Where did Obama rank in his class?

We do not rank students at HLS. The student with the top GPA is awarded a prize, the rare student who gets mostly A+s is awarded summa cum laude, there are many years where no one obtains this degree.

However, one can infer from his magna cum laude degree that he was in the top 10% of his class. His position on the law review could mean he was high within that 10% bracket. But there is actually a way to know where he ranks from #1 through 10%.

Magna cum laude is awarded to the top 20% of graduating students. Summa cum laude is awarded to the top 4-5% of graduates. But when Barack Obama graduated from Harvard Law School no one had graduated Summa cum Laude from Harvard in decades and no one graduated Summa cum Laude that year (when he graduated), either. Barack Obama graduated Magna cum Laude and had the highest GPA of anyone graduating from Harvard Law School that year. Therefore he received a prize for having the highest GPA. Some of Obama's classmates who also graduated that year have publicly stated that Obama won the prize for having the highest GPA in the class.