UCLA School of Law

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UCLA School of Law
Parent schoolUniversity of California, Los Angeles
Established1949
School typePublic
Parent endowment$3.6 billion (2019-20)[1]
DeanJennifer Mnookin[2]
LocationLos Angeles, California, U.S.
Enrollment942[3]
Faculty104
USNWR ranking14th (2022)[4]
Bar pass rate88% (July 2019 1st time takers)[5]
Websitelaw.ucla.edu
ABA profile[6]

The UCLA School of Law is one of 12 professional schools[7] at the University of California, Los Angeles. UCLA Law has been consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top 20 law schools in the United States since the inception of the U.S. News rankings in 1987. Its 18,000 alumni include leaders[8] in the judiciary, private law practice, business, government service, sports and entertainment law, and public interest law.[9] The dean of the school is Jennifer L. Mnookin, an evidence scholar who joined the UCLA Law faculty in 2005 and became the school's ninth dean, and third female dean, in 2015.[10]

History[]

The Hugh and Hazel Darling Law Library, UCLA School of Law

Founded in 1949, the UCLA School of Law is the third oldest of the five law schools within the University of California system.

In the 1930s, initial efforts to establish a law school at UCLA went nowhere as a result of resistance from UC President Robert Gordon Sproul, and because UCLA's supporters eventually refocused their efforts on first adding medical and engineering schools.[11]

During the mid-1940s, the impetus for the creation of the UCLA School of Law emerged from outside of the UCLA community. Assemblyman William Rosenthal of Boyle Heights (on the other side of Los Angeles from UCLA) conceived of and fought for the creation of the first public law school in Southern California as a convenient and affordable alternative to the expensive private law school at USC.[11][12][13] Rosenthal's first attempt in 1945 failed, but his second attempt was able to gain momentum when the State Bar of California and the UCLA Alumni Association announced their support for the bill.[14] On July 18, 1947, Governor Earl Warren authorized the appropriation of $1 million for the construction of a new law school at UCLA by signing Assembly Bill 1361 into state law.[12][14][13]

The search for the law school's first dean was difficult and delayed its opening by a year.[14] UCLA's Law School Planning Committee prioritized merit, while the then-conservative Regents of the University of California prioritized political beliefs.[12] Another factor was a simultaneous deanship vacancy at Berkeley Law.[14] Near the end of 1948, the Committee finally identified a sufficiently conservative candidate willing to take the job: L. Dale Coffman, then the dean of Vanderbilt University Law School.[12] The Regents believed Coffman would help bring balance to the UCLA campus, which they saw as overrun by Communists.[12]

Dean Coffman was able to recruit several distinguished faculty to UCLA, including Roscoe Pound, Brainerd Currie, Rollin M. Perkins, and Harold Verrall.[12][14] To build a law library, he hired Thomas S. Dabagh, then the law librarian of the Los Angeles County Law Library.[12][14] The UCLA School of Law officially opened in September 1949 in temporary quarters in former military barracks behind Royce Hall, and moved into a permanent home upon the completion of the original Law Building in 1951.[12][14][13]

Coffman's deanship did not end well, due to his vindictive and strongly prejudiced personality.[12][14][13] One sign of early trouble was when he drove out Dabagh in 1952 after they could not bridge their fundamental differences over how to run the law library, which was widely regarded around the UCLA community as contributing to Dabagh's early death in 1959.[12] On September 21, 1955, the faculty revolted in the form of a memorandum to Chancellor Raymond B. Allen alleging that Coffman was categorically refusing to hire Jews or anyone he perceived to be leftist, and that the school's reputation was deteriorating because Coffman's abrasive personality had led to excessive faculty turnover.[12][13] On May 24, 1956, Coffman was stripped of his deanship after a lengthy investigation by a panel of deans of his biases and his "dictatorial, undemocratic, and autocratic" management style.[12] He remained on the faculty until his forced retirement in 1973, but continued to face allegations as late as 1971 that he was "an unreconstructed McCarthyite and pro-segregationist."[13]

Coffman's successor was Richard C. Maxwell, who served as the second dean of UCLA Law from 1958 to 1969.[15] Dean Maxwell "presided over happier, more harmonious years of institutional growth,"[13] and it was under his deanship that UCLA became "the youngest top-ranked law school in the country."[15] Dabagh's successor, Louis Piacenza, was able to grow the law school's library collection to 143,000 volumes by May 1963, which at that time was the 14th largest law school library in the United States.[13]

By 1963, the law school had 600 students in a building designed for 550, and the Law Building's deficiencies had become all too evident, such as a complete lack of air conditioning.[13] In October 1963, the law school administration announced a major remodeling and expansion project, which added air conditioning and a new wing to the building. During the 1960s, the law school grew so quickly that the new wing was already insufficient upon its completion in January 1967.[13] From its founding to the end of the 20th century, UCLA Law struggled with severe overcrowding, as librarians, faculty, staff, and as many as 18 student organizations—at one point, more than any other law school in the United States—competed for limited space in the Law Building for books, classes, conferences, and offices.[13]

The chronic space shortage was ultimately relieved by the addition of a wing for clinical education [16] and, after four grueling years of construction, completion of the new Hugh and Hazel Darling Law Library on January 22, 2000.[13]

Under Dean Maxwell, the faculty size tripled, from 12 to 37 professors, and the school hired its first female and African-American faculty members. Under Deans Murray Schwartz, who led the school from 1969 to 1975, and William Warren, who served as dean from 1975 to 1982, the school became a pioneer in clinical legal education,[17] developing a skills-based approach that remains among the school’s hallmarks.

Students, too, broke new ground. In 1973, they created a network of student-run legal clinics first known as El Centro Legal de Santa Monica, which continues to provide pro bono services around Los Angeles with 15 separate clinics.[18]

In the 1990s and through subsequent years, the school established several "centers of excellence" that focus on education and advocacy in specific fields.

Academics[]

UCLA Law has approximately 1,000 students in its Juris Doctor (J.D.) program and 200 students in its Master of Laws (LL.M.) program, which is popular among foreign students intending to take the California Bar Exam. It also offers a Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) program for students who already have a J.D. and hope to become law professors, as well as a Master of Legal Studies[19] program for those who do not seek a law degree, but find a legal education an important complement to their professional obligations.

The school was a pioneer in clinical legal education and today offers a strong experiential education program. Through clinical courses and related offerings, the school gives students the opportunity to directly represent clients in a variety of settings while under expert supervision. UCLA Law's clinics also provide service to many people who cannot afford to pay for their own legal services, including veterans, the homeless, and indigent individuals appearing in criminal and immigration courts. In 2017, the school opened the Documentary Film Legal Clinic and Music Industry Clinic, which provide legal services to aspiring visual journalists, musicians and entrepreneurs in the arts, and the Veterans Justice Clinic at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center.

Students can elect to specialize in Business Law and Policy, Entertainment Law, Environmental Law, Public Interest Law, Critical Race Studies, and Law and Philosophy. The roughly 300 students who begin Law School at UCLA every year are divided into sections to encourage a sense of community. Students take all of their first year courses with their sections.[20]

Several joint degree programs are available, which require four years of study and result in the simultaneous award of a Juris Doctor and master's degree in Afro-American Studies, American Indian Studies, Law and Management, Public Health, Public Policy, Philosophy, Social Welfare, and Urban Planning.[21]

Faculty and Students[]

UCLA School of Law has a faculty of over 100 members with expertise in all major disciplines of law, representing "one of the most diverse in the country."[22] Thirteen members of the school's tenured faculty have been recognized for being the most-cited scholars in their areas of specialty.[23] The school faculty is ranked 11th[24] for scholarship, up from 15th in 2010 and 13th in 2013.

In 2020, 6,034 students applied to attend UCLA Law, and 311 were enrolled.[25] The average LSAT score for members of the entering class in 2020 is 169. The average GPA for members of the entering class in 2020 is 3.79.

J.D. Entering Class of 2020 Profile[26]
  • 123 Undergraduate schools represented
  • 55% Female; 45% Male
  • 48% Students of color
  • 59% California Residents; 41% Non-residents
  • 11% majored in engineering, technology, science or math
  • 15% are the first in their families to have completed college

Location[]

UCLA School of Law's south entrance facing Charles E. Young Drive East

UCLA School of Law is located on the UCLA campus in the Westwood area of Los Angeles.[27]

The school proper is housed in a three-story brick building, with the library tower extending to four stories. A few offices, including the Office of Career Services, the Office of Admissions and the Office of Graduate Studies and International Programs, are housed in an adjacent building, Dodd Hall.

Rankings[]

See also: Law school rankings in the United States

In 2021, US News & World Report ranked UCLA as 14th among U.S. law schools,[28] 4th in environmental law, 7th in trial advocacy, 8th in both corporate law and tax law, and 10th in criminal law.[29]

According to Brian Leiter's Law School rankings, UCLA Law ranks 8th in the nation in terms of scholarly impact as measured by academic citations of tenure-stream faculty during the years 2009–2013.[30]

The Hollywood Reporter ranked UCLA the number one school for entertainment law in its inaugural 2012 rankings, and every year from 2014 through 2019.[31][32][33][34][35][36][37]

Bar passage rates[]

In October 2020, UCLA Law's bar passage rates were 97% in California and 100% in New York.[38]

American Bar Association data shows that more than 95%[39] of 2019 graduates had secured full-time, long-term, JD-required employment within ten months of graduation.

Journals[]

Journals and law reviews[]

  • UCLA Law Review
  • UCLA Asian/Pacific American Law Journal
  • UCLA Chicana/o-Latina/o Law Review
  • UCLA Criminal Justice Law Review
  • UCLA Disability Law Journal
  • UCLA Dukeminier Awards Journal of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law
  • UCLA Entertainment Law Review
  • UCLA Indigenous Peoples' Journal of Law, Culture & Resistance
  • UCLA Journal of Environmental Law and Policy
  • UCLA Journal of International Law & Foreign Affairs
  • UCLA Journal of Islamic and Near Eastern Law
  • UCLA Journal of Law & Technology
  • UCLA National Black Law Journal
  • UCLA Pacific Basin Law Journal
  • UCLA Women's Law Journal

Notable people[]

Alumni[]

Academia[]

  • Drucilla Cornell – professor, Rutgers University, in political science, comparative literature, and women's studies (2001–); former professor of law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (1989–1994) and Rutgers School of Law–Newark (1994–2001)
  • Joshua Dressler – professor, Moritz College of Law, Ohio State University (2001–); prominent author in criminal law and criminal procedure
  • Richard D. Freer – professor, Emory University School of Law (1983–); expert in civil procedure
  • Eric Goldman - professor, Santa Clara University School of Law (2006-); expert in Internet law
  • Richard L. Hasen – Chancellor's Professor, University of California, Irvine School of Law (2011–); expert in election law and campaign finance
  • Laurie L. Levenson – professor, Loyola Law School; TV legal commentator, gained fame during Rodney King and O.J. Simpson trials
  • Susan Westerberg Prager – former Dean of the School of Law (1982–1998) – one of the first female law school deans; Professor at the UCLA School of Law (1972–1998, 2001–2006); Provost of Dartmouth College (1998–2001); President of Occidental College (2006–2007), Executive Director of Association of American Law Schools (2008–2013); Dean of Southwestern Law School (2013–)
  • Eugene Volokh – UCLA Law professor, legal commentator and expert in constitutional law
  • Dean Spade – lawyer, writer, trans activist, and Associate Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law.

Business and private practice[]

Entertainment[]

  • John Branca – entertainment lawyer who specializes in representing rock and roll acts, as well as independent investors, music publishing catalogs, and independent music labels
  • Thomas Bliss – motion picture producer with credits on over 30 films, including The Hurricane and Air Force One
  • Sondra E. Berchin – entertainment lawyer and executive vice president for MCA Universal, first UCLA Law grad to clerk for the Supreme Court of the United States
  • Jeff Cohen – entertainment lawyer best known for work as child actor in The Goonies (1985)
  • Blye Pagon Faust - Academy Award-winning film producer best known for Spotlight (2015)
  • Robert Fitzpatrick – entertainment attorney, film producer, and music executive; President of Allied Artists International
  • Cynthia Gouw – television show host, news anchor, reporter, actress, and model
  • Chip Johannessen – writer and producer for several popular television shows
  • John Kerr - Tony Award-winning actor best known for Tea and Sympathy
  • Kalyanee Mam – director and producer of the award-winning documentary A River Changes Course
  • George Mastras – Emmy Award-winning writer and producer of AMC's Breaking Bad
  • Stephan Pastis – creator of the comic strip Pearls Before Swine
  • Kelly Perdew – winner of Season 2 of The Apprentice
  • Robert Rotstein - entertainment attorney and novelist
  • Stacey Snider - formerly served as co-chair or chair of three film studios: 20th Century Fox, DreamWorks, and Universal
  • Howard K. Stern – entertainment lawyer who was the former domestic partner, attorney and agent of model and actress Anna Nicole Smith.
  • Lauren Woodland – Emmy Award-nominated actress
  • Ken Ziffren – entertainment attorney, L.A. film czar
  • Brett Oppenheim - cast member of Selling Sunset

Government and politics[]

Judiciary[]

  • Percy Anderson - United States district judge on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (2002–)
  • John Arguelles - associate justice, Supreme Court of California (1987-1989)
  • Janice Rogers Brown – judge, D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals (2005–); former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California (1996–2005)
  • Joe Brown – former judge of the Criminal Court of the Thirtieth Judicial District of Tennessee (Shelby County); star of court show Judge Joe Brown (1998–2013)
  • David O. Carter - United States district judge on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (1998–)
  • Audrey B. Collins - associate justice, California Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District (2014-); former United States district judge on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (1994–2014)
  • Dale A. Drozd - United States district judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California (2015–) and former Chief United States Magistrate Judge of the same court (1997–2015).[43]
  • Gil Garcetti - Former Los Angeles County District Attorney (1992-2000)
  • Dolly M. Gee – United States district judge on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (2010-)
  • Andrew Guilford – United States district judge on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (2006-)
  • Philip S. Gutierrez – United States district judge on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (2007-)
  • Sandra Ikuta – judge, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (2006–)
  • Robert Clive Jones – Chief Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada (2003–)
  • William B. Keene - Former California Superior Court Judge and presiding judge on the court show Divorce Court.
  • William Duffy Keller - United States district judge on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (1984–)
  • Alex Kozinski – Chief Judge, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (1985–2017)
  • Alicia Limtiaco – United States Attorney of Guam
  • Jeffrey T. Miller – judge, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California (1997–2010), Senior Judge (2010–)
  • Salvador Mendoza Jr. - United States district judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington (2014-)
  • Dorothy Wright Nelson – Senior Judge, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (1979–); former Dean of the University of Southern California School of Law (1969–1980)
  • Jacqueline Nguyen – judge, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (2012–), United States district judge on the United States District Court for the Central District of California (2009–2012)
  • Kim McLane Wardlaw – judge, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (1998–)
  • Paul J. Watford – judge, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (2012–)

Sports[]

Other[]

Faculty[]

Current[]

  • Khaled Abou El Fadl – Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Distinguished Professor of Law and expert in Islamic Jurisprudence; Chairman of Islamic Studies Department at UCLA[44]
  • Stephen Bainbridge – expert on corporations and business law
  • Ann E. Carlson – expert on U.S. environmental law and policy
  • Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw – founding coordinator of the "Critical Race Theory Workshop" movement; Also teaches at Columbia Law School
  • Jill R. Horwitz – expert on health law, economics, and policy as well as the law of nonprofit organization
  • Lynn M. LoPucki – Security Pacific Bank Professor of Law. LoPucki's Bankruptcy Research Database provides data for empirical work bankruptcy
  • Jennifer Mnookin – expert on evidence (law)
  • Hiroshi Motomura – expert on immigration law
  • David Nimmer – expert on copyright law
  • Frances Olsen – expert on feminist legal theory
  • Seana Shiffrin – expert on philosophy of law
  • Eugene Volokh – author of textbooks on First Amendment law and academic legal writing; author of over 45 law review articles; founder of The Volokh Conspiracy blog
  • Adam Winkler – Author of Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America and We the Corporations: How Corporate America Won Its Civil Rights
  • Ken Ziffren – entertainment attorney, L.A. film czar, founder of UCLA Law's Ziffren Center for Media, Entertainment, Technology and Sports Law

Former[]

References[]

  1. ^ "UCLA Foundation - Endowment and Finances".
  2. ^ "News".
  3. ^ https://law.ucla.edu/~/media/Assets/Admissions/Documents/UCLA%20Std509%20Info%20Report%202017.ashx=. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. ^ "University of California—Los Angeles". U.S. News & World Report – Best Law Schools. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  5. ^ Rubino, Kathryn. "California Bar Exam Results: A Breakdown By Law School (July 2019)". Above the Law. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  6. ^ "Official Guide to ABA-Approved Law Schools".
  7. ^ "Graduate & Professional Education | UCLA".
  8. ^ UCLA Law Magazine (October 2019). "UCLA Law Magazine".
  9. ^ "How Does University of California--Los Angeles School of Law Rank Among America's Best Law Schools?".
  10. ^ "Jennifer Mnookin named new dean of UCLA School of Law".
  11. ^ Jump up to: a b Dundjerski, Marina (2011). UCLA: The First Century. Los Angeles: Third Millennium Publishing. p. 117. ISBN 9781906507374. Retrieved 24 February 2019.
  12. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l Rastorfer, Renee Y. (Summer 2003). "Thomas S. Dabagh and the Institutional Beginnings of the UCLA Law Library: A Cautionary Tale". Law Library Journal. 95 (3): 347–368. Retrieved 19 February 2019. Available through HeinOnline.
  13. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l Dewey, Scott Hamilton (May 2016). "Growing Pains: The History of the UCLA Law Library, 1949-2000". Law Library Journal. 108 (2): 217–236. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
  14. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h Dundjerski, Marina (2011). UCLA: The First Century. Los Angeles: Third Millennium Publishing. p. 118. ISBN 9781906507374. Retrieved 24 February 2019.
  15. ^ Jump up to: a b Moidel, Selma Moidel (2016). "The UCLA School of Law - Origin, Conflict, and Growth" (PDF). California Legal History. 11: 1–6. Retrieved 24 February 2019.
  16. ^ Loyola Law School. "Loyola Law School dean biography".
  17. ^ UCLA School of Law (July 13, 2020). "UCLA School of Law History".
  18. ^ El Centro Legal (July 13, 2020). "El Centro Legal".
  19. ^ UCLA Newsroom (July 13, 2020). "UCLA Law Creates Master of Legal Studies Degree".
  20. ^ Cynthia L. Cooper, The Insider's Guide to the Top Fifteen Law Schools (New York: Doubleday, 1990), 343 & 345.
  21. ^ "Joint Degree Programs". UCLA Law School website. Retrieved March 6, 2011.
  22. ^ Cooper, 345.
  23. ^ "13 UCLA Law Faculty Among Most Cited Legal Scholars". law.ucla.edu. Retrieved 2017-11-12.
  24. ^ Zeman, Nicole; Veenis, Katherine; Catlin, Nicole; Sisk, Gregory C. (2018). "Scholarly Impact of Law School Faculties in 2018: Updating the Leiter Score Ranking for the Top Third". SSRN 3230371.
  25. ^ "UCLA Law Class Profile".
  26. ^ "School Facts".
  27. ^ Cooper, 359.
  28. ^ US News. "U.S. News 2022 Law School Rankings".
  29. ^ US News 2022 Law School Specialty Rankings. "US News 2022 Law School Specialty Rankings".
  30. ^ "New Document".
  31. ^ Belloni, Matthew (July 20, 2012). "America's Top Ten Entertainment Law Schools". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
  32. ^ Kirby, Brandon (April 30, 2014). "Power Lawyers 2014: The Top 12 Entertainment Law Schools for Hollywood". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
  33. ^ Porreca, Brian (April 29, 2015). "Top 12 Entertainment Law Schools Revealed". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 13 March 2017.
  34. ^ Porreca, Brian (April 22, 2016). "Top Law Schools: 11 Colleges and Universities Where Hollywood's Power Lawyers Got Started". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 13 March 2017.
  35. ^ Porreca, Brian (May 2, 2017). "Hollywood's Top Law Schools: 12 Colleges and Universities Where THR's Power Lawyers Got Started". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  36. ^ Porreca, Brian (April 5, 2018). "The Top 10 Entertainment Law Schools 2018, Ranked". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
  37. ^ THR Staff (April 1, 2019). "Hollywood's Top Law Schools: 10 Colleges and Universities Where THR's Power Lawyers Got Started". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
  38. ^ "UCLA Law Bar Passage Rates".
  39. ^ "UCLA School of Law Graduate Outcomes 2019".
  40. ^ "#251 David P Steiner". Forbes. April 28, 2010.
  41. ^ Peter B. Carlisle Archived 2007-12-19 at the Wayback Machine, National District Attorneys Association. Accessed December 3, 2007.
  42. ^ Zahniser, David; et al. "L.A. City Councilman Jose Huizar charged in federal corruption probe". LA Times. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  43. ^ "Official Site of United States District Court, Eastern District of California". Retrieved 2020-02-28.
  44. ^ UCLA International Institute Archived 2014-01-02 at the Wayback Machine

External links[]

Coordinates: 34°04′23″N 118°26′18″W / 34.073023°N 118.438443°W / 34.073023; -118.438443

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