TALLAHASSEE — A guidebook has rated Florida State University’s law faculty as one of the nation’s best for accessibility and quality of teaching, designations that follow on the heels of a national study that recognized the faculty for its scholarship. 

The faculty is rated the nation’s 10th best in terms of accessibility and 11th best in terms of quality of teaching, according to data in The Princeton Review’s 2011 “The Best 172 Law Schools.” The rating is based on law student opinion garnered by The Princeton Review during its survey of 18,000 students. Florida State earned the highest faculty ratings among Florida law schools included in the publication. 

“This national recognition confirms what everyone at the law school has known for years — our faculty is superb,” said College of Law Dean Don Weidner. “By bringing their groundbreaking scholarship into the classroom, our faculty members are exposing our students to law’s cutting edge.” 

In addition to excelling as educators, Florida State law professors have been recognized for their scholarship. In a 2010 study, Professor Brian Leiter of the University of Chicago Law School ranked the law faculty 23rd best in the nation in terms of percapita scholarly impact. Florida State tied with Emory and the University of California at Davis and is the only Florida law school in the top 25. 

The study aimed to identify the 25 law faculties with the most ‘scholarly impact’ as measured by citations during roughly the past five years. Leiter’s study also ranks two Florida State law professors, Jim Rossi and Mark Seidenfeld, among the top 10 mostcited scholars in the specialty area of administrative law. 

Florida State law professors also are highly engaged with the legal community, Weidner said. They are active speakers and experts for professional groups and law reform around the state and nation.