Chapman University School of Law

Chapman University's Dale E. Fowler School of Law, commonly referred to as Chapman University School of Law or Chapman Law School, is a private, non-profit law school located in Orange, California. The school offers the Juris Doctor degree (JD), combined programs offering a JD/MBA and JD/MFA in Film & Television Producing, and multiple LL.M. degree options. The school also offers emphasis options in Business Law, Criminal Law, Entertainment Law, Environmental Law, International Law, Trial Advocacy, and Taxation. Currently, the school has 74 full- and part-time faculty members and a law library with holdings in excess of 290,000 volumes and volume equivalents.

Accreditation history

Established in 1995 as part of Chapman University, Chapman Law gained provisional accreditation from the American Bar Association (ABA) in 1998 and received full ABA accreditation in 2002. In addition to its ABA membership, the Association of American Law Schools admitted Chapman Law as one of its members in 2006. In 2019, the ABA again fully accredited the school until 2027, the standard seven-year accreditation term.

Rankings

Chapman University School of Law is currently ranked 118th by the '' U.S. News & World Report''s annual law school rankings.

Bar passage rate

For July, 2021, the first-time bar passage rate for Chapman School of Law was 79%. The overall first-time pass rate for ABA-accredited California law schools was 81%.

Costs and average student indebtedness

The cost of tuition for full-time JD students at Chapman for the 2016–2017 academic year is $50,076, which does not include living expenses and fees. According to ''U.S. News & World Report'', the cost of such living expenses is approximately $16,848 per year. Accordingly, of 2018 graduates, 74% incurred debt to attend Chapman, with an average indebtedness of $144,718.

Post-graduation employment

According to Chapman's official 2020 ABA-required disclosures, 73% of the Class of 2020 obtained bar passage required employment 10 months or less after graduation, 11% were employed in JD advantage jobs where bar passage was a desired qualification, but not required, and 12% reported they were unemployed.

Scholarships

Chapman, like some other law schools, uses merit based scholarships in order to entice competitive students who might otherwise pass over the school for higher ranked competitors and to enhance its own ranking.

Dean

Matthew J. Parlow is the Dean and Donald P. Kennedy Chair in Law at the school. He joined Chapman as dean in July 2016 after serving as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law at Marquette University Law School. He previously taught at Chapman from 2005–2008. He succeeded Tom Campbell, Dean from 2011-2016. John C. Eastman was Dean from June 2007 to January 2010.

Notable faculty

* Tom Campbell, Member of the United States Congress, 1989–1993 and 1995–2001, member of the California State Senate 1993–1995, and director of the California Department of Finance from 2004–2005.
* John C. Eastman, who represented Donald Trump in disputes over the 2020 US presidential election. On January 13, 2021, Eastman retired from the Chapman University faculty after he had created controversy by speaking at a Trump rally that preceded the violent storming of the United States Capitol.
* Hugh Hewitt, radio host and co-panelist in several of the 2016 presidential debates.
* Celestine McConville, Constitutional law and death penalty scholar
* Vernon L. Smith, co-winner of the Nobel Prize in economics

Law journals

Chapman's Fowler School of Law publishes the ''Chapman Law Review'', a student-run scholarly journal. In addition to publishing the scholarly journal, the ''Chapman Law Review'' hosts a symposium at the start of the spring semester each year.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chapman University School Of Law
Law
ABA-accredited law schools in California
Educational institutions established in 1995
1995 establishments in California
Education in Orange, California