How concentrated is the sitting federal bench by law school?

The top five schools account for 342 sitting federal judges between them: Harvard Law School (128), Yale Law School (97), Georgetown University Law Center (45), University of Texas School of Law (36) and University of Virginia School of Law (36).

Records & Rankings

The law schools of the sitting federal bench

Which law school has produced the most sitting federal judges?

Harvard Law School has trained more of the judges sitting on the federal bench today than any other school: 128.

Where the judges serving on the federal bench today went to law school, ranked by count. The all-time version of this list covers every judge on record, federal and state; this one is the bench as it stands.

#	Name	Sitting judges
1	Harvard Law School	128
2	Yale Law School	97
3	Georgetown University Law Center	45
4	University of Texas School of Law	36
5	University of Virginia School of Law	36
6	Columbia Law School	34
7	University of Michigan Law School	34
8	University of California, Berkeley, School of Law	30
9	New York University School of Law	28
10	University of Chicago Law School	28
11	Stanford Law School	27
12	Notre Dame Law School	21
13	Northwestern University School of Law (now Pritzker School of Law)	19
14	Tulane University Law School	19
15	University of Georgia School of Law	19
16	University of Pennsylvania Law School (now Carey Law School)	18
17	University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law	17
18	University of Florida College of Law (now Fredric G. Levin College of Law)	17
19	University of South Carolina School of Law	17
20	George Washington University Law School	16
21	Vanderbilt University Law School	16
22	Cornell Law School	15
23	University of Alabama School of Law	15
24	University of Oklahoma College of Law	15
25	West Virginia University College of Law	15

Questions

Which law school has produced the most sitting federal judges?: Harvard Law School has trained more of the judges sitting on the federal bench today than any other school: 128.
How concentrated is the sitting federal bench by law school?: The top five schools account for 342 sitting federal judges between them: Harvard Law School (128), Yale Law School (97), Georgetown University Law Center (45), University of Texas School of Law (36) and University of Virginia School of Law (36).
How is this list ranked?: Where the judges serving on the federal bench today went to law school, ranked by count. The all-time version of this list covers every judge on record, federal and state; this one is the bench as it stands.

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Computed from the FJC Biographical Directory. Data last verified 2026-09-21. Verify against the primary source before relying.