Home » Law Schools » Rankings and Profiles »

The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law

From TLS wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Last updated: September 4, 2026

The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law

The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law (Moritz Law) is the law school of The Ohio State University, located in Drinko Hall on the university's main campus in Columbus, Ohio. Founded in 1891 and continuously ABA-approved since that time, Moritz is the oldest and largest public law school in Ohio and the state's only law school with a dedicated public-records national archival repository. The school is consistently ranked the top law school in Ohio by U.S. News & World Report.

Moritz is home to approximately 560 J.D. students and roughly 50 full-time faculty. The school's defining attribute is its combination of a top-30 U.S. News rank, the leading bar-passage rate among Ohio schools, and a public-school tuition that produces a substantially lower debt profile than its private peers at the same rank.

Ohio State Moritz Law School at a Glance

Category Latest information
Founded 1891
Type Public (The Ohio State University)
ABA approval or accreditation Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar
Location Drinko Hall, 55 West 12th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210
Latest U.S. News rank #30 (tie, 2026), out of 194; #11 among public law schools
Latest completed applications Approximately 2,460 (Fall 2025 entering class)
Latest acceptance rate 24.62% (2025 ABA 509 reporting cycle)
Latest LSAT median 168 (25th–75th: 161–170)
Latest GPA median 3.91 (25th–75th: 3.65–3.97)
Latest entering class 159 (Class of 2028; 1L enrollment)
Current tuition $37,411 (Ohio resident) / $52,663 (non-resident), 2026–27
Current estimated cost of attendance Approximately $71,000 (resident) / $86,000 (non-resident), 2026–27
Latest first-time bar passage 94.07% Ohio (Class of 2025); ~91.95% all jurisdictions
Latest bar-required employment 88.5–88.8% full-time, long-term bar-required (Class of 2025)
| Kent Barnett (21st dean; J. Gilbert Reese Chair in Contract Law; since Aug. 15, 2024)

Introduction

Moritz College of Law - The Ohio State.jpg

Moritz College of Law opened its doors in 1891 with the first classes held on October 1, 1891, in the Franklin County Court House, and the school has remained on or near Ohio State's main campus ever since. The school's current home is Drinko Hall, a self-contained law-school complex on the western edge of Ohio State's flagship campus in Columbus. Moritz is the oldest law school in the state of Ohio and has trained a substantial portion of the state's bench and bar across more than a century.

Two statistics frame Moritz's present-day profile. First, the school reported that first-time Ohio Bar Exam takers from Moritz led all Ohio law schools for the fifth consecutive year, posting a 94.07% pass rate for the Class of 2025 — the highest in the state by a meaningful margin. Second, the school reported a 93.0% ten-month employment rate for the Class of 2025, ranking it among the top third of public law schools nationally. The combination of a top-30 U.S. News rank (#11 among publics), leading-in-state bar passage, and substantially lower tuition than private peers is the school's central pitch.

Rankings and Reputation

Overall ranking

Ranked #30 (tie) in the 2026 U.S. News & World Report law-school rankings, tied with Wake Forest, and #11 among public law schools. Moritz has held a top-30 overall ranking for the past five consecutive years, and is consistently the top-ranked law school in the state of Ohio. The clinic-based curriculum and business-law faculty are widely cited strengths.

Specialty rankings

  • #8 in Tax Law (U.S. News, 2026)
  • Top-25 in Business/Corporate Law (U.S. News, 2026)
  • Top-30 in Constitutional Law
  • Top-30 in Criminal Law
  • Top-30 in Dispute Resolution
  • Top-30 in Environmental Law
  • Top-30 in Health Law and Public Health Law**
  • Top-30 in Intellectual Property Law**
  • Top-30 in International Law**
  • Top-30 in Trial Advocacy**

Admissions: What It Takes to Get In

Entering class (Fall 2025)

For the Class of 2028 (Fall 2025 entering cohort), the 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report records the following:

  • Approximately 2,460 completed applications (based on 24.62% acceptance and ~605 offers)
  • Approximately 605 offers of admission
  • 24.62% acceptance rate
  • 159 students in the first-year class (1L enrollment as published on LawHub)

The school reads from a national applicant pool but with a meaningful in-state Ohio preference and a strong showing from Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan, and Maryland.

LSAT and GPA

Median LSAT among enrolled students: 168 (25th percentile: 161; 75th percentile: 170). Median undergraduate GPA: 3.91 (25th percentile: 3.65; 75th percentile: 3.97). Both medians place Moritz above most regional public law schools and on the cusp of the T14 band.

Interpreting the numbers

Moritz's LSAT median of 168 is mid-T14-tier for the credential profile, and the GPA median of 3.91 is competitive with most private top-30 schools. The school's 24.62% acceptance rate is similar to peer T14 public schools (Berkeley, UCLA, Virginia). The combination suggests Moritz admits students with competitive credentials but with regional priorities that benefit in-state applicants specifically.

Application timing

J.D. applications open early September for Fall 2027 entry. Priority deadline: January 1, 2027. Standard deadline: April 1, 2027. Final deadline: May 1, 2027. Application fee: $60 (fee waivers broadly available; fee may be auto-waived when the applicant indicates financial need). Decisions are released on a rolling basis from January through April.

Cost, Scholarships, and Debt

Tuition

2026–27 tuition rates:

  • Ohio Resident: $37,411 per year
  • Non-Resident: $52,663 per year

Ohio State Moritz's tuition has tracked the regional public-school median, with annual increases in the 3–5% range. In-state tuition is among the lowest of any top-30 law school in the country; non-resident tuition is competitive with peer public T14 (Berkeley, UCLA, Virginia, Michigan).

Cost of attendance

The published 2026–27 standard student expense budget totals approximately $71,000 (resident) / $86,000 (non-resident), including tuition, mandatory fees, room and board, books, transportation, personal expenses, and loan fees. The breakdown is approximately:

  • Tuition and fees: $37,411 (resident) / $52,663 (non-resident)
  • Room and board: $14,000
  • Books and supplies: $1,800
  • Personal/transportation: $5,500
  • Loan fees: $2,200 (estimated max)

Note: The Moritz scholarships-and-financial-aid page lists the 2026–27 student budget direct tuition figures as $37,396 (resident) and $52,648 (non-resident) — these are the published tuition rates for the 2026–27 entering cohort.

Financial aid

The Moritz scholarships-and-financial-aid page reports that the school distributed more than $3.5 million in grant and scholarship funding annually across its enrolled students. Approximately 80–90% of the student body receives grant aid, with the bulk need-based. The flagship awards are the Moritz Merit Scholarships — partial- and full-tuition merit awards that follow 1L rank and remain non-conditional throughout enrollment.

Debt perspective

Moritz's average debt for the Class of 2025 (per U.S. News public-source data): approximately $95,000 for borrowers, $72,000 overall — substantially below both the national average and the private-school top-30 peer group. The school's #8 Tax Law specialty placement is partly enabled by the §170K tax-credit LRAP framework and an aggressive public-interest loan-forgiveness program, which together make government and public-interest careers more accessible than at most private top-30 schools.

Employment Outcomes

Employment (Class of 2025)

The Class of 2025 ABA employment summary discloses the following for graduates from the J.D. program (LawHub and ABA-reporting aggregations):

  • 93.0% ten-month employment rate
  • 88.5% full-time, long-term bar-required employment (LawHub)
  • 88.8% bar-required per ILRG ranking (#36 nationally)
  • 0.0% reported as underemployed
  • Approximately 3% federal clerkship rate; 6% total clerkship rate, including state and local
  • Approximately 30% of graduates enter BigLaw, as defined by firms of 101+ lawyers

By employer category (Class of 2025):

  • Law firms, 501+ lawyers: ~20%
  • Law firms, 251–500 lawyers: ~5%
  • Law firms, 101–250 lawyers: ~5%
  • Law firms, 51–100 lawyers: ~6%
  • Law firms, 26–50 lawyers: ~6%
  • Law firms, 11–25 lawyers: ~6%
  • Law firms, 1–10 lawyers: ~8%
  • Business & Industry: ~8%
  • Government: ~8%
  • Public Interest: ~7%
  • Judicial Clerkships: ~6%

What these numbers mean

Moritz's signature employment profile is a top-30 rank with a 30%+ BigLaw placement rate. The school's Columbus and Cleveland placement partners dominate: Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease; Bricker & Eckler; Porter Wright Morris & Arthur; Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff. New York placement is meaningful but smaller (Cleary Gottlieb has hired from Moritz in recent cycles), as is D.C. federal clerkship and government placement.

Bar passage

  • 94.07% first-time pass rate for the Class of 2025 in Ohio — the highest among Ohio law schools for the fifth consecutive year
  • Approximately 91.95% first-time pass rate across all jurisdictions
  • Approximately 99.0% ultimate two-year pass rate

Where graduates go

Moritz graduates distribute primarily among:

  • Ohio: ~52%
  • New York: ~9%
  • Pennsylvania: ~5%
  • California: ~4%
  • D.C.: ~4%
  • Illinois: ~4%
  • Michigan: ~3%
  • Other states: remainder

Columbus is the school's primary placement market; Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Akron are the other Ohio markets. The school's federal clerkship rate of approximately 3% reflects the smaller New York/D.C. share.

Academics and Programs

Curriculum and special strengths

The J.D. is a six-semester, 90-credit course of study. Required first-year courses anchor the program in constitutional law, contracts, civil procedure, criminal law, property, torts, and legal writing. Upper-division concentrations include:

  • Business and Corporate Law (signature concentration)
  • Tax Law (signature concentration; #8 U.S. News)
  • Criminal Law
  • Environmental Law
  • Health Law and Public Health Law
  • Intellectual Property
  • International Law
  • Litigation and Dispute Resolution
  • Public Interest Law

The Moritz curriculum also offers innovative courses in-house, including the National Security Simulation course and a Washington, D.C. summer program operated in cooperation with Washington, D.C. externship placements.

Joint degrees

Moritz offers joint J.D. degrees with other Ohio State graduate divisions, including:

  • JD/MBA (Fisher College of Business)
  • JD/MPH (College of Public Health)
  • JD/MA in Public Policy and other combined programs

The school also offers LL.M. and M.S.L. (Master of Studies in Law) graduate programs with concentrations in several of the school's specialty areas.

Clinics and experiential learning

The clinical program includes a substantial in-house clinic structure. Signature clinics include:

  • Civil Litigation Clinic
  • Criminal Defense Clinic
  • Entrepreneurship and Innovation Clinic
  • Environmental Law Clinic
  • Family Law Clinic
  • Immigration Law Clinic
  • Federal Public Defender Clinic
  • Public Interest Law Foundation
  • Reasonable Doubt Project (innocence)
  • Tax Clinic

Each second- and third-year student is required to complete at least 6 credits of experiential learning — Moritz was an early pioneer of the experiential requirement model.

Journals

Moritz students publish on several student-edited journals, including:

  • Ohio State Law Journal
  • Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law
  • Ohio State Business Law Journal
  • Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution
  • I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy (Cybersecurity and Information Society)

Journals feed the school's clerkship and academic pipeline through supervised student writing.

Centers and institutes

Major centers and institutes housed at Moritz include:

  • Center for Interdisciplinary Law and Policy Studies
  • The Michael E. Moritz Distinguished Faculty Research Fund
  • The Ted and Franklin Langdon Memorial Endowed Chair in Federal Courts
  • The J. Gilbert Reese Chair in Contract Law (held by the current dean)

Student Life and Location

Living in Columbus

Columbus is the largest city in Ohio, with a metropolitan population of approximately 2.1 million and a deep regional legal market anchored by the Ohio Supreme Court, the Franklin County Common Pleas Court, the Sixth Circuit federal appellate court, and a deep field of state and national law firms. Moritz's Drinko Hall is on Ohio State's main campus in the university district, offering easy access to law-firm offices, courthouses, and the larger Ohio State undergraduate and graduate community.

Student body

Moritz's student body comprises approximately 560 J.D. students and roughly 50 full-time faculty. The student body is large enough to provide curricular breadth (Tax Law #8; Business Law top-25), small enough to maintain a tight Ohio State alumni network, and demographically consistent with Ohio State's broader student population. Active student organizations include the Moot Court and Lawyering Teams, the Mock Trial team, the Real Estate Law Society, the Tax Law Society, and a range of affinity and practice-area groups.

How Ohio State Compares

Choose Ohio State if

  • You want a top-30 law-school credential from a public school at a substantially lower tuition than private peers.
  • You want to take the Ohio Bar and pursue a career in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, or another Ohio regional market.
  • You want to access top-8 nationwide Tax Law specialty coursework and the strongest possible Ohio bar-passage record.
  • You want a public-school LRAP and tuition structure that produces a debt profile an entire magnitude below private top-30 peers.
  • You prefer a major-college town with a deep regional legal market over coastal alternatives.

Consider alternatives if

  • You want a T14 credential with widely-discussed placements to NYC and DC firms (consider Duke, Penn, or Northwestern).
  • You want a different regional market — Michigan, Wisconsin, or Minnesota are nearby public peers at similar ranks.
  • You want a different specialty than the ones Moritz dominates (Tax Law #8 is the strongest MIT-style alternative in the public tier).
  • You want a smaller or larger student body — Berkeley, UCLA, and WashU are similar-rank peers with different cohort sizes.

The TLS Verdict

Ohio State's Moritz College of Law combines a top-30 U.S. News rank (#11 among public law schools), the highest state bar-passage rate in Ohio for five consecutive years (94.07% Class of 2025 first-time), a tax-law specialty rank of #8 nationally, and public-school tuition that produces substantially lower debt than private peers at the same rank. The school is an outstanding value choice for students committed to the Ohio bar and the Columbus/Cleveland/Cincinnati markets, especially those interested in tax or business-law job placement. For applicants seeking immediate coastal BigLaw placement at large NYC firms or widely-discussed federal clerkships, the regional employment gravity and the school's public-school structure are real considerations.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Ohio State Moritz Law School's acceptance rate?

24.62% — approximately 2,460 completed applications and approximately 605 offers of admission (Fall 2025, ABA Standard 509).

What LSAT score do I need?

Median 168, with a 25th–75th percentile range of 161–170 (Fall 2025). Scores at or above 168 place you at the median.

What GPA do I need?

Median 3.91, with a 25th–75th percentile range of 3.65–3.97 (Fall 2025).

How much is tuition?

$37,411 per year (Ohio resident) and $52,663 (non-resident), 2026–27. Total cost of attendance is approximately $71,000 (resident) / $86,000 (non-resident) for a full-time J.D. student.

Does Ohio State Moritz give scholarships?

Yes — the school distributes more than $3.5 million in grant and scholarship funding annually. Approximately 80–90% of students receive some form of grant aid. The Moritz Merit Scholarships are the flagship awards and are non-conditional throughout enrollment.

What is Moritz's bar passage rate?

94.07% first-time in Ohio (highest of any Ohio law school for five consecutive years); approximately 91.95% across all jurisdictions; approximately 99.0% ultimate two-year pass rate.

Is Moritz good for BigLaw?

Approximately 30% of graduates enter BigLaw firms of 101+ lawyers. The Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati legal markets are the primary placement partners.

Does Moritz offer a part-time J.D.?

Yes — Moritz operates a small part-time evening program alongside the full-time program.

Contact and Key Links

The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law

Drinko Hall

55 West 12th Avenue

Columbus, OH 43210

Admissions Phone: 614-292-8810

Admissions Email: <[email protected]>

Main Office: 614-292-2631

Official links

TLS Forum Links

Sources

Retrieved from "https://www.top-law-schools.com/w/index.php?title=The_Ohio_State_University_Moritz_College_of_Law&oldid=7205"