Pepperdine University School of Law

Pepperdine University School of Law
Motto	Strengthening Lives for Purpose, Service, and Leadership
Parent school	Pepperdine University
Established	1969[1]
School type	Private
Parent endowment	$850 million
Dean	Deanell R. Tacha[2]
Location	Malibu, CA, US
Enrollment	598
Faculty	107[1]
USNWR ranking	65[1]
Bar pass rate	78% (July 2014 CA Pass Rate)
Website	law.pepperdine.edu
ABA profile	Pepperdine University School of Law

The Pepperdine University School of Law is an ABA accredited law school, nestled in the hills of Malibu, California overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The campus is 30 miles from Downtown Los Angeles, the heart of entertainment, media, and sports law. Pepperdine Law also has a West LA campus, which tailors flexible course schedules to mid-career professionals in conjunction with their Malibu campus offerings.

Overview

Pepperdine School of Law provides a superior legal education with an emphasis on societal responsibility. In addition to degree programs, they offer experiential learning, mentorship, and continuing education to prepare practitioners to bring their best to their work and to the world. Pepperdine offers six joint degrees, and several LLM and master's degrees, including those offered in conjunction with the Straus Institute of Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine Law's #1 ranked Institute. (View full list of LLM degrees here). Pepperdine Law also offers certificates in Dispute Resolution, and in Entertainment, Media, and Sports Law.

Pepperdine Law's other institutes include: the Parris Institute for Professional Formation, the Byrne Judicial Clerkship Institute, Nootbaar Institute on Law, Religion, and Ethics, and the Palmer Center for Entrepreneurship and the Law.

Pepperdine Law is known for providing excellent mentorships to its students, and pairs students with a practicing attorney or judge their 1L year. It also provides excellent practical training via clinics and externships, as well as its global programs where students can learn international law studying in London, non-profit and advancing the rule of law in Uganda and India, and study at the epicenter of law building, Washington, DC.

Current News & Events can be found on The Surf Report, where students, faculty, rankings, and events are reported on.

Pepperdine Law placed 65th among the nation's "Top 100" law schools according to the 2017 U.S. News and World Report rankings.^[1] Pepperdine Law is tied with Loyola Marymount School of Law as the fourth highest ranked law school in Southern California, after UCLA, USC, and UC Irvine. The school had an 78% California bar passage rate in July 2014, giving it the seventh highest California bar passage rate after Stanford, (88%); Berkeley, (88%);University of Southern California, (87%); UC Davis School of Law, (86%); UCLA Law, (82%); and Loyola Marymount School of Law, (80%).^[3][4] Pepperdine Law is best known for its entertainment law,^[5] and its dispute resolution program, which is ranked #1 in the nation.^[6]

The school offers a Juris Doctor (J.D.), Masters of Law (LL.M.) in dispute resolution, and joint degrees with J.D./M.B.A., J.D./M.Div., J.D./M.P.P., and J.D./Master of Dispute Resolution(M.D.R.).

Deanell Reece Tacha, former Chief Judge of The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, became Dean on June 1, 2011, and retired on December 31, 2016. Pepperdine professor and tax law expert Paul Caron will become dean on June 1, 2017.

Costs

The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at Pepperdine for the 2015-2016 academic year is $79,800.^[7] The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $301,845.^[8]

Accreditation and post-graduation employment

Pepperdine University School of Law is approved by the American Bar Association (ABA) since 1972,^[9] holds membership in the Association of American Law Schools (AALS),^[10] and is accredited by the Committee of Bar Examiners, State Bar of California. Graduates are eligible to apply for admission to practice in any state.

Pepperdine University is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

Employment Outcomes: According to 2013 ABA data, 53.1% of graduates obtained full-time, long term positions requiring bar admission (i.e., jobs as lawyers), 9 months after graduation, ranking 124th out of 200 law schools.^[11]

Herbert and Elinor Nootbaar Institute on Law, Religion and Ethics

The purpose of the Nootbaar Institute on Law, Religion, and Ethics is to bring the redemptive capacities of religious faith and moral insight to law, to find ways in which persons trained in law can serve “the least of these” throughout the world, and to explore how the practice of law might be a religious calling. We seek to do so at a theoretical level through seminars, conferences, and scholarship. We also seek to put theory into action, working with governments and human rights organizations to bring peace, justice, and the rule of law around the globe.

The Nootbaar Institute includes three initiatives:

1. Scholarship with respect to issues at the intersection of law and religion;
2. Domestic Justice Initiatives, such as the Legal Aid Clinic and the Asylum and Refugee Clinic; and
3. the Global Justice Program.

Global Justice Program

The Global Justice Program^[12] touches all corners of the globe through its initiatives in

1. international human rights and religious freedom,
2. advancement of the rule of law, and
3. global development. Through these initiatives, students and faculty collaborate to seek justice and create a lasting impact in some of the world's most vulnerable places. Under the umbrella of the Herbert and Elinor Nootbaar Institute for Law, Religion, and Ethics, the Global Justice Program is growing rapidly in response to student interest and demand from global partners.

Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution

Pepperdine University School of Law’s Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution^[13] provides professional training and academic programs in dispute resolution including a Certificate, Masters in Dispute Resolution (MDR) and Masters of Law in Dispute Resolution (LLM). Straus provides education to law and graduate students, as well as mid-career professionals in areas of mediation, negotiation, arbitration, international dispute resolution and peacemaking.^[14] The Straus Institute has consistently ranked the number one Dispute Resolution school in the nation for the past 8 years, and has remained among the top 10 schools over the last decade.^[15]

Journals

• Pepperdine Law Review^[16][17]
• Dispute Resolution Law Journal
• Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary (NAALJ)
• Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship, and the Law (JBEL)

Each year the Pepperdine Law Review hosts one or two symposia that bring well-known speakers to campus. Written contributions to each symposium are published in the Law Review.

Joint degree programs

Joint degree programs include the JD/MPP degree in conjunction with the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy, the JD/Masters of Dispute Resolution degree in conjunction with the School of Law's number one ranked Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution^[18] and the JD/MBA degree in conjunction with the Graziadio School of Business and Management.

Notable people

Faculty

• Roger Cossack
• Colleen Graffy
• Douglas Kmiec
• Edward Larson — Pulitzer Prize winning author
• Grant S. Nelson — specialist in real estate law
• Mark S. Scarberry
• Kenneth Starr — former Dean, former appellate federal judge, and former U.S. Solicitor General
• Deanell Reece Tacha — Dean and retired Chief Judge of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals
• Ben Stein - former faculty (1990 – 1997), writer, lawyer, actor, and commentator

Visiting faculty

• Samuel Alito — Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• Akhil Reed Amar
• Gary Haugen — CEO of the International Justice Mission
• Antonin Scalia — Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• Lawrence Eric Taylor

Guest speakers

• John Robert Bolton — Former U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations
• Paul Clement — Former United States Solicitor General and current Georgetown Law Professor
• Tharcisse Karugarama — Rwandan politician. He is the current Minister of Justice and Attorney-General in the Rwandan government.
• Anthony M. Kennedy — Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• Mark Lane
• Beverley McLachlin — Chief Justice of Canada and Deputy of the Governor General of Canada
• Sandra Day O'Connor — Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (Retired)
• Benjamin Joseph Odoki — Chief Justice of the Uganda Supreme Court
• Condoleezza Rice — 66th United States Secretary of State
• John Roberts — Chief Justice of the United States
• Mary M. Schroeder — Senior Judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
• Myron T. Steele — Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court
• Robert K. Tanenbaum — Former Deputy Chief Counsel for the House Select Committee on Assassinations to investigate the John F. Kennedy assassination and the Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination
• Ruth Wedgwood
• Muhammad Yunus — Economist, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, and founder of the Grameen Bank

Notable alumni

• André Birotte Jr., 1991 — United States District Court Judge in the Central District of California
• Jennifer A. Dorsey, 1997 — United States District Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Nevada^[19]
• Jeffrey S. Boyd, 1991 — Justice of the Texas Supreme Court,^[20][21] 2012 -
• Rick J. Caruso, 1983 — Chief Executive Officer of Caruso Affiliated
• Mark J. Caruso, 1982 – State Representative New Mexico Legislature, 1991–1995^[22]
• Rich Cho, 1997 — General Manager of the Charlotte Hornets
• Talis J. Colberg, 1983 — Attorney General of Alaska, 2006–2009
• Chris DeRose (author), 2004 — New York Times Bestselling Author, law professor, and political strategist
• James Hahn, 1975 — Mayor of Los Angeles, 2001–2005
• Brent A. Jones (born 1963), Republican member of the Nevada Assembly.^[23]
• Mike Leach, 1986 — College football coach at several schools, currently head coach at Washington State University
• Eileen C. Moore, 1978 — Justice of the California Court of Appeal^[24]
• Montgomery "Monty" Moran — Co-CEO of Chipotle Mexican Grill^[25]
• Beverly Reid O'Connell, 1990 — United States District Judge for the United States District Court for the Central District of California.^[26]
• Doug Peterson, 1985 — Attorney General of Nebraska, 2015–present^[27]
• Todd Russell Platts, 1991 — U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania, 2001–
• Pierre-Richard Prosper, 1989 — United States Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, 2001–2005
• Brian K. Tester, 1990 – United States Bankruptcy Judge, District of Puerto Rico^[28]
• Ehsan Zaffar, 2007 - Senior government advisor, law professor and author^[29]

Honor societies

The School of Law attained membership in the Order of the Coif in 2008.^[30][31]

References

External links

• Official website

Coordinates: 34°02′38″N 118°42′34″W / 34.04399°N 118.70932°W / 34.04399; -118.70932