| Whittier Law School | |
| Motto | In Service of Justice and Enterprise |
|---|---|
| Parent school | Whittier College |
| Established | 1966 |
| School type | Private |
| Dean | Penelope Bryan |
| Location | Costa Mesa, CA, US |
| Enrollment | 642 (Full- and part-time)[1] |
| Faculty | 49[1] |
| USNWR ranking | Not ranked[1] |
| Bar pass rate | 66% (ABA profile) |
| Annual tuition | $37,950 (Full-time) $25,300 (Part-time)[1] |
| Website | www.whittier.edu |
| ABA profile | Whittier Law School |
Whittier Law School is a law school in Costa Mesa, California. Founded in 1966, it is a fully accredited ABA law school in Orange County, California. A private university, it is part of Whittier College.
Contents |
The Law School was originally founded as the Beverly College of Law in 1966,[2] and located in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles’s Westside. It was a private, nonprofit educational institution intended to meet the growing need for a law school in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
In 1974, the Whittier College Board of Trustees voted to merge the Beverly College of Law into Whittier College. In 1975, the Law School became known as the Whittier College School of Law and later as Whittier Law School. In 1978, the American Bar Association granted Whittier Law School provisional accreditation.[3] In response to a significant gift to the Law School, the Hancock Park building was dedicated as the Ross McCollum Law Center during a ceremony at which Supreme Court Associate Justice Byron R. White presented the major address. In 1985, Whittier Law School was fully accredited by the American Bar Association;[4] in 1987 it became a member of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS).[5]
During the 1990s, the Law School, along with leaders at Whittier College, decided to relocate the campus to Orange County in order to satisfy space needs and in response to requests by the community for an ABA law school in Orange County.[6] In 1996, the College acquired the present 14-acre campus in Costa Mesa, remodeled the buildings on the site to accommodate the needs of the Law School, and moved the faculty and students over a period of three years.[6] In 1997, the move was completed and Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy gave the major address at the opening ceremony.[6]
Whittier Law School offers both full and part-time day and evening J.D. programs. The full-time program takes three years to complete, while the part-time program takes four years to complete. Whittier also offers an LL.M. program.[7]
Whittier has been recognized by U.S. News and World Report as an ethnically diverse law school, with a 29 in the rankings.[8] In 2010, The Princeton Review featured Whittier Law School in its 2011 Edition of "The 172 Best Law Schools", highlighting the school's emphasis on small class sizes, an active study body, and practical externship opportunities in intellectual property, criminal, family, business law.[9]
Whitter was listed as "B-" in the January 2011 "Best Public Interest Law Schools" listing by The National Jurist: The Magazine for Law Students.[10]
Whittier Law School has two scholarly publications: the Whittier Law Review[11] and the Whittier Journal of Child and Family Advocacy,[12] and one student run newspaper, the Zealous Advocate.[13]
According to a ranking conducted by the Washington & Lee Law School, the Whittier Law Review is ranked 109th out of 192 law reviews evaluated.[14] According to a ranking of law reviews on the basis of the prominence of the lead article authors, conducted in 2007 by two professors at the Shepard Broad Law Center, the Whittier Law Review was ranked 121st out of 171 law reviews evaluated.[15] The Law Review is a student-run organization publishing a collection of articles of legal scholarship four times annually. The Law Review is currently in its twenty-ninth year of publication.[16]
Whittier Law School has centers in Children’s Rights, Intellectual Property Law, and International and Comparative Law. These centers host fellows, offer externships, and sponsor symposia and workshops. The law school also offers concentrations in Criminal Law and Business Law for students who wish to take additional, specialized courses in those areas.
As with many American law schools, Whittier Law School offers students the opportunity to study abroad. As of 2010, the law school offered summer programs in China, France, Israel, Spain, and Mexico.[17]
Based on a 2001-2007 6 year average, 43.4% of Whittier Law graduates passed the California State Bar.[18]
Based on a 2001-2007 6 year average, 91.2% of Whittier Law graduates were employed 9 months after graduation.[18]
Whittier Law School's Career Services Center assists students in obtaining post-graduate employment. According to a National Association for Law Placement survey, 91.5% of students who graduated and responded to the survey in May 2006 managed to secure employment by February 2007. Of those students, about 49% were employed by private law firms, about 30% were employed in "business and industry," about 9% were employed by government agencies, about 8% were employed by public interest organizations, and less than 1% were employed as law clerks. Median salaries ranged from $59,000 per year for public sector jobs to $80,000 per year for "business and industry" jobs.[19]
On August 9, 2005, the American Bar Association, concerned about Whittier Law School's low bar passage rates, placed the law school's accreditation on probationary status for two years. On August 10, 2007, the ABA extended the probation until February 15, 2009. Under the ABA's rules, the law school remained fully accredited during the probation period, and all students who entered and graduated during this period are deemed to have graduated from an ABA accredited law school.[20]
During probation, the ABA conducted several inspections designed to measure the school's efforts to comply with bar passage standards. The law school has taken several steps aimed at preparing its students for the bar examination, including implementing an early bar preparation program; requiring all students to take two graded, semester-long courses on the essay and performance test sections of the bar examination; and offering a summer-long assistance program designed to operate in conjunction with commercial bar preparation courses. As a result, Dean Cogan stated:
Because our bar passage rates in 2003-07, the pertinent five-year period under the new rule, are well in compliance, we have requested to be removed from probation. The ABA Accreditation Committee will consider that request on April 17–19 [2008], and the ABA Council will review the Accreditation Committee’s recommendation on June 6–8 [2008]. I expect that after those meetings, the ABA will remove the Law School’s probationary status.[21]
On April 17, 2008, the ABA Accreditation Committee recommended to the Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar that Whittier Law School be removed from probation.[22] Dean Cogan reported:
The Law School requested this action on February 14, 2008, because the bar passage rates of our graduates for the five-year period, 2003-07, show compliance with the ABA bar passage rule, Interpretation 301-6. We fully expect that the Council will accept the Committee’s recommendation at its meeting on June 6 and remove the Law School from its probationary status.
On June 7, 2008, the ABA officially removed Whittier Law School from its probationary status.[23] According to Dean Cogan:
On Saturday, June 7, 2008, the Council of the ABA Section on Legal Education & Admissions to the Bar accepted its Accreditation Committee's finding that the Law School is in full compliance with Section 301(a) of the Standards for Approval of Law Schools and Interpretation 301-6(A)(1)(b). In addition, the Council accepted the Committee's conclusion that the Law School satisfied all conditions of its probation.
According to the ABA Section on Legal Education & Admissions to the Bar, Section 301-6(a)(1)(b) states that graduating law students within the last five calendar years must pass a state bar examination at a minimum of 75% in at least three of the five calendar years.[24]
For Fall 2009:
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||