The USC Gould School of Law, located in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, 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 the
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...
. The oldest law school in the
Southwestern United States
The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Ne ...
, USC Law traces its beginnings to 1896 and became affiliated with USC in 1900. It was named in honor of Judge
James Gould in the mid-1960s.
History
On March 12, 1890, the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' declared in an editorial: "It is time that a law school should be established in Los Angeles."
During the 1890s, there were several false starts at founding the first law school in
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...
.
At its founding in 1891, Throop University (better known today as the
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
) announced its intent to include a college of law among its various planned components, but never actually started one.
The Southern California College of Law was founded in 1892 and operated until 1894.
In the absence of a formal law school, young men interested in careers in law (female lawyers were extremely rare at the time) formed several law student associations over the years which organized lectures by local attorneys as well as quiz sessions in which the students orally quizzed each other or were quizzed by an attorney.
At the time, the term "law student" simply meant anyone who was actively studying law, either
in an attorney's office, or by
correspondence, or on their own.
Law student associations were tiny, informal, fluid, and unstable, since individual students' level of interest in helping to run the associations tended to evaporate once they became members of the California bar and needed to focus on the actual
practice of law
In its most general sense, the practice of law involves giving legal advice to clients, drafting legal documents for clients, and representing clients in legal negotiations and court proceedings such as lawsuits, and is applied to the professi ...
.
The common objective of students participating in such associations was to develop an understanding of
California law
The law of California consists of several levels, including Constitutional law, constitutional, Statutory law, statutory, and regulatory law, as well as case law. The California Codes form the general statutory law, and most state agency regulati ...
strong enough to survive the
bar examination
A bar examination is an examination administered by the bar association of a jurisdiction that a lawyer must pass in order to be admitted to the bar of that jurisdiction.
Australia
Administering bar exams is the responsibility of the bar associa ...
of that era: oral
cross-examination
In law, cross-examination is the interrogation of a witness called by one's opponent. It is preceded by direct examination (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, South Africa, India and Pakistan known as examination-in-chief) and m ...
on various legal subjects by the members 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 ...
.
USC Gould School of Law was born out of one of these associations. On the evening of November 17, 1896, 36 law students gathered in the courtroom of Judge David C. Morrison to form the Law Students’ Association of Los Angeles.
They selected James B. Scott as the first
preceptor
A preceptor (from Latin, "''praecepto''") is a teacher responsible for upholding a ''precept'', meaning a certain law or tradition.
Buddhist monastic orders
Senior Buddhist monks can become the preceptors for newly ordained monks. In the Buddhi ...
(equivalent to a modern instructor).
An informal course of instruction began two weeks later in Judge Morrison's courtroom.
The students of the Association recognized that a more permanent arrangement was needed, and on June 12, 1897, the Los Angeles Law School was incorporated.
Its first formal lecture was held at 7:30 p.m. on September 13, 1897.
As head of the new law school, Scott preferred the new interactive style of teaching law pioneered by
Christopher Columbus Langdell
Christopher Columbus Langdell (May 22, 1826 – July 6, 1906) was an American jurist and legal academic who was Dean of Harvard Law School from 1870 to 1895.
Dean Langdell's legacy lies in the educational and administrative reforms he made to Ha ...
at
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 ...
: the
casebook method
The casebook method, similar to but not exactly the same as the case method, is the primary method of teaching law in law schools in the United States. It was pioneered at Harvard Law School by Christopher Columbus Langdell. It is based on the pr ...
combined with the
Socratic method
The Socratic method (also known as method of Elenchus, elenctic method, or Socratic debate) is a form of cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw ...
.
In 1899, Scott became dean of the
University of Illinois College of Law
The University of Illinois College of Law (Illinois Law or UIUC Law) is the law school of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a public university in Champaign, Illinois. It was established in 1897 and offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S. ...
.
The Los Angeles Law School became affiliated with USC in 1900, and on June 6, 1901, its first class of seven graduates received their
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 Chi ...
degrees at USC's commencement exercises.
Without Scott around to enforce the Harvard method, the Los Angeles Law School collapsed that same year amidst bickering over pedagogical methods; some of the instructors preferred to teach law through the traditional lecture method in which students were expected to be much more passive.
Several instructors who preferred the Harvard method immediately organized the Los Angeles College of Law, which was officially launched on September 30, 1901 with a new board of trustees, a different address, and 10 students.
Although the two law schools were entirely distinct legal entities, the students of the old law school regarded the new law school as a continuation of their program and immediately enrolled in the new one.
In 1904, USC took over the Los Angeles College of Law, then set about acquiring the remaining assets of the now-dormant Los Angeles Law School (namely, a
law library
A law library is a special library used by law students, lawyers, judges and their law clerks, historians and other scholars of legal history in order to research the law. Law libraries are also used by people who draft or advocate for new l ...
and $200 in cash), which took two more years.
USC Law joined 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) non ...
(AALS) in 1907. It has been an
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) approved law school since 1924.
By the mid-1940s, young people in
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...
who wished to obtain a high-quality legal education faced a difficult choice: they had to find some way to pay the USC School of Law's expensive tuition, settle for a lesser program, or move north to attend the state's existing public law schools at
Berkeley 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 ...
or
Hastings
Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England,
east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...
. The
California State Legislature
The California State Legislature is a bicameral state legislature consisting of a lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members; and an upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members. Both houses of the Legisla ...
responded to this problem in 1947 by creating the first public law school in the Southland (and USC's crosstown rival): the
UCLA School of Law
The UCLA School of Law is one of 12 professional schools at the University of California, Los Angeles. UCLA Law has been consistently ranked by '' U.S. News & World Report'' as one of the top 20 law schools in the United States since the inception ...
.
[ Available through ]HeinOnline
HeinOnline (HOL) is a commercial internet database service launched in 2000 by William S. Hein & Co., Inc. (WSH Co), a Buffalo, New York publisher specializing in legal materials. The company began in Buffalo, New York, in 1961 and is currently b ...
. UCLA Law graduate
Dorothy Wright Nelson
Dorothy Wright Nelson (born September 30, 1928) is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Education and career
Born in San Pedro, California, Wright received an Artium Baccalaureus degr ...
served as dean of USC Law from 1969 to 1980, before becoming a judge on the
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts:
* District ...
.
2002 saw the beginning of the USC Law Graduate and International Programs.
Academics
USC Gould awards the
J.D.,
LL.M., and
M.C.L. law degree
A law degree is an academic degree conferred for studies in law. Such degrees are generally preparation for legal careers. But while their curricula may be reviewed by legal authority, they do not confer a license themselves. A legal license is gra ...
s. It currently has about 600 J.D. students (200 per year) and a graduate program of about 200 LL.M. and M.C.L. students. It offers three certificate programs: business law, entertainment law and alternative dispute resolution.
Rankings
USC Gould has consistently been ranked between 17th and 20th by the ''
U.S. News & World Report'' list of "America's Best Graduate Schools" since the magazine has published an annual version of its rankings, ranking 17th in 2020.
[ "The Law School 100", a ranking scheme that uses qualitative criteria instead of quantitative, ranks the law school 14th overall. It was listed with an "A−" in the March 2011 "Diversity Honor Roll" by ''The National Jurist: The Magazine for Law Students''.]
USC Gould ranked 12th in the 2011 ''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 newspape ...
'' job placement study, with over 32% of its graduating class hired by the (NLJ 250) largest law firms in the United States.
Academic journals and honors programs
USC Gould hosts three academic journals and offers one additional honors program: '' Southern California Law Review'', ''Southern California Review of Law and Social Justice
The ''Southern California Review of Law and Social Justice'' is an honors journal of legal scholarship that examines issues at the intersection of social justice and the law published by an independent student group at the USC Gould School of Law
...
'' (formerly the ''Review of Law and Women's Studies''), ''Interdisciplinary Law Journal'', and the ''Hale Moot Court Honors Program''. Selected law students can participate in one honors program in an academic year.
The school has a chapter of the Order of the Coif
The Order of the Coif is an honor society for United States law school graduates. The name is a reference to the ancient English order of advocates, the serjeants-at-law, whose courtroom attire included a coif—a white lawn or silk skullcap, whi ...
, a national law school honorary society.
Clinical programs
USC Gould maintains six client clinics to provide students experience with lawyering skills.
* International Human Rights Clinic – research and drafting in cases trying perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and terrorism; representing survivors of human trafficking and domestic violence
* Immigration Clinic – pro bono representation to clients in a variety of immigration cases from over 25 different countries
* Intellectual Property and Technology Law Clinic – assisting artists, entrepreneurs, non-profit organizations, and policymakers with intellectual property issues
* Mediation Clinic – mediation for small claims and civil harassment cases for the Los Angeles County Superior Court
* Post-Conviction Justice Project – representing clients on civil issues related to incarceration, parole hearings, and constitutional rights
* Small Business Clinic – corporate legal assistance to entrepreneurs, non-profit organizations, and small businesses
Study abroad program
USC Gould offers international study abroad programs, providing credit to J.D. students. Students may spend a semester abroad at the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law
The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law (commonly known as HKU Law) is one of the 11 faculties and schools at the University of Hong Kong. Founded in 1969 as the Department of Law, it is the oldest law school in Hong Kong. HKU Law is consistentl ...
, Bocconi University
Bocconi University ( it, Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, ) is a private university in Milan, Italy. Bocconi provides education in the fields of economics, finance, law, management, political science, public administration and computer sci ...
, Jean Moulin University Lyon 3
The Jean Moulin University Lyon 3 (french: link=no, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3), also referred to as Lyon 3, is one of the three public universities of Lyon, France. It is named after the French Resistance fighter Jean Moulin and specialises ...
, Bond University
Bond University is Australia's first private not-for-profit university and is located in Robina, a suburb in the City of Gold Coast, Queensland. Since its founding on 15 May 1989, Bond University has primarily been a teaching-focused higher ed ...
and Fundação Getúlio Vargas. Previously, students could pursue a J.D./LL.M dual degree with the London School of Economics
, mottoeng = To understand the causes of things
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £240.8 million (2021)
, budget = £391.1 millio ...
.
Dual Degree programs
USC Gould maintains dual degree programs with the Marshall School of Business
The USC Marshall School of Business is the business school of the University of Southern California. It is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
In 1997 the school was renamed following a $35 million donation fr ...
, the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, the Price School of Public Policy, the School of Social Work, the Davis School of Gerontology, and the Annenberg School of Communication. Dual degree programs are accelerated. If the non-law master's degree normally requires one year of study, a student in a dual degree program earns both degrees in only three years. If the master's degree normally requires two years, a total of four years is necessary.
USC Gould also maintains two other dual degree programs. A program with the California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
enables a student to receive a J.D. from USC and a Ph.D. in social science from Caltech. A dual degree program with the USC School of Pharmacy enables a qualified student to earn a J.D. and a Pharm.D.
A Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD; New Latin: ''Pharmaciae Doctor'') is a professional doctorate in pharmacy. In some countries, it is a doctoral degree to practice the profession of pharmacy or to become a clinical pharmacist. In many countries th ...
degree. .
Employment
According to the USC Gould School of Law's official 2014 ABA-required disclosures, 79.3% of the Class of 2014 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation. USC Gould'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 m ...
under-employment score is 8.8%, 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.
Costs
The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at USC Gould for the 2014-2015 academic year is $81,679.
Deans
# 1896-1899, James Brown Scott
James Brown Scott, J.U.D. (June 3, 1866 – June 25, 1943) was an American authority on international law.
Early life
Scott was born at Kincardine, Ontario, Canada. He was educated at Harvard University (A.B., 1890; A.M., 1891). As Parker fel ...
# 1904–1927, Frank M. Porter
# 1927–1930, Justin Miller
# 1930–1948, William G. Hale
# 1948–1952, Shelden Elliott
# 1952–1963, Robert Kingsley
Robert Kingsley (1903–1988) was an American legal scholar and California judge. He graduated from the University of Minnesota, the University of Minnesota Law School, and Harvard Law School. A strong opponent of the Death penalty, Kingsley serv ...
# 1963–1968, Orrin B. Evans
# 1968–1980, Dorothy W. Nelson
# 1980–2000, Scott H. Bice
# 2000–2006, Matthew L. Spitzer
# 2006–2007, Edward J. McCaffery (interim)
# 2007–2015, Robert K. Rasmussen
Robert K. Rasmussen is an American legal scholar who is currently the J. Thomas McCarthy Trustee Chair in Law and Political Science at the USC Gould School of Law, where he served as Dean from 2007 to 2015. He is a prominent scholar of bankruptcy ...
# 2015–present, Andrew T. Guzman
Faculty
* Jody Armour
Jody David Armour is an American academic. He is the Roy P. Crocker Professor of Law at the University of Southern California, where he specializes in race issues in legal decision-making.
Life and career
Armour came to study law after his father ...
– specializes in race issues; author of ''Negrophobia and Reasonable Racism''
* Susan Estrich
Susan Estrich (born December 16, 1952) is an American lawyer, professor, author, political operative, and political commentator. She is known for serving as the campaign manager for Michael Dukakis in 1988 (being the first woman to manage the pre ...
– Professor of Law and Political Science. A Fox News
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
commentator, author of ''The Case for Hillary Clinton'', 2005, and ''Soulless: The Right Wing Church of Hate'', 2006. First woman Editor in Chief of the Harvard Law Review
The ''Harvard Law Review'' is a law review published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the ''Harvard Law Review''s 2015 impact factor of 4.979 placed the journal first out of 143 ...
; youngest woman to receive tenure from 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 ...
(before leaving to teach at USC)).
*Orin Kerr
Orin Samuel Kerr (born June 2, 1971) is an American legal scholar and professor of law at the UC Berkeley School of Law."Faculty , UC Berkeley School of Law"Orin Kerr faculty profile/ref> He is known as a scholar in the subjects of computer crim ...
nationally recognized scholar of criminal procedure and computer crime law
* Elyn Saks
Elyn R. Saks is associate dean and Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law, Psychology, and Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the University of Southern California Gould Law School, an expert in mental health law, and a MacArthur Foundation Fel ...
founder and director of Saks Institute for Mental Health Law, Policy, and Ethics; author of ''The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness''
Former faculty
* Elizabeth Garrett
Helen Elizabeth Garrett, commonly known as Elizabeth Garrett or Beth Garrett (June 30, 1963 – March 6, 2016), was an American professor of law and academic administrator. Between 2010 and 2015, she served as Provost and Senior Vice President ...
– first woman president of Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
, USC Vice President of Academic Planning and Budget, Professor of Law, Political Science and Public Policy
* Erwin Chemerinsky
Erwin Chemerinsky (born May 14, 1953) is an American legal scholar known for his studies of United States constitutional law and federal civil procedure. Since 2017, Chemerinsky has been the dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law. Previously, he a ...
– former Sydney M. Irmas Professor of Public Interest Law, Legal Ethics, and Political Science, 1983–2004; former professor at the Duke University School of Law
Duke University School of Law (Duke Law School or Duke Law) is the law school of Duke University, a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. One of Duke's 10 schools and colleges, the School of Law is a constituent academic unit th ...
; founding Dean at the University of California, Irvine School of Law
The University of California, Irvine School of Law is the law school at the University of California, Irvine. It is the fifth law school in the UC system. In September 2007, Erwin Chemerinsky was named as the law school's first dean. Chemerinsky ...
; current Dean at 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 ...
* Richard Epstein
Richard Allen Epstein (born April 17, 1943) is an American legal scholar known for his writings on torts, contracts, property rights, law and economics, classical liberalism, and libertarianism. He is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at ...
– known for his arguments against anti-discrimination
Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...
laws; currently the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law and director of the Classical Liberal Institute at New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
; previously the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School
The University of Chicago Law School is the law school of the University of Chicago, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is consistently ranked among the best and most prestigious law schools in the world, and has many dist ...
* James Brown Scott
James Brown Scott, J.U.D. (June 3, 1866 – June 25, 1943) was an American authority on international law.
Early life
Scott was born at Kincardine, Ontario, Canada. He was educated at Harvard University (A.B., 1890; A.M., 1891). As Parker fel ...
– authority on international law
International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...
, founding dean of USC Law School
* Charles Whitebread
Charles H. Whitebread (April 2, 1943 – September 16, 2008) was the George T. Pfleger Professor of Law at the University of Southern California Law School. He was an authority on criminal law and criminal procedure, writing and lecturing on th ...
– expert on Criminal Procedure and lecturer for BarBri; author of ''The Eight Secrets of Top Exam Performance in Law School''
* Debra Wong Yang – trial advocacy expert; the first Asian American woman served as a United States Attorney
United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal c ...
* Carole E. Handler
Carole Enid Handler is an American lawyer who specializes in intellectual property litigation in the areas of trademark, copyright and antitrust laws, particularly those related to entertainment and media industry. She is commonly known as the "l ...
– Professor of antitrust
Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust l ...
and intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
law
Notable alumni
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Usc Gould School Of Law
Law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...
1896 establishments in California
Educational institutions established in 1896