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Santa Clara University School of Law

The Santa Clara University School of Law (Santa Clara Law) is the law school of Santa Clara University, a Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California, United States, in the Silicon Valley region. The School of Law was founded in 1911.[6]

Santa Clara University
School of Law

Lawyers Who Lead

1911

$1.03 billion (2020)[1]

880[2]

117

158th (2024)[3]

67.48% (July 2021, first-time takers)[4]

Santa Clara Law offers the Juris Doctor (J.D.) law degree, as well as several double-degree programs, including J.D./Master of Business Administration (J.D./M.B.A.) and J.D./Master of Science in Information Systems (MSIS) offered in conjunction with Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business. In addition, the school offers Master of Laws (LL.M.) degrees in intellectual property 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 and intellectual property law, international law, public interest, social justice law, and is one of few law schools to offer a certificate in privacy law.[7]

History[edit]

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. It was approved by the American Bar Association in 1937.[8] It joined the Association of American Law Schools in 1940.[9]


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, Stanford, and USC.[10]

Number 4 for Intellectual Property Law among law schools in the United States

[12]

Number 12 for diversity among law schools (tied for first in California with the )[13]

USC Law School

Number 133 overall of 196 approved law schools in the United States as ranked by U.S. News & World Report[3]

ABA

"Best 170 Law Schools" (2008) – number 22 overall among law schools for average starting salary[14]

Princeton Review

The Census Group Composition 2009 ranking, which scores law schools based on selectivity, salary, placement and yield, ranks Santa Clara Law at Number 64.

[15]

Hylton Rankings 2007, which scores programs based on their U.S. News & World Report peer assessment ratings provided by law professors and by the mean LSAT scores of each law school, ranked Santa Clara Law at Number 78 overall.

[16]

Listed Number 13 overall for 2011 mid-career median salary (at $188,000 a year) in Forbes' list of Best Law Schools for Getting Rich

[17]

Graded as "B−" in the January 2011 "Best Public Interest Law Schools" listing by The National Jurist: The Magazine for Law Students

[18]

Graded as "A" in the March 2011 "Diversity Honor Roll" by The National Jurist: The Magazine for Law Students

[19]

Its journal, Santa Clara Computer and High Technology Law Journal, is ranked #6 in 2012 nationally for intellectual property.

[20]

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.[11]


Law school rankings of Santa Clara Law include:

Bar passage rates[edit]

Based on a 2001–2007 six-year average, 73% of Santa Clara University Law graduates passed the California State Bar.[21]

Students[edit]

For the 2021 entering class, the top-five feeder schools into Santa Clara Law were UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC San Diego, San Jose State University, and Santa Clara University.[31]


The top-five feeder states in order are California, Texas, Nevada, Washington, and Arizona.[32] 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 for full-time entering students was 3.62 for the 75th percentile and 3.21 for the 25th percentile.[32]


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.[33]

– senior advisor for intellectual property in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)[38]

Colleen V. Chien

– author of The Machinery of Freedom[39]

David D. Friedman

– Co-Director of the High Tech Law Institute, author of Technology and Marketing Law Blog[40]

Eric Goldman

– adjunct instructor, former Deputy Assistant Secretary in the United States Department of Commerce

Ro Khanna

– Commissioner on the California Public Utilities Commission[41]

Catherine Sandoval

(1978)[42] – former 25th United States Secretary of Agriculture, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives

Mike Espy

(2022)[43] – former Apple Inc. employee; labor activist and whistleblower

Ashley Gjøvik

(1976)[44] – Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California

Phyllis Jean Hamilton

(1981)[45] – Minority Leader, Alaska House of Representatives

Beth Kerttula

[46] (1953) – U.S. Representative for California's 19th District

Robert J. Lagomarsino

(1991)[44] – Judge on the Supreme Court of Guam; first elected Attorney General of Guam

Douglas Moylan

(1956) – [47] Justice of the Supreme Court of California

Edward A. Panelli

(1996) – U.S. Representative for California's 20th congressional district; previously assistant district attorney in Monterey County, California[48]

Jimmy Panetta

(1963)[44] – former Secretary of Defense; former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency; previously, White House Chief of Staff under Bill Clinton; U.S. House of Representatives (California)

Leon Panetta

(1953) – U.S. Representative for Alaska

Howard Wallace Pollock

(1976)[49] – Senator, California State Senate

Curren Price

(1936)[50] – 48th Mayor of San Jose

Albert J. Ruffo

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

- 1986 to 1994

Gerald Uelmen

Mack Player – 1994 to 2003

[52]

Donald J. Polden – 2003 to 2013

[53]

– 2013 to 2019[54]

Lisa Kloppenberg

Anna Han (acting) – 2019 to 2021

[55]

– 2021 to present[56]

Michael J. Kaufman

Timeline of historical events, including previous deans.[51]

Official website