University of California, Hastings College of the Law

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Not to be confused with Hastings College.

Coordinates: 37°46′50″N 122°24′55″W / 37.78056°N 122.41528°W / 37.78056; -122.41528

University of California, Hastings College of the Law
UC Hastings seal(2019).svg
MottoFiat Justitia ("Let justice be done")
Established1878
School typePublic law school
DeanDavid L. Faigman (Chancellor and Dean)
LocationSan Francisco, California, United States
Enrollment930 (approx.)[1]
Faculty172 (full- and part-time)[1]
USNWR ranking50th (2022)[1]
Bar pass rate87% (October 2020 1st time takers)[2]
Websitewww.uchastings.edu
ABA profileUC Hastings College of Law
UC Hastings wordmark 2019.svg

The University of California, Hastings College of the Law (UC Hastings Law, UC Hastings, or Hastings), is a public law school in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1878 by Serranus Clinton Hastings, UC Hastings was the first law school of the University of California as well as one of the first law schools established in California and the Western United States. Although part of the University of California, UC Hastings is not directly governed by the Regents of the University of California. UC Hastings is also one of the few prominent university-affiliated law schools in the United States that does not share a campus with the university's undergraduates or other postgraduate programs.

The law school has an extensive alumni network in California, particularly the San Francisco Bay Area, that includes general counsels, law firm partners, politicians, judges and corporate executives. Notable alumni include George R. Roberts a founding member of the private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Alexander Francis Morrison the founding member of the international law firm Morrison & Foerster, William H. Orrick the founding member of the international law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, Todd Machtmes the General Counsel of Salesforce, and the 49th Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris.

History[]

In 1878, Serranus Clinton Hastings, the first Chief Justice of California, gave $100,000 to be used to create the law school that now bears his name. He arranged for the enactment of a legislative act on March 26, 1878 to create the Hastings College of the Law as a separate legal entity affiliated with the University of California.[3][4] This was apparently intended for compatibility with Section 8 of the University's Organic Act, which authorized the Board of Regents to affiliate with independent self-sustaining professional colleges.[3][5] Another reason for making the gift in this fashion was that Hastings desired to impose certain conditions on his gift, while "policy and law dictated that a free-gift could not be hedged by power of reversion."[6]

Serranus Clinton Hastings, founder of UC Hastings

According to UC Hastings's official centennial history, its founder, "whether from arrogance, oversight, ignorance, or a combination of all three, was the author of his own troubles."[7] Although the founder had selected the original UC Hastings board of directors from among his professional acquaintances, he failed to adequately verify their concurrence with his beliefs that a proper legal education must include a course in legal ethics and must also be hybridized with elements of a liberal arts education.[8] To his horror, it turned out they all believed that the only purpose of a law school was to provide vocational education in how to practice law.[9] This latter belief was shared by the first professor hired, John Norton Pomeroy, who personally taught the vast majority of courses during Hastings' early years.[9] The founder hoped to educate cultured intellectuals who also happened to be lawyers; the board simply wanted to produce lawyers.[9] It was impossible to reconcile these fundamentally different visions, and by September 1882, Serranus Clinton Hastings had become estranged from his own handpicked board.[10] By that point in time, he had come to see the Board of Regents as a superior vehicle for infusing liberal arts and legal ethics into his law school, and in March 1883 arranged for another legislative act that purported to transfer the Hastings College of the Law directly to the University of California and vested responsibility for its governance in the Regents.[11][12] This was in facial conflict with the "affiliate" language in Section 8 of the Organic Act, so in March 1885, another act was passed to create a pro forma board of trustees for the sole purpose of holding title to UC Hastings assets at arm’s length from the Regents (but under which the Regents would continue to have the right to manage such assets).[6][13]

In deference to the 1883 act, the UC Hastings board of directors ceased to meet.[14] But because the Regents chose to remain neutral in the long-simmering dispute between board and founder—and did not attempt to exercise any control under the 1883 or 1885 acts—the Hastings College of the Law went through a strange period from September 1882 to April 1885 where it operated with no actual supervision from any governing board.[14]

On April 25, 1885, the UC Hastings board of directors convened to appoint Perrie Kewen as the new registrar, because the previous registrar had died.[15] At the request of Serranus Clinton Hastings, Attorney General Edward C. Marshall challenged Kewen's appointment by initiating a proceeding for a writ of quo warranto in San Francisco County Superior Court.[15] On March 30, 1886, in what became known as Kewen's Case, the Supreme Court of California upheld Kewen’s appointment by declaring the 1883 and 1885 acts to be unconstitutional on the basis of a provision of the 1879 state constitution guaranteeing the legislative independence of the University of California.[16][17] In other words, the 1879 ratification of the state's second constitution (which remains in effect today) effectively stripped the California State Legislature of the power to amend preexisting statutes governing the University of California, including the 1878 act.[16] This was the last time that Serranus Clinton Hastings would try to shape the future of the law school that he had founded; UC Hastings has maintained its hard-fought independence from the Regents ever since.[16] The irony of Kewen's Case is that a constitutional provision intended to protect the University of California was applied in such a way as to prevent the University from taking control of its first law school.[16]

In contrast, the "Affiliated Colleges"—the medical, dental, nursing, and pharmacy schools in San Francisco—were affiliated with UC through written agreements, and not statutes invested with constitutional importance by court decisions.[18] In the early 20th century, the Affiliated Colleges agreed to voluntarily submit to the Regents' governance during the term of UC President Benjamin Ide Wheeler, as the Board of Regents had come to recognize the problems inherent in the existence of independent entities that shared the UC brand but over which UC had no real control.[18] While UC Hastings remained independent, the Affiliated Colleges began to increasingly coordinate with each other and the rest of the UC bureaucracy under the supervision of the UC President and the Regents, and evolved into the health sciences campus known today as the University of California, San Francisco.[18] In 1900, UC Hastings became one of 27 charter members of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS).[19]

Hastings College of the Law was for many years considered the primary law school of the University of California with the purpose of preparing lawyers for the practice of law in the state, whereas the Department of Jurisprudence on the Berkeley campus, which later became Boalt Hall School of Law (now styled Berkeley Law), was intended for the study of law as an academic discipline.

The same statute that affiliated Hastings to UC also designated UC Hastings as UC's "law department."[20] According to UCLA political science professor J.A.C. Grant, it was believed there could only be one "law department" (i.e., only one official UC law school), which is why the Department of Jurisprudence at Berkeley retained its name even after it began to award law degrees. Berkeley did not rename its School of Jurisprudence to a School of Law until the state legislature passed a bill in 1947 authorizing UCLA to create a "school of law." William Lloyd Prosser got wind of this in 1948 while visiting UCLA to help plan the new law school and decided that Berkeley could get away with the same thing.[21]

In the 1960s, UC Hastings began the "65 Club," the practice of hiring faculty who had been forced into mandatory retirement at age 65 from Ivy League and other élite institutions.[22] After the passage of age discrimination laws, however, the "65 Club" slowly phased out, and Hastings hired its last "65 Club" professor in 1998. In the mid-1950s, Newsweek published a story where then Harvard Law School dean and jurist Roscoe Pound declared, referring to UC Hastings: "Indeed, on the whole, I am inclined to think you have the strongest law faculty in the nation."[23]

In 2020, after studying the matter for three years, a commission established by the school confirmed that its founder had managed a forced labor camp, organized murderous "Indian hunts", and otherwise participated actively in the genocide that killed most of the Native American population of Mendocino County, California. The commission recommended against a proposal to rename the school.[24]

Location[]

UC Hastings campus spreads among four main buildings located near San Francisco's Civic Center: 200 McAllister Street houses academic space and administrative offices,[25] 333 Golden Gate Avenue contains mainly classrooms and faculty offices, 198 McAllister is a 14-story residence complex with 657 units of housing, and 100 McAllister, known casually as "The Tower", contains university office and further student housing,[26] as well as the Art Deco "Sky Room" on the 24th floor.

The campus is within walking distance of the Muni Metro and Bay Area Rapid Transit Civic Center/UN Plaza station. UC Hastings is commonly but affectionately derided by students and alumni as being located in the ugliest corner of the most beautiful city in the world. Indeed, the school has been referred to in jest as "UC Tenderloin."[27]

View west from the 24th floor James Edgar Hervey Skyroom at 100 McAllister Street. Visible buildings include San Francisco City Hall with its prominent dome, the city's Asian Art Museum of San Francisco at the left foreground and the Supreme Court of California on the right.

Located within a two-block radius of the campus is the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, the California Supreme Court, the California Court of Appeal for the First District, San Francisco Superior Court, San Francisco City Hall, United Nations Plaza (and Federal Building Annex), the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, and the Main Library of the San Francisco Public Library system. The heavy concentration of public buildings within the Civic Center, as well as the high crime rate, result in heavy police presence, and high security, around UC Hastings.

Organization and structure[]

UC Hastings is managed by a nine-member Board of Directors. The UC Hastings Board of Directors exists independently of, and is not controlled by, the Regents of the University of California. Pursuant to California law, eight of the directors are appointed by the Governor of California. Pursuant to the UC Hastings constitutive documents, the ninth director must be a direct lineal descendant of UC Hastings founder Serranus Clinton Hastings. The Hastings family member now serving on the board is Claes H. Lewenhaupt.

UC Hastings' detachment from the UC Regents gives it a broad degree of independence in shaping educational and fiscal policies; however, due to a shrinking California education budget, UC Hastings must also compete for limited educational funds against its fellow UC campuses. Despite the apparent competition among the UC law schools, UC Hastings was able to maintain its traditionally high standards without having to decrease class size or raise tuition to higher levels than fellow UC law schools, until the California budget crisis in June 2009, first raised the possibility of slashing $10 million in state funding.

A few days later, however, lawmakers rejected the harsh budget cut, agreeing to cut only $1 million and apparently preventing dramatic tuition hikes.[28]

Under California law, if the government ever cuts funding to UC Hastings to below the 19th-century figure of $7,000 a year, the state must return the $100,000, plus interest, to the Hastings family.[29] State Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) has argued that the rejected $10 million budget cut, in abandoning state financial support for the school, would have allowed the Hastings family to launch an expensive court fight to reclaim the $100,000 plus hefty interest.[30]

Academics[]

The Battle of Hastings (1066) as depicted on a stained glass window over the main entrance of 100 McAllister Street.

UC Hastings offers a three-year Juris Doctor program with concentrated studies available in seven areas: civil litigation, criminal law, international law, public interest law, taxation, family law, and recently, a new concentration in intellectual property law. Most J.D. students follow a traditional three-year plan. During the first year, students take required courses as well as one elective course. In the second and third years, students may take any course or substitute or supplement their courses with judicial externships or internships, judicial clinics, or study abroad. The college also offers a one-year LL.M. degree in U.S. legal studies for students holding law degrees from foreign law programs. It is an American Bar Association (ABA) approved law school since 1939.[31]

UC Hastings participates in the Concurrent Degree Program with UC Santa Cruz's Masters of Science in Applied Economics and Finance. In this 3+3 program, students may concurrently earn a JD from UC Hastings and a masters degree in applied economics and finance from Santa Cruz, by pursuing the two degrees concurrently, eligible students can earn both degrees in less time than it would take to earn them serially.[32] UC Hastings also participates in the Concurrent Degree Program with U.C. Berkeley's Haas Graduate School of Business. Upon completion of a four-year program, the student earns a Berkeley M.B.A. degree and a J.D. degree from UC Hastings College of the Law.[33]

UC Hastings College of the Law and the UCSF School of Medicine of the University of California, San Francisco have commenced a joint degree program, and in 2011 began enrolling their first class of graduate students in the Master of Studies in Law (MSL) and LL.M. in Law, Science and Health Policy programs. Students have coursework available at each institution for fulfillment of the degrees.[34] This program is a component of the UCSF/UC Hastings Consortium on Law, Science and Health Policy.

UC Hastings has a chapter of the Order of the Coif, a national law school honorary society founded for the purposes of encouraging legal scholarship and advancing the ethical standards of the legal profession.[35] It joined the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) as a charter member in 1900; it renewed its membership in 1949.[36]

Costs[]

The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at UC Hastings for the 2018–2019 academic year is $49,538 for California residents and $55,538 for non-residents.[37] The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $296,028.[38] UC Hastings does not offer full-tuition scholarships.[39]

Employment outcomes and rankings[]

Post-graduation employment[]

According to UC Hastings official 2019 ABA-required disclosures, 70.6% of the Class of 2019 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation, excluding solo-practitioners.[40] UC Hastings Law School Transparency 2019 under-employment score is 19.7%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2019 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job nine months after graduation.[41]

ABA Employment Summary for 2019 Graduates[42]
Employment Status Percentage
Employed – Bar Passage Required (Full-Time, Long-Term)
 
 70.6%
Employed – Bar Passage Required (Part-Time and/or Short-Term)
 
 1.3%
Employed – J.D. Advantage
 
 11.9%
Employed – Professional Position
 
 1.3%
Employed – Non-Professional Position
 
 0.6%
Employed – Undeterminable
 
 0.0%
Pursuing Graduate Degree Full Time
 
 1.9%
Unemployed – Start Date Deferred
 
 0.6%
Unemployed – Not Seeking
 
 1.3%
Unemployed – Seeking
 
 5.5%
Employment Status Unknown
 
 1.6%
Total of 309 Graduates

Rank[]

See also: Law school rankings in the United States

U.S. News & World Report ranks UC Hastings 50th among top law schools in the US and as the most diverse of the five law schools in the UC system.[1][43] It was listed with a "B+" in the March 2011 "Diversity Honor Roll" by The National Jurist: The Magazine for Law Students.[44] UC Hastings also has the largest student body and highest student/faculty ratio of the UC law schools.[45]

In January 2011, UC Hastings was given a "B" in the "Best Public Interest Law Schools" listing by The National Jurist: The Magazine for Law Students.[46]

View from 333 Golden Gate Avenue roof-deck

In 2021, Super Lawyers magazine ranked UC Hastings 7th in terms of law schools that produced the most "Super Lawyers" in Southern California.[47]

According to Brian Leiter's 2007 law school rankings, UC Hastings ranked 27th in the nation in terms of scholarly impact as measured by academic citations of tenure-stream faculty, on par with USC.[48] In terms of student quality, UC Hastings ranked 33rd in 2008 in the nation by average LSAT score.[49]

According to the Web site "Law School Advocacy," UC Hastings had the No. 1 Moot Court program in the country in 2011, with Top 5 rankings in each of the previous five years.[50]

A 2013 article in Forbes Magazine ranks UC Hastings 20th among 'The 25 Law Schools Whose Grads Earn The Most'.[51]

Bar passage rates[]

For the July 2019 California Bar Examination, 80% of UC Hastings Law graduates taking the exam for the first time passed.[52]

Publications[]

Journals[]

The oldest law journal at UC Hastings is the Hastings Law Journal, which was founded in 1949.[53] The second oldest journal is the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly, which was founded in 1973. Inaugurated in 1997 to oversee the growing number of publications at UC Hastings, the O'Brien Center for Scholarly Publications now manages the publication of the ten UC Hastings journals.[54]

  • Hastings Law Journal
  • Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly
  • Hastings Communications and Entertainment Law Journal
  • Hastings Women's Law Journal
  • Hastings International and Comparative Law Review
  • Hastings Race and Poverty Law Journal
  • West-Northwest Journal of Environmental Law and Policy
  • Hastings Science & Technology Law Journal
  • Hastings Business Law Journal
  • Hastings Journal of Crime and Punishment

Books[]

The O'Brien Center at UC Hastings has published several books:[55]

  • Forgive Us Our Press Passes, by Daniel Schorr
  • The Traynor Reader: Essays, by the Honorable Roger Traynor.
  • Hastings College of the Law – The First Century, a centennial history of the UC Hastings commissioned by the UC Hastings Board in 1973

Notable people[]

Main article: List of University of California, Hastings College of the Law people

Some of the notable graduates of UC Hastings include: [56]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d "Best Law Schools: University of California (Hastings)". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved January 15, 2019.
  2. ^ Rubino, Kathryn. "California Bar Exam Results: A Breakdown By Law School (July 2019)". Above the Law. Retrieved February 5, 2020.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b Barnes, Thomas Garden (1978). Hastings College of the Law: The First Century. San Francisco: University of California Hastings College of the Law Press. pp. 44, 71–72.
  4. ^ See Cal. Stats., 22nd sess., 1877–1878, ch. 351, §§ 1-15.
  5. ^ See Cal. Stats., 17th sess., 1867–1868, ch. 244, § 8.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b Barnes, Thomas Garden (1978). Hastings College of the Law: The First Century. San Francisco: University of California Hastings College of the Law Press. pp. 81–82.
  7. ^ Barnes, Thomas Garden (1978). Hastings College of the Law: The First Century. San Francisco: University of California Hastings College of the Law Press. p. 69.
  8. ^ Barnes, Thomas Garden (1978). Hastings College of the Law: The First Century. San Francisco: University of California Hastings College of the Law Press. pp. 62–66.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b c Barnes, Thomas Garden (1978). Hastings College of the Law: The First Century. San Francisco: University of California Hastings College of the Law Press. pp. 67–68.
  10. ^ Barnes, Thomas Garden (1978). Hastings College of the Law: The First Century. San Francisco: University of California Hastings College of the Law Press. pp. 77–78.
  11. ^ Barnes, Thomas Garden (1978). Hastings College of the Law: The First Century. San Francisco: University of California Hastings College of the Law Press. pp. 78–80.
  12. ^ See Cal. Stats., 25th sess., 1883, ch. 20, § 1.
  13. ^ See Cal. Stats., 26th extra sess., 1883-1884, ch. 157, § 1.
  14. ^ Jump up to: a b Barnes, Thomas Garden (1978). Hastings College of the Law: The First Century. San Francisco: University of California Hastings College of the Law Press. p. 80.
  15. ^ Jump up to: a b Barnes, Thomas Garden (1978). Hastings College of the Law: The First Century. San Francisco: University of California Hastings College of the Law Press. pp. 80–85.
  16. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Barnes, Thomas Garden (1978). Hastings College of the Law: The First Century. San Francisco: University of California Hastings College of the Law Press. pp. 84–85.
  17. ^ People v. Kewen, 69 Cal. 215, 10 P. 393 (1886).
  18. ^ Jump up to: a b c Stadtman, Verne A. (1970). The University of California, 1868-1968. New York: McGraw-Hill. pp. 125–138.
  19. ^ AALS Member Schools. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
  20. ^ California Education Code Section 92201.
  21. ^ Novak, Steven J. (2016). "From the Oral History of J.A.C. Grant". California Legal History. 11: 63–96. Available through HeinOnline. In this source, Grant mistakenly refers to the will of the founder of Hastings; it is clear from the context that he and Prosser were unaware that the first UC law school was actually launched with an inter vivos gift.
  22. ^ Charles Hillinger, "Hastings Faculty Is Anything But Retiring," Los Angeles Times, December 14, 1982, D12.
  23. ^ "The Era of The Sixty-Five Club."
  24. ^ Mike Moffitt (December 7, 2020). "Hastings Law balks at name change despite founder's role in genocide". SFGate.
  25. ^ Hastings College of the Law. Institutional Master Plan Archived February 26, 2009, at the Wayback Machine. EIP Associates, March 2004.
  26. ^ Student Guidebook Archived February 26, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, UC Hastings, Student Services.
  27. ^ Robin Williams at UC Hastings Commencement 1983 (Video). San Francisco: University of California, Hastings College of the Law. 1983. Event occurs at 2 mins 35 secs. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
  28. ^ "Hastings Beats Back Budget Axe," The Recorder, June 5, 2009
  29. ^ California Education Code, 92212, http://law.justia.com/california/codes/edc/92200-92215.html
  30. ^ "California legislators reject cuts to Cal Grants, Hastings law school". Sacramento Bee. June 6, 2009. Archived from the original on May 21, 2014. Retrieved May 20, 2014.
  31. ^ "ABA-Approved Law Schools by Year". ABA website. Retrieved April 20, 2011.
  32. ^ Francisco, UC Hastings Law | San. "JD/Masters in Applied Economics and Finance". UC Hastings Law | San Francisco. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
  33. ^ "Concurrent Degree Programs". Haas School of Business. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved December 9, 2014.
  34. ^ "UCSF/UC Hastings Consortium on Law, Science and Health Policy". University of California, San Francisco and University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Retrieved December 9, 2014.
  35. ^ Order of the Coif member schools
  36. ^ AALS Member Schools
  37. ^ "Tuition and Expenses". Retrieved July 9, 2014.
  38. ^ "UC Hastings Profile".
  39. ^ "UC Hastings 509 Report, 2018" (PDF).
  40. ^ "ABA Disclosures" (PDF).
  41. ^ "UC Hastings Profile".
  42. ^ "Employment Summary for 2019 Graduates" (PDF).
  43. ^ "America's Best Graduate Schools 2015, Law School Diversity Index". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
  44. ^ Larsen, Rebecca (March 2011), "Most Diverse Law Schools (Diversity Honor Roll)", The National Jurist, San Diego, California: Cypress Magazines, 20 (6): 30–37
  45. ^ "America's Best Graduate Schools 2008, What are the largest and smallest law schools?". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved October 20, 2007.
  46. ^ Weyenberg, Michelle (January 2011), "Best Law Schools for Public Interest", The National Jurist, San Diego, California: Cypress Magazines, 20 (4): 24–28
  47. ^ Super Lawyers, U.S. Law School Rankings, https://lawschools.superlawyers.com/law-school/top-10/california-southern/
  48. ^ "Top 35 Law Faculties Based on Scholarly Impact, 2007". Brian Leiter's Law School Rankings. Retrieved October 21, 2007.
  49. ^ "Brian Leiter's Law Schools Ranked by Student (Numerical) Quality, 2008". Brian Leiter's Law School Rankings. Retrieved July 30, 2009.
  50. ^ "Law School Advocacy". Retrieved May 11, 2011.
  51. ^ Smith, Jacquelyn (March 14, 2013). "The Law Schools Whose Grads Earn The Biggest Paychecks". Forbes. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
  52. ^ [1]
  53. ^ "About Hastings Law Journal". Hastings Law Journal. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
  54. ^ "Journals". O'Brien Center for Scholarly Publications. University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
  55. ^ "Hastings Books". O'Brien Center for Scholarly Publications. University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
  56. ^ UC Hastings Law, Hastings Magazine - 2019, Gamechangers: A Special Issue Honoring Prominent Alumni Who Have Made Extraordinary Contributions to Their Fields, https://repository.uchastings.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=hastings_magazine

Further reading[]

External links[]

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