the number one law school in the country by U.S. News and World Report every year since the magazine began publishing law school rankings. Widely considered to be the preeminent law school in the nation, it is one of the most prestigious law schools in the world.Yale Law has produced a significant number of luminaries in law and politics, including United States presidents Gerald Ford, Bill Clinton and former U.S. secretary of state and presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton. Former president William Howard Taft was a professor of constitutional law at Yale Law School from 1913 until he resigned to become chief justice of the United States in 1921. Alumni also include current United States Supreme Court associate justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Sonia Sotomayor, as well as a number of former justices, including Abe Fortas, Potter Stewart and Byron White; several heads of state around the world, including Karl Carstens, the fifth president of Germany, and Jose P. Laurel, the third president of the Republic of the Philippines; four current U.S. senators; the current governors of California and Rhode Island; and the current deans of three of the top fourteen-ranked law schools in the United States: Virginia, Cornell, and Georgetown.
