<p>Faculty strength is clearly not the most important factor in determining school reputation/prestige/placement. However, it is one factor that plays in. For example, the main way NYU overtook Chicago and Michigan in the 1990's (at least in overall USNews ranking) was through hiring better faculty. This helped attract top students, which helped move them up in the rankings (though their overall reputation still trails the other schools.) </p>
<p>UCLA, like NYU, has the advantage of being located in an attractive market. In fact, with its weather and environment, its generally more attractive in those respects than most other top schools. This is one reason it will probably continue to attract more and more top students. (This is also one reason Stanford rose to the top, of course.) </p>
<p>Also, even for those who believe in a "perpetual elite", there is a strong school of thought that there are actually 16 truly elite schools, when one looks at academic reputation rankings. This group includes UCLA. </p>
<p>When one thinks about it, it is actually an aberration that the second largest city in the country does not have a "Top" law school. San Fran, New York, Chicago, Boston, Philly, D.C., and most other major cities all have a top school, so it only makes sense that L.A. may also have one. And again, when you factor in the unpleasant weather and/or environment of certain schools like Cornell and Georgetown, it's not hard to see UCLA gradually competing more for their prospective students. (I'd certainly consider UCLA over those programs if I wanted to work on the West Coast.) </p>
<p>Finally, for those who think the "Top" schools are written in stone, this is actually not quite true. Until fairly recently, few people thought in terms of a top 14. There was a top 5, and a top 10, but Northwestern, Georgetown, Cornell, and Duke were often considered outliers, not truly in this elite group. And NYU was not considered a top 5 by any means, in any context, until fairly recently. So the perception of what is truly "elite" can certainly vary over time.</p>