Illinois Law School Requirements 2026

Illinois ABA law schools by ranking

The 9 ABA-accredited Illinois law schools span the full ranking distribution from elite T14 (UChicago, Northwestern) through T40 (U of I) to T100 and access-mission programs. Chicago has the highest concentration of law schools after New York and Los Angeles. The two downstate schools (Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Southern Illinois at Carbondale) feed Illinois state government, regional practice, and modest national hiring. Bar passage rates and employment outcomes are published in each school's ABA 509 disclosure.

The Chicago BigLaw pipeline and Kirkland & Ellis

Chicago is the third largest legal market in the United States by employment volume after New York and Washington DC. The market hires approximately 700 to 900 summer associates per year across the city's BigLaw cohort. Chicago BigLaw has a distinctive structure: the market is dominated by two locally-headquartered firms (Kirkland & Ellis and Sidley Austin) that together employ thousands of lawyers in Chicago and have substantial national and global reach.

Kirkland & Ellis is the largest law firm in the world by revenue (approximately $7 billion in 2023) and the largest single legal employer in Chicago. The firm dominates private equity transactional practice globally and is structurally important to the Chicago legal market's identity. Kirkland's summer associate classes often exceed 250 students across all offices, with the Chicago office capturing the largest single-office share. Kirkland hires extensively from UChicago and Northwestern, with substantial additional hiring from T14 schools nationally and selective hiring from Loyola, Chicago-Kent, and Illinois.

Beyond Kirkland and Sidley, the Chicago BigLaw cohort includes Mayer Brown (litigation and finance), Jenner & Block (litigation and government investigations), Winston & Strawn (litigation and corporate), Latham & Watkins (capital markets), McDermott Will & Emery (health and tax), Greenberg Traurig, Skadden, and the Chicago offices of essentially every other major U.S. BigLaw firm. The hiring patterns favor T14 schools nationally with strong representation from UChicago and Northwestern; for non-T14 schools, top-of-class positioning matters substantially.

Choosing between UChicago and Northwestern for the Chicago target

UChicago Law and Northwestern Pritzker are the two Chicago-area T14 schools. Both feed Chicago BigLaw deeply, both place graduates nationally at major firms across all metro markets, and both have median LSAT and GPA numbers in the T14 range (172, 3.92). The schools differ in several meaningful ways that affect the choice decision.

UChicago is ranked higher (typically T4 in U.S. News versus T9 for Northwestern). The school's law-and-economics curriculum, originated by Richard Posner and Cass Sunstein, is the dominant intellectual tradition. Federal clerkship placement at UChicago runs approximately 20% of each class, substantially higher than Northwestern's 12%. UChicago's smaller class size (200 versus Northwestern's 240) supports a more discussion-heavy seminar culture.

Northwestern has a distinctive accelerated JD program for college graduates with strong professional experience (the JD/MBA joint degree is also a Northwestern strength given the Kellogg School). Northwestern's corporate transactional reputation is among the strongest in legal education, particularly for capital markets and M&A practice. Northwestern's career office and student culture are more explicitly practice-oriented than UChicago's. For applicants targeting Chicago BigLaw transactional practice, Northwestern's reputation matches UChicago's. For applicants targeting federal clerkships, academia, or theoretically-rigorous practice, UChicago has a meaningful edge.

Illinois UBE adoption and license portability

Illinois adopted the Uniform Bar Examination effective July 2019, joining the majority of U.S. jurisdictions. The UBE administered in Illinois consists of the standard three components: the Multistate Bar Examination (200 multiple-choice questions), the Multistate Essay Examination (6 essays), and the Multistate Performance Test (two 90-minute simulations). Illinois requires a passing UBE scaled score of 266 (out of 400), the standard threshold among UBE jurisdictions.

In addition to the UBE, Illinois requires applicants to complete the Illinois Supplement (an online course on Illinois-specific substantive law covering topics not on the UBE) and to pass a brief Illinois Law Component examination. The Illinois Supplement and Component are designed to ensure applicants are familiar with Illinois-specific substantive and procedural law; they do not affect the UBE score itself. The Illinois Supplement is completed online and can be taken before or after the UBE.

UBE adoption makes Illinois licensure portable to most other UBE jurisdictions. An Illinois-licensed lawyer can transfer their UBE score to other UBE states (within the score's validity period, typically 3-5 years) by completing the receiving state's additional requirements. This is meaningful for Chicago BigLaw lawyers whose careers may include rotations or moves to NY, Boston, DC, or other UBE markets without retesting.

Frequently asked questions

Data sources: ABA Standard 509 Required Disclosures for the 2024-2025 reporting cycle; Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission; Illinois Board of Admissions to the Bar; National Conference of Bar Examiners UBE. Last reviewed 15 May 2026.