California Western School of Law

California Western School of Law
Motto	Do More With Your Law Degree
Established	1924[1]
School type	Private
Dean	Niels B. Schaumann
Location	San Diego, California, US 32°43′21″N 117°9′42″W / 32.72250°N 117.16167°W / 32.72250; -117.16167Coordinates: 32°43′21″N 117°9′42″W / 32.72250°N 117.16167°W / 32.72250; -117.16167
Enrollment	827[2]
Faculty	71[3]
USNWR ranking	USWNR 2014 Rank Number 53 for "Best Law Schools, Part-time Law";[4] '"Rank Not Published" in USNWR's 2013 Top Law Schools [1][5]
Bar pass rate	70%[6] (February 2016)
Website	www.cwsl.edu
ABA profile	California Western Profile

California Western School of Law, founded in 1924, is a private, non-profit law school located in San Diego, California. It is popularly known as California Western or Cal Western and formerly California Western University. The school was approved by the American Bar Association (ABA) in 1962^[7] and became a member of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) in 1967.^[8] It is the oldest law school in San Diego.

History

California Western was originally chartered in 1924^[9] by Leland Ghent Stanford as a private graduate institution called Balboa Law College, the first law school in San Diego.^[10] His brother, Dwight Stanford, served as one of the first deans. (Leland Ghent Stanford is not related to the founder of Stanford University, Leland Stanford, although he did attend Stanford, where he earned undergraduate and law degrees, and also M.A. and Ph.D degrees in Government Administration.) Balboa Law College expanded to include undergraduate and other graduate studies and changed its name to Balboa University.^[10] The law school at Balboa University was closed in 1946.

In 1952, Balboa University became affiliated with the Southern California Methodist Conference, changed its name to California Western University, and relocated to Point Loma.^[10] The law school was reopened in downtown. In 1960, the law school had 6 full-time faculty and 23 students. In that year, it re-located to Rohr Hall at Point Loma. It received approval from the American Bar Association in 1962.^[9]

In 1968, California Western University changed its name to United States International University (USIU).^[10] The law school retained the name California Western.^[9] USIU moved to Scripps Ranch.^[10] Point Loma Nazarene University currently occupies the Point Loma site. In 2001, USIU merged with California School of Professional Psychology to become Alliant International University.^[10]

In 1973, the law school relocated from its Point Loma location to the current downtown campus at 350 Cedar Street.^[9] In 1975, California Western ended its affiliation with USIU and became an independent secular law school.^[9] In 1980, the new trimester system was announced, allowing two entering classes in one academic year, reducing individual class size and allowing students to graduate in two years rather than the standard three.^[9]

In 1993, the law school opened a new administrative and campus center at 225 Cedar Street, housing faculty and administration offices, including student affairs and financial aid.^[9]

In January 2000, California Western opened a new Law Library building at 290 Cedar Street, which was dedicated by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.^[9] The current Dean, Niels B. Schaumann, joined the law school in 2012.^[11]

In December 2012, National Jurist magazine ranked California Western within the top 40 law schools in the nation for diversity. At number 35, California Western was the highest-ranking law school in San Diego for student and faculty diversity; fifty-eight percent of entering students were women.^[12][13]

Academics

The law school teaches the J.D. curriculum plus dual-degree programs, specifically:

• J.D./Master of Business Administration (with San Diego State University)
• J.D./Master of Social Work (with San Diego State University)

California Western also offers the Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree in Trial Advocacy with a Specialization in Federal Criminal Law as well as an M.C.L./LL.M for foreign law students.

Programs and research centers

Its research centers include:

• William J. McGill Center for Creative Problem Solving
• Institute for Criminal Defense Advocacy
• National Center for Preventive Law
• The California Innocence Project,^[14] part of the national network of Innocence Projects, is a non-profit clinical program based at California Western in which law professors and students work to free wrongly convicted prisoners in California. The law students assist in the investigation of cases where there is strong evidence of innocence, write briefs in those cases, and advocate in all appropriate forums for the release of the project's clients. Founded in 1999, the California Innocence Project reviews more than 2,000 claims of innocence from California inmates each year.^[15] The project was founded by Professors Justin Brooks and Jan Stiglitz and is currently directed by Prof. Brooks.^[16]

Its clinical internship program routinely places students in the U.S. Court of Appeals, U.S. District Court and U.S. Attorney's Offices, as well as numerous law firms in various sizes.^[17]

Faculty

California Western School of Law Professor Justin Brooks has been recognized several times by the Los Angeles Daily Journal as one of the Top 100 Lawyers in California. In 2010, California Lawyer Magazine awarded him the prestigious "Lawyer of the Year" award.^[18]

The law school has 25 tenured faculty members, three faculty members on the tenure-track and six Legal Skills professors. From 2010 to 2014, 28 tenured and tenure-track faculty members published 18 books, 15 book chapters, 55 law review articles and 75 other scholarly publications. Tenure-track or tenured faculty who were members of the faculty in the last seven years wrote 70 additional publications.

In 2013, the law school joined with bepress to create its Scholarly Commons, an institutional repository for faculty scholarship.^[19] (Bepress was created to provide open access to faculty scholarship. Its Digital Commons claims to be the leading hosted institutional repository software for educational institutions across the U.S.^[20]) The repository was created to make faculty scholarship more widely available, especially on the Internet, and to preserve the faculty’s scholarship, publications, documents, and records in a systematic way.^[21]

The law school created six endowed professorships to support faculty members in their research and scholarship and to recognize their leadership in legal education and the legal profession, nationally and internationally. CWSL was also named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll four years running, demonstrating its commitment to the values and responsibilities of the legal profession.^[22]

In addition to individual contributions, faculty members have created programs such as the Pro Bono Honors Program,^[23] Community Law Projects^[24] and Access to Law Initiative^[25] that organize and support students and recent graduates in providing legal services to underserved segments of the San Diego Community.

Bar passage rates

The bar passage rate for February 2016 was 70% v. 48% for the statewide passage rate.^[6] CWSL surpassed the statewide bar pass rate for 13 of the last 17 state bar examinations.^[6]

Costs

The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at California Western School of Law for the 2016-2017 academic year is $72,692.^[26]

Employment

According to California Western's official 2015 ABA-required disclosures, 37.1% of the Class of 2015 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation, excluding solo-practitioners.^[27][28] California Western's Law School Transparency under-employment score is 30.8%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2015 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job nine months after graduation.^[28]

Student debt

According to U.S. News & World Report, the average indebtedness of 2013 graduates who incurred law school debt was $157,748 (not including undergraduate debt), and 90% of 2013 graduates took on debt.^[29]

Areas of concentration

California Western's areas of concentration provides education in the following areas:^[30]

• Child, Family and Elder Law
• Creative Problem Solving
• Criminal Justice Program
• Health law and Policy
• Intellectual property, telecommunications, and technology regulation
• International law
• Labor and employment law
• Business law

Publications

California Western has two major publications, the California Western Law Review and the California Western International Law Journal.^[31]

Notable alumni

• Anthony J. Battaglia (born 1949), U.S. District Court judge for the Southern District of California
• Scott C. Black (born 1952), former Judge Advocate General of the United States Army
• Shana Dale (born 1964), former Deputy Administrator of NASA
• David Francis, former member of the United States Cycling Team
• James B. Gibson (born 1949), former mayor of Henderson, Nevada
• M. James Lorenz (born 1935), U.S. District Court judge for the Southern District of California
• Bruce E. MacDonald (born 1955), former U.S. Navy vice admiral and Judge Advocate General of the Navy
• Afa Ripley, Jr., Attorney General of American Samoa
• Margaret Catharine Rodgers (born 1964), United States federal judge
• David Roger (born 1961), District Attorney of Clark County, Nevada
• Kevin Sandkuhler (born 1953), retired Brigadier General in the United States Marine Corps
• Thomas Nassif, United States Ambassador to the Kingdom of Morocco

References

External links

• Official website