Chicago-Kent’s intellectual property law program has been ranked No. 1 in the United States by Law Street, a popular law and policy website published by Law Street Media and targeted to millennials. The new research, which identifies America’s top ten IP programs, comprises the latest installment in the Law Street Specialty Rankings, a detailed resource for prospective law students as they consider the many law schools across the country.

Also ranked among the top ten IP programs are Stanford Law School, University of Pennsylvania Law School, New York University School of Law and Georgetown University Law Center.

To attain its number one ranking, Chicago-Kent scored the maximum number of points possible for four out of six criteria set forth by Law Street. Chicago-Kent earned a perfect score in the areas of jobs, which gauges employment prospects for IP students; classes, which evaluates the range and depth of the IP curriculum; networking, which evaluates the quantity and quality of networking opportunities offered students; and extracurriculars, which evaluates IP-related organizations, publications and other activities sponsored by the school.

In particular, the rankings lauded Chicago-Kent’s IP clinic and its many classes focused on science and technology as well as the law school’s annual Supreme Court IP Review conference, its monthly BookIT series featuring authors of newly published books, its Intellectual Property Law Society, and its student-run Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property Law.

IP students at Chicago-Kent also work at the law school’s Patent Hub, a joint project with the USPTO that matches low-income inventors with the pro-bono legal assistance of volunteer patent attorneys.

Recently Chicago-Kent announced an expansion of its 1L Your Way program that applies specifically to IP students. 1L Your Way, established in 2014, gives full-time Chicago-Kent students the option to take an upper-level elective during their first year of law school. Beginning in fall 2017, a pilot program will allow IP students enrolled in 1L Your Way to take patent law or copyright law during the first semester of their first year as well as copyright law or trademark law during the second semester.

“By all indications, the 1L Your Way program at Chicago-Kent has been a huge success, particularly with intellectual property electives,” said Professor Ed Lee, director of the IP program. “The results show that first-year students are more motivated and engaged in classes they choose, which has translated into better performance. Chicago-Kent has always aspired to be at the vanguard of intellectual property discussion. We believe offering IP courses to 1Ls in the fall semester is the next step in offering the highest quality education in IP.”

To participate in the pilot program, students are required to take and successfully complete Criminal Law during the summer before the fall term of their first year.