Innovative Approach

With a clean slate—and faculty and administrators who bring a broad range of experience from leading institutions as well as a commitment to advancing the profession—the University of California, Irvine School of Law has an unparalleled opportunity to build a top-tier law school that is also truly innovative in the delivery of legal education.

Following are just a few of the characteristics that distinguish the University of California, Irvine School of Law’s approach to legal education from that of most other leading law schools:

• The founding faculty have had a full academic year before the arrival of the inaugural class of students to develop and plan a cutting-edge curriculum that will prepare Irvine graduates not only to think like a lawyer but also to actually practice law.
• Emphasis will be placed on experiential learning—ensuring significant opportunities for students to gain hands-on, real-world experience. Unlike most law schools, we will infuse each of a law student’s three years with hands-on experiential learning. Our students will learn by doing, performing the tasks of lawyers under the close supervision of some of the best professors in the country.
• Interdisciplinary strength will be drawn from scholars in law-related fields across the UC Irvine campus, who already are among the country’s leaders in such disciplines as law and humanities, law and society, criminology, law and psychology, law and business, law and real estate, and law and economics.
• Numerous specializations and joint degrees will be created to reflect not only the invaluable resources of the University of California, Irvine community but, more importantly, the intrinsic inter-relation between law and so many other disciplines.
• While most law schools today engage in interdisciplinary research, few provide students with truly meaningful opportunities to engage in interdisciplinary work. UC Irvine School of Law plans, for example, to pair law, business and engineering students in an intellectual property clinic to collaborate on the development and marketing of a patent.
• While the student/faculty ratio in the early years of the school will be unprecedented, the University of California, Irvine School of Law is committed to ensuring small class size even once the student body is at full strength.
• Instilling public service values will be at the core of our mission. All students will be taught about and have direct exposure to the gaps in our justice system. We will also have an extraordinarily generous loan-forgiveness program to support those who want to pursue a career of service in the public interest.
• The location of the school in Southern California, the most populous and diverse region in the country, provides unique opportunities for internships, public service and interaction with prospective employers and members of the bar, bench and business community.
• The curriculum will be guided in part through ongoing dialogue between practicing lawyers and the founding faculty to ensure students graduate with the skills they need to practice in today’s legal environment.