It's that time of year again: the U.S. News & World Report law school rankings have rolled off the presses. Interestingly, the rankings were leaked prior to their Friday street date.

I'm working on an analysis, of course, and hope to have that up next week. In the meantime, I can share the online rankings with you. No real surprises in the top five -- Yale is number one, Harvard number two. To see the full report, you'll have to pay a premium: $14.95 for online access, $9.95 for print, and $19.95 for both.

My alma mater, University of South Carolina School of Law, is hanging on to a Tier One slot. However, I made absolutely no inquiry into rankings when I picked my school, relying instead on my own criteria. If I had it to do all over again, I probably would also consider rankings, but certainly not as a determinative factor.

Update: The blogosphere is abuzz with talk about the rankings, but I found a post from Gordon Smith at TheConglomerate.org particularly interesting.