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Stanford Law School (Stanford Law or SLS) is the
law school A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction. Law degrees Argentina In Argentina, ...
of Stanford University, a private
research university A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are the most important sites at which knowledge production occurs, along with "intergenerational kno ...
near
Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was ...
. Established in 1893, it is regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world. Stanford Law has regularly ranked among the top three law schools in the United States by '' U.S. News & World Report'' since the magazine first published law school rankings in the 1980s, and has ranked second for most of the past decade. In 2021, Stanford Law had an acceptance rate of 6.28%, the second-lowest of any law school in the country. Since 2019,
Jennifer Martínez Jennifer S. Martínez (born November 5, 1971) is an American human rights lawyer and professor of law who serves as the current Dean of Stanford Law School. She is a leading expert on international courts and tribunals, international human rights ...
has served as its dean. Stanford Law School employs more than 90 full-time and part-time faculty members and enrolls over 550 students who are working toward their
Doctor of Jurisprudence The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice la ...
(J.D.) degree. Stanford Law also confers four advanced legal degrees: a
Master of Laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...
(LL.M.), a
Master of Studies in Law A Master of Studies in Law (M.S.L.), also Master of Science of Law or Master of Legal Studies (M.L.S.) or Juris Master (J.M.) or Masters of Jurisprudence (M.J.) or Master in Law (M.L.), is a master's degree offered by some law schools to students ...
(M.S.L.), a Master of the Science of Law (J.S.M.), and a
Doctor of the Science of Law A Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD; ), or a Doctor of Science of Law (JSD; ), is a research doctorate in law equivalent to the more commonly awarded Doctor of Philosophy degree. Australia The S.J.D. is offered by the Australian National Univ ...
(J.S.D.). Each fall, Stanford Law enrolls a J.D. class of approximately 180 students, giving Stanford the smallest student body of any law school ranked in the top fourteen ( T14). Stanford also maintains eleven full-time legal clinics,"Clinics Offered"
Stanford Law School. Retrieved 27 June 2015
including the nation's first and most active Supreme Court litigation clinic, and offers 27 formal joint degree programs. Stanford Law alumni include several of the first women to occupy Chief Justice or Associate Justice posts on
supreme court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
s: former
Chief Justice of New Zealand The chief justice of New Zealand ( mi, Te Kaiwhakawā Tumuaki o Aotearoa) is the head of the New Zealand judiciary, and presides over the Supreme Court of New Zealand. The chief justice of New Zealand is also the chief justice of Tokelau. Bef ...
Sian Elias, retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Sandra Day O'Connor Sandra Day O'Connor (born March 26, 1930) is an American retired attorney and politician who served as the first female associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006. She was both the first woman nominated and th ...
, the late
Associate Justice Associate justice or associate judge (or simply associate) is a judicial panel member who is not the chief justice in some jurisdictions. The title "Associate Justice" is used for members of the Supreme Court of the United States and some sta ...
of the
Hawaii Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Hawaii is the highest court of the State of Hawaii in the United States. Its decisions are binding on all other courts of the Hawaii State Judiciary. The principal purpose of the Supreme Court is to review the decisions of ...
Rhoda V. Lewis Rhoda Valentine Lewis (August 31, 1906September 12, 1991) was the first female justice on the Supreme Court of Hawaii. Biography Lewis was born in Chicago on August 31, 1906, to parents Charles Tobias and Josephine Lewis. She moved to Honolulu ...
, and the late
Chief Justice of Washington The Washington Supreme Court is the highest court in the judiciary of the U.S. state of Washington. The court is composed of a chief justice and eight associate justices. Members of the court are elected to six-year terms. Justices must retir ...
Barbara Durham. Other justices of supreme courts who graduated from Stanford Law include the late Chief Justice of the United States
William Rehnquist William Hubbs Rehnquist ( ; October 1, 1924 – September 3, 2005) was an American attorney and jurist who served on the U.S. Supreme Court for 33 years, first as an associate justice from 1972 to 1986 and then as the 16th chief justice from ...
, retired Chief Justice of California Ronald M. George, retired California Supreme Court Justice Carlos R. Moreno, and the late California Supreme Court Justice Frank K. Richardson.


History

Stanford first offered a curriculum in legal studies in 1893, when the university hired its first two law professors: former U.S. president
Benjamin Harrison Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833March 13, 1901) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 23rd president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia–a grandson of the ninth pr ...
and
Nathan Abbott Nathan D. Abbott (11 July 1854 – 4 January 1941) was an American lawyer from the U.S. State of Maine. He was the co-founder of Stanford Law School, where he also served as its first dean. Personal life and education Abbott was born in N ...
. Abbott headed the new program and assembled a small faculty over the next few years. The law department primarily enrolled undergraduate majors at this time and included a large number of students who might not have been welcome at more traditional law schools at the time, including women and students of color, especially Hispanic, Chinese and Japanese students. In 1900, the department moved from its original location in Encina Hall to the northeast side of the Inner Quadrangle. These larger facilities included Stanford's first law library. Beginning to focus more on professional training, the school implemented its first three-year curriculum and became one of 27 charter members of the
Association of American Law Schools The Association of American Law Schools (AALS), formed in 1900, is a non-profit organization of 176 law schools in the United States. An additional 19 schools pay a fee to receive services but are not members. AALS incorporated as a 501(c)(3) no ...
(AALS). In 1901, the school awarded its first professional degree, the
Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of ...
(LL.B.). Starting in 1908, the law department began its transition into an exclusively professional school when Stanford's Board of Trustees passed a resolution to officially change its name from Law Department to Law School. Eight years later, Frederic Campbell Woodward became the first dean of the law school, and in 1923, the law school received accreditation from the
American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of acad ...
(ABA). In 1924, Stanford's law program officially transitioned into a modern professional school when it began requiring a bachelor's degree for admission. The 1940s and 1950s brought considerable change to the law school. After
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
caused the law school's enrollment to drop to fewer than 30 students, the school quickly expanded once the war ended in 1945. A move to a new location in the Outer Quadrangle, as well as the 1948 opening of the law school dormitory Crothers Hall (the result of a donation by Stanford Law graduate
George E. Crothers George Edward Crothers (May 27, 1870 – May 16, 1957) was one of the first students at Stanford University and was instrumental in putting the university on a solid legal and financial footing following the deaths of its founders, Leland and ...
), allowed the school to grow, while the 1948 inaugural publication of the ''
Stanford Law Review The ''Stanford Law Review'' (SLR) is a legal journal produced independently by Stanford Law School students. The journal was established in 1948 with future U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher as its first president. The review produces ...
'' (helmed by future U.S. Secretary of State
Warren Christopher Warren Minor Christopher (October 27, 1925March 18, 2011) was an American lawyer, diplomat and politician. During Bill Clinton's first term as president, he served as the 63rd United States Secretary of State. Born in Scranton, North Dakota, C ...
'49) helped to augment the law school's national reputation. The decision that Stanford should remain a small law school with a very limited enrollment emerged during this period. For the third time in its history, the law school relocated in the 1970s, this time to its current location in the Crown Quadrangle. In the 1960s and 1970s, the law school aimed to diversify its student body. During this period, students established a large number of new and progressive student organizations, including the Women of Stanford Law, the Stanford Chicano Law Student Association, the Environmental Law Society, and the Stanford Public Interest Foundation. Additionally, in 1966, the school sought to academically diversify its student body by collaborating with the
Stanford Business School The Stanford Graduate School of Business (also known as Stanford GSB) is the graduate business school of Stanford University, a private research university in Stanford, California. For several years it has been the most selective business schoo ...
to create its first joint-degree program. A year earlier, in 1965, the law school enrolled its first black student,
Sallyanne Payton Sallyanne Payton is an American lawyer. She is the William W. Cook Professor Emerita of Law at the University of Michigan Law School. She was Stanford Law School's first African-American graduate. Early life and education Payton was born and ra ...
'68, and in 1972, the school hired its first female law professor, Barbara Babcock, and its first professor of color, William B. Gould IV. In 1968, Stanford appointed
Thelton Henderson Thelton Eugene Henderson (born November 28, 1933) is an inactive Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. He has played an important role in the field of civil rights as a l ...
, future judge of the
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California The United States District Court for the Northern District of California (in case citations, N.D. Cal.) is the federal United States district court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties of California: Alameda, Contra Costa, Del ...
, as the first assistant dean for minority admissions. Henderson expanded minority enrollment from a single student to approximately a fifth of the student body. Stanford Law's commitment to diversity continues today, and ''
The Princeton Review The Princeton Review is an education services company providing tutoring, test preparation and admission resources for students. It was founded in 1981. and since that time has worked with over 400 million students. Services are delivered by 4 ...
'' currently ranks Stanford Law as one of the ten best law schools for minority students."Stanford University - School of Law"
''The Princeton Review''. Retrieved 27 June 2015.
Earning national recognition in the 1980s and 1990s, the law school embarked on innovating its curriculum. Stanford offered new courses focusing on law and technology, environmental law, intellectual property law, and international law, allowing students to specialize in emerging legal fields. In 1984, it launched its first clinical program, the East Palo Alto Community Law Project. By the 21st century, a new focus on interdisciplinary education emerged. In 2009, it transitioned from a semester system to a quarter system to align itself with Stanford's other graduate schools. Stanford also expanded its upper-level offerings in international law, by adding new clinics, academic centers, and simulation courses, and expanded its joint degree programs.


Academics and admissions

Stanford Law School is known for its student-to-faculty ratio (7.3 to 1), one of the lowest in the country. The first-year class of approximately 180 students is divided into six smaller sections of 30 students each. The academic program is flexible. First-year students (or 1Ls) are required to take Civil Procedure, Contracts, Torts, and Legal Research & Writing during the autumn quarter, and Criminal Law, Constitutional Law, Federal Litigation, and one elective during the winter quarter. In the spring quarter, they take Federal Litigation, Property, and enroll in electives. Stanford Law offers 280 course titles beyond the first-year curriculum, and advanced courses range from
White-Collar Crime The term "white-collar crime" refers to financially motivated, nonviolent or non-directly violent crime committed by individuals, businesses and government professionals. It was first defined by the sociologist Edwin Sutherland in 1939 as "a ...
to a Supreme Court Simulation Seminar. Additionally, because of the law school's proximity to other academic programs on campus, there is a strong focus on joint-degree programs and interdisciplinary learning, and upper-level students may take classes at Stanford's other professional and graduate schools. Stanford Law enables second- and third-year students to gain hands-on experience by working full-time in one of eleven legal clinics, including an Environmental Law Clinic, Criminal Defense Clinic, a Religious Liberty Clinic, and an Intellectual Property and Innovation Clinic. The
Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
Litigation Clinic has successfully brought over thirty cases before the Court, making it one of the most active Supreme Court practices of any kind. The clinic has served as lead counsel or co-lead counsel on the merits in numerous cases, including '' Kennedy v. Louisiana'' (2008), ''
Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts ''Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts'', 557 U.S. 305 (2009), is a Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that it was a violation of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Sixth Amend ...
'' (2009), '' United States v. Windsor'' (2013), ''
Riley v. California ''Riley v. California'', 573 U.S. 373 (2014),''Riley v. California''573 U.S. 373(2014). is a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the court ruled that the warrantless search and seizure of the digital contents of a cell phone durin ...
'' (2014), and '' Bourke v. Beshear'' (2015). Launched in 2013, Stanford's Law and Policy Lab provides further opportunities for experiential learning. The Policy Lab allows second- and third-year students to enroll in faculty-supervised policy practicums, where students work in small teams to conduct policy research and analysis for real-world clients. Topics have ranged from wildlife trafficking to prison realignment to copyright reform, and prior clients include
California Attorney General The attorney general of California is the state attorney general of the Government of California. The officer's duty is to ensure that "the laws of the state are uniformly and adequately enforced" (Constitution of California, Article V, Sectio ...
Kamala Harris Kamala Devi Harris ( ; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who is the 49th vice president of the United States. She is the first female vice president and the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history, as well ...
,
Governor of California The governor of California is the head of government of the U.S. state of California. The governor is the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Guard. Established in the Constitution of California, t ...
Jerry Brown Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected Secretary of S ...
, the California Law Revision Commission, the U.S. Copyright Office, the
U.S. Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United States. ...
, the
U.S. Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and th ...
, and the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington, D.C., NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. preside ...
Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). OMB's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, but it also examines agency programs, pol ...
. Students and alumni routinely report high satisfaction with their academic experience. In surveys conducted by '' Above the Law'', Stanford Law received an "A+" from both students and alumni for their satisfaction with Stanford's academic program, and the law school also received an "A+" rating from students for practical/clinical training, career counseling, and financial aid advising. Based on surveys with students at the nation's 169 best law schools, ''The Princeton Review'' currently ranks Stanford Law as having the best "Classroom Experience", and students provided Stanford with the highest score (99) for its "Academic Experience Rating" and "Professors Interesting Rating". Additionally, the 2014 "Midlevel Associates Survey" conducted by ''
The American Lawyer ''The American Lawyer'' is a monthly legal magazine and website published by ALM Media. The periodical and its parent company, ALM (then American Lawyer Media), were founded in 1979 by Steven Brill.Stanford Law Review The ''Stanford Law Review'' (SLR) is a legal journal produced independently by Stanford Law School students. The journal was established in 1948 with future U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher as its first president. The review produces ...
'', which has been ranked as the top law review by the ''Washington & Lee Law Review Rankings'' in both 2013 and 2014. Advocacy skills are tested in the Marion Rice Kirkwood Moot Court competition. The Robert Crown Law Library at Stanford holds 500,000 books, 360,000 microform and audiovisual items, and more than 8,000 current serial subscriptions. In August 2008, Stanford Law School changed its grading system, which no longer relies on traditional letter grades, joining
Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & Worl ...
, the
University of California, Berkeley School of Law The University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (commonly known as Berkeley Law or UC Berkeley School of Law) is the law school of the University of California, Berkeley, a public research university in Berkeley, California. It is one of 1 ...
, and
Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...
. Students now receive one of four grades: honors, pass, restricted credit, or no credit. Unlike Harvard Law School and Yale Law School, Stanford Law School enforces strict curves which cap the number of honors grades to around 30%. As part of Stanford's grade reform, the law school no longer awards the honors of the Order of the Coif or Graduation with Distinction. Between 4,000 and 5,000 students apply for admission each year. Selection is competitive: the median undergraduate grade point average of admitted students is 3.93 and the median LSAT score is 171 (out of 180). Beyond numbers, Stanford places considerable emphasis on factors such as extracurricular activities, work experience, and prior graduate study. About three quarters of the members of each entering class have one or more years of prior work experience and over a quarter have another graduate degree. The school also accepts a small number of transfers each year.


Bar passage rates

According to ABA Required Disclosures, Stanford Law School had an average bar passage rate of 98.25% in 2020. In 2020, 96.39% of Stanford Law graduates taking the California bar exam for the first time passed, and 100% of Stanford Law graduates who took the bar exam in other jurisdictions for the first time passed.


Post-graduation employment

Upon graduation, about a third of the class clerks for a judge; about half join law firms. According to Stanford Law School's official 2014 ABA-required disclosures, 90.4% of the Class of 2014 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation, excluding solo-practitioners. Stanford's
Law School Transparency Law School Transparency (LST) is a nonprofit consumer advocacy and education organization concerning the legal profession in the United States. LST was founded by Vanderbilt Law School graduates Kyle McEntee and Patrick Lynch. LST describes its ...
under-employment score is 3.2%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2014 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job nine months after graduation. According to the American Bar Association, of 2014 Stanford Law graduates, 90.9% are employed in a position that required the graduate to pass the bar exam; 2.7% are employed in a position in which the employer sought an individual with a J.D. or in which the J.D. provided a demonstrable advantage in obtaining or performing the job, but which did not itself require an active law license; 2.7% are employed in other professional positions; 1.1% are pursuing graduate work full-time; 1.1% have a deferred employment starting date; and 1.6% are unemployed and seeking employment. Despite its small size, Stanford Law has the third highest (per capita) placement rate for law professors at the nation's 43 leading law schools, according to a 2011 study, and has achieved the second-highest (per capita) placement rate for U.S. Supreme Court clerkships, according to a 2013 finding. Stanford Law alumni have clerked for the U.S. Supreme Court every year for the past 40 years. Based on a 2012 to 2014 average, Stanford Law has also achieved the second-highest (per capita) placement rate for federal judicial clerkships, and for the class of 2014, reported the highest placement rate for federal judicial clerkships at 30.5%.


Costs

The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at Stanford Law School for the 2020–21 academic year is $105,849. Law School Transparency estimated that Stanford Law's debt-financed cost of attendance for three years (at full cost) is $315,604. A 2015 study by M7 Financial, which assessed law schools' "credit ratings" using data on average starting salaries, employment trends, and student loan obligations, found that Stanford Law had the lowest student debt burden of any law school in the study.


Programs and centers

* Stanford Constitutional Law Center * Stanford Criminal Justice Center (SCJC) * Stanford Three Strikes Project * Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy Program (ENRLP) * Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance * China Guiding Cases Project (CGCP) * Rule of Law Program * Stanford Center on International Conflict and Negotiation (SCICN) * Stanford Human Rights Center * Stanford Program in International and Comparative Law * Stanford Program in Law and Society * Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance * John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics * Securities Class Action Clearinghouse (SCAC) * Center for E-Commerce * Center for Internet and Society * Center for Law and the Biosciences * Stanford Center for Computers and the Law (CodeX) * Fair Use Project * Stanford Center in Law, Science, & Technology * Stanford Program in Neuroscience and Society (SPINS) * Transatlantic Technology Law Forum * Stanford Center on the Legal Profession * Martin Daniel Gould Center for Conflict Resolution Programs * Gould Negotiation and Mediation Teaching Program * Center for Internet and Society (CIS) * John and Terry Levin Center for Public Service and Public Interest Law * Stanford Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Law and Policy Project (SIDDLAPP)


Law Review and journals

* ''
Stanford Law Review The ''Stanford Law Review'' (SLR) is a legal journal produced independently by Stanford Law School students. The journal was established in 1948 with future U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher as its first president. The review produces ...
'' * '' Stanford Journal of International Law'' * ''Stanford Law & Policy Review'' * ''Stanford Journal of Law, Business & Finance'' * ''Stanford Technology Law Review'' * ''Stanford Environmental Law Journal'' * ''Stanford Journal of Civil Rights & Civil Liberties''


Notable faculty

The Stanford Law School faculty ranks among the top three law faculties in the United States in terms of scholarly impact, and faculty members include the most widely cited legal scholars in intellectual property law (Mark Lemley), legal history (Lawrence Friedman), and legal ethics (Deborah L. Rhode). A 2012 study found that five Stanford Law professors are among the 50 most relevant law professors in the nation, and a 2013 study found that 25 percent of Stanford Law School's tenured faculty have been elected to the
American Academy of Arts & Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and o ...
. In 2013, ''
The National Law Journal ''The National Law Journal'' (NLJ) is an American legal periodical founded in 1978. The NLJ was created by Jerry Finkelstein, who envisioned it as a "sibling newspaper" of the ''New York Law Journal''. Originally a tabloid-sized weekly newspa ...
'' recognized Professors Jeffrey L. Fisher and Mark Lemley as two of the 100 most influential lawyers in America, and in 2014, a study by ''
Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was est ...
'' identified former Dean Kathleen M. Sullivan and Professors Jeffrey L. Fisher, Pamela S. Karlan, and Brian Wolfman as among the 66 most successful appellate litigators before the U.S. Supreme Court.


Notable current faculty

*
Joseph Bankman Alan Joseph Bankman (born 1955) is an American lawyer, currently working as the Ralph M. Parsons Professor of Law and Business at Stanford Law School, and a licensed psychologist. Education Bankman earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Uni ...
– tax law *
Ralph Richard Banks Ralph Richard Banks (born December 11, 1964) is a professor at Stanford Law School, where he has taught since 1998. He also teaches at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. His scholarship focuses on race, inequality and the law. He publ ...
– family law, employment discrimination law, race and the law * Paul Brest (emeritus) – former Dean of the law school; constitutional law, judgment and decision-making *
Gerhard Casper Gerhard Casper (born December 25, 1937) is a political scientist who is a former president of Stanford University from 1992 to 2000, a former Dean of the University of Chicago Law School from 1979 to 1987, and a former provost of the University o ...
(emeritus) – former President of Stanford University; constitutional law scholar * Joshua Cohen – political theorist and philosopher *
John J. Donohue III John J. Donohue III is a law professor, economist, and the C. Wendell and Edith M. Carlsmith Professor of Law at Stanford Law School. He is widely known for his writings on effect of legalized abortion on crime and for his criticism of John Lo ...
– law and economics, empirical analysis *
Jeffrey L. Fisher Jeffrey L. Fisher (born 1970) is an American law professor and U.S. Supreme Court litigator who has argued forty-three cases and worked on dozens of others before the Supreme Court. He is co-director of the Stanford Law School Supreme Court Litig ...
– co-director of the Stanford Supreme Court Litigation Clinic and appellate litigator who has argued 27 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court * Richard Thompson Ford - civil rights, local & state government, critical theory; named one of Esquire's Best-Dressed Real Men in 2009 *
Barbara Fried Barbara Helen Fried () (born 1951) is an American lawyer and professor emeritus at Stanford Law School. She is also the mother of Sam Bankman-Fried, who is an MIT graduate, entrepreneur, and convicted felon. Education She graduated from Harva ...
- legal theory * Lawrence M. Friedman – legal historian * Paul Goldstein – international intellectual property, copyright, trademark; author of best-selling legal fiction novels *
Thomas C. Grey Thomas C. Grey is the Nelson Bowman Sweitzer and Marie B. Sweitzer Professor of Law, Emeritus, at Stanford Law School. As a legal theorist and a historian of modern American legal thought, Grey has written widely on pragmatism, legal formalism, lega ...
(emeritus) – legal theory, modern American legal thought, constitutional law *
Joseph Grundfest Joseph Grundfest (born 1951) is an American academic. He is the William A. Franke Professor of Law and Business at Stanford Law School and co-director of the Rock Center on Corporate Governance at Stanford University. He joined Stanford's facult ...
– corporate governance and securities litigation *
Thomas Heller Thomas C. Heller (born February 27, 1944) is a climate policy lawyer and academic. He currently serves as the chairman of the board for Climate Policy Initiative, an organization he founded in 2009 that works to improve energy and land use polic ...
– international trade and tax specialist *
Pamela S. Karlan Pamela Susan Karlan (born 1959) is an American legal scholar who is the principal deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice. She is on a leave of absence from Stanford Law School. ...
– co-director of the Stanford Supreme Court Litigation Clinic; election law and constitutional law scholar who is currently serving as the U.S. Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Voting Rights in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice *
Mark Kelman Mark Kelman (born August 20, 1951) is jurist and vice dean of Stanford Law School. As a prominent legal scholar, he has applied social science methodologies, including economics and psychology, to the study of law. He is one of the most cited law ...
- Vice Dean of the law school; application of social sciences to law *
Michael Klausner Michael Klausner (born 1954) is the Nancy and Charles Munger Professor of Business and Professor of Law at Stanford Law School. He has been a member of the Stanford Law School faculty since 1997. He works in the areas of corporate law, corporat ...
– corporate law, business transactions, corporate governance, financial regulation *
Larry Kramer Laurence David Kramer (June 25, 1935May 27, 2020) was an American playwright, author, film producer, public health advocate, and gay rights activist. He began his career rewriting scripts while working for Columbia Pictures, which led him to Lo ...
– constitutional law, conflict of laws *
Mark Lemley Mark A. Lemley (born c. 1966) is currently the William H. Neukom Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and the Director of the Stanford Law School Program in Law, Science & Technology, as well as a founding partner of the law firm of Durie Tangr ...
– intellectual property law, patent law, law and technology *
Jennifer Martínez Jennifer S. Martínez (born November 5, 1971) is an American human rights lawyer and professor of law who serves as the current Dean of Stanford Law School. She is a leading expert on international courts and tribunals, international human rights ...
– current Dean of the law school; human rights and international law scholar; represented José Padilla before the U.S. Supreme Court * Michael W. McConnell – constitutional law scholar and former Judge of the
United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (in case citations, 10th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * District of Colorado * District of Kansas * Dist ...
* Nathaniel Persily – election law and constitutional law scholar * A. Mitchell Polinsky – law and economics * Deborah Sivas – environmental law * Jane S. Schacter – sexual orientation law, statutory interpretation, constitutional law * Barton Thompson – natural resources law *
Allen S. Weiner Allen S. Weiner is an American academic who is a senior lecturer in international law at Stanford Law School. Weiner is also the co-director of the Stanford Program in International and Comparative Law and the Stanford Center on International C ...
– international law scholar *
Robert Weisberg Robert I. Weisberg is an American lawyer. He is an Edwin E. Huddleson, Jr. Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, and an expert on criminal law and criminal procedure, as well as a leading scholar in the law and literature movement. Weisberg w ...
– criminal law and law and literature


Notable visiting faculty and lecturers

*
Viola Canales Viola Canales (born 21 April 1957) is a Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School as well as a writer who has published two novels, a short story collection, and a book of poetry. She is best known for ''The Tequila Worm'' (2005), which won several ...
– former litigator, short story author, and published novelist * Lanhee Chen – lecturer in law and former chief policy advisor to
Mitt Romney Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American politician, businessman, and lawyer serving as the junior United States senator from Utah since January 2019, succeeding Orrin Hatch. He served as the 70th governor of Massachusett ...
* Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar – visiting professor, current Justice of the
Supreme Court of California The Supreme Court of California is the highest and final court of appeals in the courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sacra ...
, former
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington, D.C., NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. preside ...
official, and former Stanley Morrison Professor of Law at Stanford *
Russ Feingold Russell Dana Feingold ( ; born March 2, 1953) is an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States Senator from Wisconsin from 1993 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he was its nominee in the 2016 election for the same U.S. ...
– lecturer in law and former
U.S. Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...
* Bertram Fields – lecturer in law and entertainment attorney * Benjamin Ginsberg – lecturer in law and former national counsel to the 2000 and 2004 Bush-Cheney presidential campaigns * Jennifer Granick – intellectual property and First Amendment scholar and practitioner * Thomas B. Griffith – lecturer in law and current judge of the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (in case citations, D.C. Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. It has the smallest geographical jurisdiction of any of the U.S. federal appellate cou ...
* Goodwin Liu – lecturer in law and current Associate Justice of the
Supreme Court of California The Supreme Court of California is the highest and final court of appeals in the courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sacra ...


Notable former faculty

* Michelle Alexander – associate professor of law and author of ''
The New Jim Crow ''The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness'' is a book by Michelle Alexander, a civil rights litigator and legal scholar. The book discusses race-related issues specific to African-American males and mass incarceration in ...
'' * Anthony G. Amsterdam – professor of clinical education (1969-1981) * Barbara Allen Babcock (emerita) – criminal law, civil procedure, women's legal history * Tom Campbell – professor of law (1987-2002), associate professor of law (1983-1987) * Barbara A. Caulfield – lecturer in law (1988-2010) * Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar – professor of law (2001-2015), former White House official, and former Director of the
Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies Stanford University has many centers and institutes dedicated to the study of various specific topics. These centers and institutes may be within a department, within a school but across departments, an independent laboratory, institute or center ...
at Stanford * John Hart Ely – professor of law (1982-1996); former Dean (1982-1987) *
Tom Goldstein Thomas Che Goldstein (born 1970) is an American lawyer known for his advocacy before and blogging about the Supreme Court of the United States. He was a founding partner of Goldstein and Howe (now Goldstein & Russell), a Washington, D.C., firm s ...
– clinical lecturer (2004-2012); co-founder of the Stanford Supreme Court Litigation Clinic * Gerald Gunther – professor of law (1962-1995), professor emeritus (1995-2002) *
Lawrence Lessig Lester Lawrence Lessig III (born June 3, 1961) is an American academic, attorney, and political activist. He is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the former director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard ...
– professor of law (2000-2009); founder of the
Stanford Center for Internet and Society The Center for Internet and Society (CIS) is a public interest technology law and policy program founded in 2000 by Lawrence Lessig at Stanford Law School Stanford Law School (Stanford Law or SLS) is the law school of Stanford University, a pri ...
*
M. Elizabeth Magill Mary Elizabeth Magill (born 1965) is the 9th president of the University of Pennsylvania, a position she has held since July 1, 2022. She was the provost of the University of Virginia and a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law fr ...
– former Dean of the law school; constitutional law and administrative law scholar *
Richard Posner Richard Allen Posner (; born January 11, 1939) is an American jurist and legal scholar who served as a federal appellate judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1981 to 2017. A senior lecturer at the University of Chicag ...
– associate professor of law (1968-9) *
Margaret Jane Radin Margaret Jane Radin (born 1941) is the Henry King Ransom Professor of Law, emerita, at the University of Michigan Law School by vocation, and a flutist by avocation. Radin has held law faculty positions at University of Toronto, University of Mic ...
– professor of law (1989-2006) * Deborah L. Rhode – legal ethics, gender and the law; former president of the
Association of American Law Schools The Association of American Law Schools (AALS), formed in 1900, is a non-profit organization of 176 law schools in the United States. An additional 19 schools pay a fee to receive services but are not members. AALS incorporated as a 501(c)(3) no ...
*
Joseph Tyree Sneed, III Joseph Tyree Sneed III (July 21, 1920 – February 9, 2008) was a Republican United States Deputy Attorney General and then a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for nearly 35 years until his dea ...
– professor of law (1962-1971) * Kathleen M. Sullivan – professor of law (1992-2012); former Dean (1999-2004)


Notable alumni

Stanford Law School alumni practice in 61 countries, 50 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Marshall Islands, and Washington D.C. Stanford Law alumni are partners at 87 of the 100 largest law firms in the United States; 94 of the largest law firms employ Stanford Law alumni as attorneys.Graduate Facts , Stanford Law School
Law.stanford.edu. Retrieved on 2015-06-24.
Consistent with Stanford's expertise in law and technology, Stanford Law graduates currently work or have previously worked as general counsels for many of the leading high-tech companies, including Microsoft, Google, Cisco, eBay, Yahoo!, Qualcomm, Oracle, and Genentech.


Popular culture

* The film '' Legally Blonde'' was originally set at Stanford Law School, which is also the setting of the book it is based on; however, Stanford did not approve of the script, so the setting was changed to Harvard.


See also

*
Dean of Stanford Law School The dean of Stanford Law School serves as the head of the law school at Stanford University. From 1893 until 1906, the school was headed by an executive before the deanship was established in the 1910s. The current dean, Jennifer Martínez, ente ...
* Stanford Center for Computers and the Law


References


External links

* * {{Authority control ABA-accredited law schools in California Educational institutions established in 1893 Law in the San Francisco Bay Area 1893 establishments in California