Lincoln Law School of San Jose is a private, non-profit

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, ...

located in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

. Founded in 1926, the law school was formerly part of Lincoln University, prior to achieving independence as an institution in 1993.

History

The school traces its roots to 1919 when Dr. Benjamin Lickey and his wife Susan Lickey founded a law study program in San Francisco as a way to provide veterans and working-class students a part-time night school for law studies. 1932 graduate Kenneth Fung was the first

Chinese American Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from ...

to be admitted to the practice of law in the state.History and Mission
, Lincoln Law School of San Jose (Accessed: 2010-04-29) The school was incorporated in 1926 as a part of Lincoln University and located in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, becoming a non-profit institution in 1949. In 1961, a second law school campus was opened in San Jose, graduating its first class in 1965. By 1987, Lincoln University's entire law school program was concentrated in San Jose. In 1993, the San Jose campus formally separated from Lincoln University becoming an independent, public benefit, non-profit corporation, changing its name to Lincoln Law School of San Jose. The school moved to downtown San Jose in 1999. In 2000, the 25-year-old Peninsula University School of Law merged into Lincoln Law School.

Academics

Lincoln is exclusively an evening-study program that lasts 4 or 4.5 years, depending upon the starting date of the student. 84 units of study are required for graduation with each unit equal to 15 hours of in-class instruction.Curriculum
Lincoln Law School of San Jose (Accessed: 2010-04-29) Students usually attend classes 3 or 4 nights a week, with a few options for elective or seminar classes scheduled during the daytime on Saturdays.

Accreditation

The school has been approved by the Committee of Bar Examiners of the State Bar of California since 1993, but the school is not accredited by 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 ...

. As a result, graduates are generally only eligible to take the California bar exam and practice in California. As of July 1, 2022, the school reported that it did not meet the State Bar of California five-year bar passage rate of 40 percent for state-accredited law schools and as a result, the school's accreditation will terminate on December 31, 2022. The law school will operate as a registered, unaccredited fixed-facility law school effective January 1, 2023.

Law Review

Lincoln has published a student-produced

law review A law review or law journal is a scholarly journal or publication that focuses on legal issues. A law review is a type of legal periodical. Law reviews are a source of research, imbedded with analyzed and referenced legal topics; they also pro ...

since 1965.General Information
Lincoln Law Review (Accessed: 2010-04-29)

Notable people

;Alumni * David D. Cortese, current

California State Senator The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature, the lower house being the California State Assembly. The State Senate convenes, along with the State Assembly, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. ...

and former Santa Clara County SupervisorDistinguished Alumni
Official Internet site * Linda J. LeZotte, former

San Jose City Council The San Jose City Council, officially San José City Council, is the legislature of the government of the City of San Jose, California. As the Mayor of San Jose, Sam Liccardo casts the 11th vote on matters before the council and acts as chair ...

member * Vartkes Yeghiayan, lawyer and legal activist for the victims of the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...

;Faculty *

Maya Harris Maya Lakshmi Harris (born January 30, 1967) is an American lawyer, public policy advocate, and writer. Harris was one of three senior policy advisors for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign's policy agenda and she also served as chair o ...

, former Chair of the

Kamala Harris 2020 presidential campaign The 2020 presidential campaign of Kamala Harris, a United States senator from California from January 2017 to 2021, officially began on January 21, 2019, with an announcement on ''Good Morning America''. Harris had widely been considered a " ...

* James S. Ware, former Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California * Rod Diridon Sr., former Chair of the California High Speed Rail Authority *

Desiree Reed-Francois Desiree Don Reed-Francois (born May 7, 1972) is an American attorney and college athletics administrator who is currently the athletic director at the University of Missouri. She has more than two-and-half decades of experience in intercollegia ...

, current Athletic Director of the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

Notes

External links

* {{authority control Educational institutions established in 1919 1919 establishments in California Law schools in California Universities and colleges in San Jose