About UC Irvine School of Law
UC Irvine School of Law, the first new public law school in California in more than 40 years, opened its doors to its first class in August 2009.
UCI Law seeks to create the ideal law school for the 21st century by doing the best job in the country of training lawyers for the practice of law at the highest levels of the profession. The law school’s innovative curriculum stresses hands-on learning, interdisciplinary study and public service.
In June 2011, UC Irvine School of Law was granted provisional accreditation by the American Bar Association. Provisional accreditation means that graduating students can take the bar exam in California without taking a qualifying "baby bar" exam.
“We are extremely pleased to have fielded such a high-caliber student body,” said Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, who is also one of the top constitutional scholars in the nation. “Along with a highly rated faculty, this allows us to be considered among the best law schools in the country from the very start,” he said. “Our goal and the university’s goal was to be a top 20 law school from the moment we opened our doors.”
Our Faculty
Drawn from top law schools across the country, UCI Law’s faculty has been ranked seventh in the nation in a recent study of scholarly impact.
Our Community
Support for the new UC Irvine School of Law from the legal and business community, donors and prospective employers, as well as UCI students, alumni, faculty and staff, has been extraordinary. More than 100 employers have provided scholarships and financial support, and have recruited, employed and served as mentors for UCI Law students.
Our Students
Since its inaugural year, the law school has drawn students with median grade point averages and LSAT scores that put them on par with classes at law schools rated in the top 20 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Students enjoy a faculty-to-student ratio of about 7 to 1, which ensures small classes and easy access to professors outside the classroom.
Our inaugural class members each obtained legal jobs in the summer of 2010, including internships with federal and state judges and public-interest organizations and positions in government agencies, private law firms and international human rights offices. And despite a continued weak economy, all of the inaugural class and the second class found law-related employment in the summer of 2012.
From the earliest planning stages for the University of California, Irvine campus, a law school was envisioned as an integral part of the academic mission of the campus. Today, the young law school is already being recognized in various ways - from provisional accreditation to media coverage to student job placements - for delivering on its promise of an innovative approach to legal education.