The Santa Clara University School of Law (Santa Clara Law) is the

law school A law school (also known as a law centre/center, college of law, or faculty of law) is an institution, professional school, or department of a college or university specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for b ...

Santa Clara University Santa Clara University is a private university, private Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California, United States. Established in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California. The university' ...

, a

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

Santa Clara, California Santa Clara ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "Clare of Assisi, Saint Clare") is a city in Santa Clara County, California. The city's population was 127,647 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities and towns i ...

, United States, in the

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

region. The School of Law was founded in 1911. Santa Clara Law offers the

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

(J.D.) degree, as well as several double-degree programs, including J.D./

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular ...

(J.D./M.B.A.) and J.D./

Master of Science in Information Systems The Master of Science in Information Systems (MSIS), the Master of Science in Management Information Systems (MSMIS) and Masters in Management Information Systems (MMIS) are specialized master's degree programs usually offered in a university's ...

(MSIS) offered in conjunction with Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business. In addition, the school offers

Master of Laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is a postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in another subject. In many jurisdi ...

(LL.M.) degrees in

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

law, in U.S. law for foreign lawyers, and in international and comparative law. Santa Clara Law also features specialized curricular programs in

high tech High technology (high tech or high-tech), also known as advanced technology (advanced tech) or exotechnology, is technology that is at the state of the art, cutting edge: the highest form of technology available. It can be defined as either the ...

and

intellectual property law Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, ...

international law International law, also known as public international law and the law of nations, is the set of Rule of law, rules, norms, Customary law, legal customs and standards that State (polity), states and other actors feel an obligation to, and generall ...

public interest In social science and economics, public interest is "the welfare or well-being of the general public" and society. While it has earlier philosophical roots and is considered to be at the core of democratic theories of government, often paired ...

social justice Social justice is justice in relation to the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society where individuals' rights are recognized and protected. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has of ...

law, and is one of few law schools to offer a certificate in

privacy law Privacy law is a set of regulations that govern the collection, storage, and utilization of personal information from healthcare, governments, companies, public or private entities, or individuals. Privacy laws are examined in relation to an ind ...

History

Santa Clara University School of Law was founded in 1911. The school is part of Santa Clara University (founded 1851), the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California and the oldest Catholic university in the

American West The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is census regions United States Census Bureau As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the mea ...

. It was approved by the

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary association, voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students in the United States; national in scope, it is not specific to any single jurisdiction. Founded in 1878, the ABA's stated acti ...

in 1937. It joined the Association of American Law Schools in 1940. Prior to the requirement that all California law graduates must take the state bar exam, Santa Clara Law was one of the five schools whose graduates were exempt from the examination, along with Boalt Hall,

Hastings Hastings ( ) is a seaside town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to th ...

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

, and

USC USC may refer to: Education United States * Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico * University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina ** University of South Carolina System, a state university system of South Carolina * ...

Rankings

According to the required disclosures under ABA Section 509, not counting those employed where a JD degree was an advantage, employed in a professional position, and those enrolled in graduate studies, 55% of the Class of 2021 was employed in full-time, long-term positions that require bar admission within nine months of graduation. Law school rankings of Santa Clara Law include: * Number 158 overall of 196 ABA approved law schools in the United States as ranked by '' U.S. News & World Report''

Bar passage rates

Based on a 2001–2007 six-year average, 73% of Santa Clara University Law graduates passed the California State Bar.

Post-graduation employment

According to Santa Clara's official 2013 ABA-required disclosures, 42.2% of the Class of 2013 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation, excluding solo-practitioners. Santa Clara Law's

Law School Transparency Law School Transparency (LST) is a nonprofit consumer advocacy and education organization concerning the legal profession in the United States. LST was founded by Vanderbilt Law School graduates Kyle McEntee and Patrick Lynch. LST describes its ...

under-employment score is 34.5%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2013 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job nine months after graduation. Law School Transparency reports a 41.3% employment score for the Class of 2011. According to the American Bar Association's "Official Guide to ABA-Approved Law Schools," 94.5 percent of Santa Clara students were employed nine months after graduation, with 77 percent of graduates employed in the private sector and 21 percent employed in the public sector. According to the ''

Princeton Review The Princeton Review is an education services company providing tutoring, test preparation and admission resources for students. It was founded in 1981, and since that time has worked with over 400 million students. Services are delivered by 4,0 ...

'', the average private-sector starting salary for Santa Clara Law graduates in 2020 is $100,000. According to ''Forbes'' magazine, mid-career median salary is currently $188,000 a year. According to a study done by online salary-information company PayScale, graduates of Santa Clara Law have the third highest midcareer median salary among all graduate programs in the United States. The report found that Santa Clara Law graduates typically make $76,900 the first year following graduation and attain a midcareer median salary of $197,700.

Costs

The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at Santa Clara for the 2021-2022 academic year was $89,444 for first-year law students. The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $262,472.

Students

For the 2021 entering class, the top-five feeder schools into Santa Clara Law were

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

UC Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

UC San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Sc ...

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the List of oldest schools in California, oldest public university on the West Coast of ...

, and

. The top-five feeder states in order are California, Texas, Nevada, Washington, and Arizona. For the 2021 entering class, 2,336 people applied to the School of Law and 205 full-time and 21 part-time students matriculated. For the 2021 entering class, the LSAT scores for entering full-time students were 160 for the 75th percentile and 155 for the 25th percentile. The undergraduate

GPA Grading in education is the application of standardized measurements to evaluate different levels of student achievement in a course. Grades can be expressed as letters (usually A to F), as a range (for example, 1 to 6), percentages, or as num ...

for full-time entering students was 3.62 for the 75th percentile and 3.21 for the 25th percentile. Santa Clara Law 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.

Campus

Over the last century, the Santa Clara University campus, located along El Camino Real in Santa Clara, has expanded to more than . Amid its many Mission-style academic and residential buildings are the historic mission gardens, rose garden, and palm trees. Until 1939, the law school inhabited present-day St. Joseph's Hall at the center of campus. Under the tenure of Dean Edwin Owens, Bergin Hall was constructed and became home to the school in 1939. The new building was built using monies collected through Santa Clara football's successful appearances in the

Sugar Bowl The Sugar Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in New Orleans, Louisiana. Played annually since January 1, 1935, it is tied with the Orange Bowl and Sun Bowl as the second-oldest bowl games in the country, surpassed only ...

and named after Thomas Bergin, Santa Clara's first graduate, a California legal pioneer, and an early donor to the School of Law. The Edwin Heafey Law Library was constructed in 1963, and expanded in 1973 to include more space for library materials. Heafey was renovated and expanded again in 1988. The collection contains over 400,000 volumes in print and digital formats. Additionally, the library manages an

institutional repository An institutional repository (IR) is an archive for collecting, preserving, and disseminating digital copies of the intellectual output of an institution, particularly a research institution. Academics also utilize their IRs for archiving published ...

which currently contains over 4,000 digital items including a collection of papers related to the Congressional hearings regarding the

Watergate Scandal The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the Presidency of Richard Nixon, administration of President Richard Nixon. The scandal began in 1972 and ultimately led to Resignation of Richard Nixon, Nix ...

donated by Congressman Don Edwards. Other digital collections include documents relating to litigation over the Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act (also known as

Obamacare The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and informally as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Presi ...

) and the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. Charney Hall Law Library

Also in 1973, Bannan Hall was built, including space for the Law School on the ground floor. In 2008 Dean Donald Polden announced the law school would have exclusive use of Bannan Hall, and the building was renovated and used exclusively by the law school shortly thereafter. In 2018, the Law school moved into Charney Hall, a new $60-million building built specifically to house the Law school.

Notable faculty

* Colleen V. Chien – senior advisor for intellectual property in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) *

David D. Friedman David Director Friedman (; born February 12, 1945) is an American economist, physicist, legal scholar, and anarcho-capitalist theorist. Although his academic training was in chemistry and physics and not law or economics, he is known for his t ...

– author of '' The Machinery of Freedom'' * Eric Goldman – Co-Director of the High Tech Law Institute, author of Technology and Marketing Law Blog *

Ro Khanna Rohit Khanna (born September 13, 1976) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative from California's 17th congressional district since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (Un ...

– adjunct instructor, former Deputy Assistant Secretary in the

United States Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce (DOC) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for gathering data for business and governmental decision making, establishing industrial standards, catalyzing econ ...

* Catherine Sandoval – Commissioner on the

California Public Utilities Commission The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC or PUC) is a regulatory agency that regulates privately owned public utilities in the state of California, including electric power, telecommunications, natural gas and water companies. In addition ...

Notable alumni

* Mike Espy (1978) – former 25th

United States Secretary of Agriculture The United States secretary of agriculture is the head of the United States Department of Agriculture. The position carries similar responsibilities to those of agriculture ministers in other governments The department includes several organi ...

, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives * Ashley Gjøvik (2022) – former

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Comput ...

employee; labor activist and whistleblower * Phyllis Jean Hamilton (1976) – Judge of the

United States District Court for the Northern District of California The United States District Court for the Northern District of California (in case citations, N.D. Cal.) is the federal United States district court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties of California: Alameda, Contra Costa, De ...

* Beth Kerttula (1981) – Minority Leader,

Alaska House of Representatives The Alaska House of Representatives is the lower house in the Alaska State Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Alaska. The House is composed of 40 members, each of whom represents a district of approximately 17,756 people pe ...

* Robert J. Lagomarsino (1953) – U.S. Representative for California's 19th District *

Zoe Lofgren Susan Ellen "Zoe" Lofgren ( ; born December 21, 1947) is an American politician and lawyer serving as a United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative from California. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Part ...

(1975) – U.S. Representative for California's 16th congressional district * Douglas Moylan (1991) – Judge on the Supreme Court of Guam; first elected

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...

Guam Guam ( ; ) is an island that is an Territories of the United States, organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. Guam's capital is Hagåtña, Guam, Hagåtña, and the most ...

* Edward A. Panelli (1956) – Justice of the

Supreme Court of California The Supreme Court of California is the Supreme court, highest and final court of appeals in the judiciary of California, courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly ...

Jimmy Panetta James Varni Panetta ( ; born October 1, 1969) is an American lawyer, politician, and former Navy intelligence officer from the state of California. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the U.S. representative for California's 19th congressio ...

(1996) – U.S. Representative for

California's 20th congressional district California's 20th congressional district is a congressional district in California's congressional districts, California including much of the southern and southeastern part of the state's Central Valley (California), Central Valley. The distri ...

; previously assistant district attorney in

Monterey County, California Monterey County ( ), officially the County of Monterey, is a county (United States), county located on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 439,035. The count ...

* Leon Panetta (1963) – former Secretary of Defense; former

Director of the Central Intelligence Agency The director of the Central Intelligence Agency (D/CIA) is a statutory office () that functions as the head of the Central Intelligence Agency, which in turn is a part of the United States Intelligence Community. The director reports to the D ...

; previously,

White House Chief of Staff The White House chief of staff is the head of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, a position in the federal government of the United States. The chief of staff is a Political appointments in the United States, politi ...

under

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

; U.S. House of Representatives (California) * Howard Wallace Pollock (1953) – U.S. Representative for

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

* Curren Price (1976) – Senator,

California State Senate The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature (the lower house being the California State Assembly). The state senate convenes, along with the state assembly, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. ...

* Albert J. Ruffo (1936) – 48th

Mayor of San Jose In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well as ...

* Mark Stone (1988) – Assemblymember for

California's 29th State Assembly district California's 29th State Assembly district is one of 80 California State Assembly districts. It is currently represented by Robert Rivas (politician), Robert Rivas of Hollister, California, Hollister. Election results from statewide races ...

Law School deans

Timeline of historical events, including previous deans. * James Campbell – 1911 to 1918 * Lawrence E. O'Keefe, SJ – 1919 to 1920 * Clarence Coolidge – 1920 to 1933 * Edwin J. Owens – 1933 to 1953 * Byron J. Snow – 1953 to 1955 * Warren P. McKenney – 1955 to 1959 * Leo Huard – 1959 to 1969 * George Strong (acting) – 1970 * George Alexander – 1970 to 1985 * Richard Rykoff (acting) – 1985 to 1986 * Gerald Uelmen - 1986 to 1994 * Mack Player – 1994 to 2003 * Donald J. Polden – 2003 to 2013 * Lisa Kloppenberg – 2013 to 2019 * Anna Han (acting) – 2019 to 2021 * Michael J. Kaufman – 2021 to present

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Santa Clara University School Of Law ABA-accredited law schools in California Catholic law schools in the United States Universities and colleges established in 1911 Santa Clara University schools and colleges Law in the San Francisco Bay Area 1911 establishments in California