The Paul M. Hebert Law Center jumped 13 places to No. 75 in the 2010 U.S. News Rankings of Best Law Schools in a report released Wednesday.The Law Center climbed from 88th to 75th — a place law officials said is the highest ranking in LSU Law history.  “This is exciting news,” said Law Center Chancellor Jack Weiss in a news release. “The new rankings will spread the word of our progress to a national audience that includes prospective students, law teachers and law firms.”Weiss said the new ranking confirms the Law Center is on the right path and reinforces the school’s commitment to building a “nationally competitive faculty.”While it’s hard to pinpoint the specific reasons for the Law Center’s success, Weiss told The Daily Reveille on Thursday higher entering freshmen GPA levels and higher bar passage rates for graduating students are contributing factors. Weiss also mentioned LSAT scores were stable for the year.The Law Center’s ranking also benefited from U.S. News changing how the scores are computed, Weiss said. All of the Law Center students are now part of the ranking, he said. The rankings considered data from both full-time and part-time entering students for the first time this year, according to U.S. News. One of his main reasons for the Law Center’s success is linked to the newly established Clinical Legal Education Program. In the House Appropriations Committee meeting Tuesday, Weiss urged the committee to restore much of the proposed budget cuts because of the effect the decrease in funding could have on the clinical program.”The effect of these cuts will be to stop the growth of the program in its tracks,” Weiss said.The U.S. News surveyed 184 accredited programs and ranked the top 100 law schools. The rankings are based on a weighted average of 12 measures of quality including LSAT scores, undergraduate GPAs, acceptance rate, bar passage rate and employment rate for graduates. The Law Center scored a 46 out of a possible 100. The No. 1 law school was Yale University.——Contact Joy Lukachick at [email protected]