Southwestern Law School
Southwestern Law School is a private law school in the Mid-Wilshire neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It is accredited by the American Bar Association and enrolls nearly 1,000 students. Its campus includes the Bullocks Wilshire building, an art deco National Register of Historic Places landmark built in 1929. Southwestern is an independent law school with affiliation to the undergraduate program at California State University, Northridge.
Southwestern Law School
A Landmark in Legal Education
1911
Darby Dickerson
Los Angeles, California, United States
950[1]
180 total, 69 full-time[1]
145th (tie) (2024)[2]
62.2% (July 2023 1st time takers)
Bar passage rate and rankings[edit]
In July, 2023 results, 66% of Southwestern Law graduates taking the test for the first time passed the California State Bar, vs. 65% for all first-time takers and 76% for first-time takers who graduated from ABA-approved law schools in California.[5] Southwestern was ranked 141st in the 2024 U.S. News & World Report "Best Law Schools" rankings.[2] The part-time program was ranked 54th of 70.[2] Southwestern has been ranked among the top entertainment law schools in The Hollywood Reporter.[6]
Publications[edit]
Southwestern Law Review[edit]
Law Review is a student-edited quarterly journal that publishes scholarly articles and commentary on a variety of legal issues in California and federal law contributed by prominent jurists, practitioners, law professors, and student members of the Law Review staff. Annual Symposia and the Distinguished Lecture Series are sponsored by Law Review. These programs feature prominent members of the legal community lecturing on areas of legal expertise and participating in panel discussions on relevant emerging and contemporary legal issues.
Southwestern Journal of International Law[edit]
Formerly the Southwestern Journal of Law and Trade in the Americas, the journal focuses on issues of international law and trade, publishing scholarly articles and notes exploring areas such as international insolvency, environmental law, international trade issues, NAFTA, international arbitration, privatization in Central and South American countries, immigration, human rights, and international crime. On October 3, 2008, the Southwestern Journal of International Law hosted one of the first U.S. conferences on Arctic sovereignty, featuring legal scholars from both the United States and Canada.[13]
Journal of International Media & Entertainment Law[edit]
In association with the American Bar Association Forum on Communications Law and Forum on Entertainment and Sports Industries, the Journal of International Media & Entertainment Law explores the complex and unsettled legal issues surrounding the creation and distribution of media and entertainment products on a worldwide basis, which necessarily implicate the laws, customs, and practices of multiple jurisdictions. Additionally, it examines the impact of the Internet and other technologies, the often conflicting laws affecting those issues, and the legal ramifications of widely divergent cultural views of privacy, defamation, intellectual property, and government regulation.