TALLAHASSEE—Hispanic Business magazine has named Florida State University College of Law the sixth best law school in the nation for Hispanics. This is the fourth year in a row that the law school has been named in the top ten and the second year in a row that the law school has been ranked sixth best. 

The magazine surveyed all the nation’s law schools accredited by the American Bar Association and ranked them on a variety of factors, including the percentage of Hispanic students enrolled, the percentage of full-time Hispanic faculty, services for Hispanic students, Hispanic recruitment efforts and retention rates, and quality of education and reputational ranking as reflected in U.S. News & World Report. 

Florida State’s law school has Hispanics in key faculty and administrative positions. Fernando Tesón holds the Tobias Simon Eminent Scholar Chair and Manuel Utset is the Charles W. Ehrhardt Professor. The Associate Dean for Students, Nancy Benavides, runs the school’s Summer for Undergraduates Program and other academic support initiatives. The law school hosts programs and events geared toward recruiting Hispanics and has several student organizations that provide mentoring and peer support for current Hispanic students. 

For the 2006-2007 academic year, Hispanics made up eight percent of the school’s 765 student body enrollment and received 19 of the 245 law degrees awarded to the class of 2007. Seven percent of full-time faculty members were Hispanic. 

“Because other schools have even more Hispanic students and faculty than we do,” says Dean Don Weidner, “it is our reputation for academic excellence that puts us over the top.”