Whittier Law School
Encyclopedia
Whittier Law School is a law school
Law school in the United States
In the United States, a law school is an institution where students obtain a professional education in law after first obtaining an undergraduate degree.Law schools in the U.S...

 in Costa Mesa, California
Costa Mesa, California
Costa Mesa is a city in Orange County, California. The population was 109,960 at the 2010 census. Since its incorporation in 1953, the city has grown from a semi-rural farming community of 16,840 to a primarily suburban and "edge" city with an economy based on retail, commerce, and light...

. Founded in 1966, it is a fully accredited ABA law school in Orange County, California
Orange County, California
Orange County is a county in the U.S. state of California. Its county seat is Santa Ana. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,010,232, up from 2,846,293 at the 2000 census, making it the third most populous county in California, behind Los Angeles County and San Diego County...

. A private university
Private university
Private universities are universities not operated by governments, although many receive public subsidies, especially in the form of tax breaks and public student loans and grants. Depending on their location, private universities may be subject to government regulation. Private universities are...

, it is part of Whittier College
Whittier College
Whittier College is a private liberal arts college in Whittier, California. As of January 2009, the college has approximately 1540 enrolled students.-Overview:...

.

History

The Law School was originally founded as the Beverly College of Law in 1966, and located in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles’s Westside. It was a private, nonprofit educational institution intended to meet the growing need for a law school in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

In 1974, the Whittier College Board of Trustees voted to merge the Beverly College of Law into Whittier College. In 1975, the Law School became known as the Whittier College School of Law and later as Whittier Law School. In 1978, the American Bar Association granted Whittier Law School provisional accreditation. In response to a significant gift to the Law School, the Hancock Park building was dedicated as the Ross McCollum Law Center during a ceremony at which Supreme Court Associate Justice Byron R. White presented the major address. In 1985, Whittier Law School was fully accredited by the American Bar Association; in 1987 it became a member of the Association of American Law Schools
Association of American Law Schools
The Association of American Law Schools is a non-profit organization of 170 law schools in the United States. Another 25 schools are "non-member fee paid" schools, which are not members but choose to pay AALS dues. Its purpose is to improve the legal profession through the improvement of legal...

 (AALS).

During the 1990s, the Law School, along with leaders at Whittier College, decided to relocate the campus to Orange County in order to satisfy space needs and in response to requests by the community for an ABA law school in Orange County. In 1996, the College acquired the present 14-acre campus in Costa Mesa, remodeled the buildings on the site to accommodate the needs of the Law School, and moved the faculty and students over a period of three years. In 1997, the move was completed and Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy gave the major address at the opening ceremony.

Academics

Whittier Law School offers both full and part-time day and evening J.D.
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...

 programs. The full-time program takes three years to complete, while the part-time program takes four years to complete. Whittier also offers an LL.M. program.

Rankings

Whittier has been recognized by U.S. News and World Report as an ethnically diverse law school, with a 29 in the rankings. In 2010, The Princeton Review
The Princeton Review
The Princeton Review is an American-based standardized test preparation and admissions consulting company. The Princeton Review operates in 41 states and 22 countries across the globe. It offers test preparation for standardized aptitude tests such as the SAT and advice regarding college...

featured Whittier Law School in its 2011 Edition of "The 172 Best Law Schools", highlighting the school's emphasis on small class sizes, an active study body, and practical externship opportunities in intellectual property, criminal, family, business law.

Whitter was listed as "B-" in the January 2011 "Best Public Interest Law Schools" listing by The National Jurist: The Magazine for Law Students.

Publications

Whittier Law School has two scholarly publications: the Whittier Law Review and the Whittier Journal of Child and Family Advocacy, and one student run newspaper, the Zealous Advocate.

According to a ranking conducted by the Washington & Lee Law School, the Whittier Law Review is ranked 109th out of 192 law reviews evaluated. According to a ranking of law reviews on the basis of the prominence of the lead article authors, conducted in 2007 by two professors at the Shepard Broad Law Center
Shepard Broad Law Center
Shepard Broad Law Center, founded in 1974, is the law school of Nova Southeastern University. It is also commonly referred to as Nova Southeastern Law School. The Law Center is housed in Leo Goodwin Sr...

, the Whittier Law Review was ranked 121st out of 171 law reviews evaluated. The Law Review is a student-run organization publishing a collection of articles of legal scholarship four times annually. The Law Review is currently in its twenty-ninth year of publication.

Programs

Whittier Law School has centers in Children’s Rights, Intellectual Property Law, and International and Comparative Law. These centers host fellows, offer externships, and sponsor symposia and workshops. The law school also offers concentrations in Criminal Law and Business Law for students who wish to take additional, specialized courses in those areas.

As with many American law schools, Whittier Law School offers students the opportunity to study abroad. As of 2010, the law school offered summer programs in China, France, Israel, Spain, and Mexico.

Bar passage rates

Based on a 2001-2007 6 year average, 43.4% of Whittier Law graduates passed the California State Bar.

Post-graduation employment

Based on a 2001-2007 6 year average, 91.2% of Whittier Law graduates were employed 9 months after graduation.

Whittier Law School's Career Services Center assists students in obtaining post-graduate employment. According to a National Association for Law Placement survey, 91.5% of students who graduated and responded to the survey in May 2006 managed to secure employment by February 2007. Of those students, about 49% were employed by private law firms, about 30% were employed in "business and industry," about 9% were employed by government agencies, about 8% were employed by public interest organizations, and less than 1% were employed as law clerks. Median salaries ranged from $59,000 per year for public sector jobs to $80,000 per year for "business and industry" jobs.

Accreditation

On August 9, 2005, the American Bar Association, concerned about Whittier Law School's low bar passage rates, placed the law school's accreditation on probationary status for two years. On August 10, 2007, the ABA extended the probation until February 15, 2009. Under the ABA's rules, the law school remained fully accredited during the probation period, and all students who entered and graduated during this period are deemed to have graduated from an ABA accredited law school.

During probation, the ABA conducted several inspections designed to measure the school's efforts to comply with bar passage standards. The law school has taken several steps aimed at preparing its students for the bar examination, including implementing an early bar preparation program; requiring all students to take two graded, semester-long courses on the essay and performance test sections of the bar examination; and offering a summer-long assistance program designed to operate in conjunction with commercial bar preparation courses. As a result, Dean Cogan stated:
On April 17, 2008, the ABA Accreditation Committee recommended to the Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar that Whittier Law School be removed from probation. Dean Cogan reported:
On June 7, 2008, the ABA officially removed Whittier Law School from its probationary status. According to Dean Cogan:
According to the ABA Section on Legal Education & Admissions to the Bar, Section 301-6(a)(1)(b) states that graduating law students within the last five calendar years must pass a state bar examination at a minimum of 75% in at least three of the five calendar years.

Admission statistics

For Fall 2009:
  • Number of Applications: 1,520
  • Number of Students Enrolled: 140
  • Median Range of LSAT: 151-155
  • Average Undergraduate GPA: 3.10

Faculty

  • Penelope Bryan, current (2010) Dean

  • John Heilman
    John Heilman
    John Heilman is an American municipal politician and frequent mayor of West Hollywood, California.A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Heilman moved to Southern California to attend the University of Southern California Law School....

    , Distinguished Teacher of Law; Mayor
    Mayor
    In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

     of West Hollywood, California
    West Hollywood, California
    West Hollywood, a city of Los Angeles County, California, was incorporated on November 29, 1984, with a population of 34,399 at the 2010 census. 41% of the city's population is made up of gay men according to a 2002 demographic analysis by Sara Kocher Consulting for the City of West Hollywood...

  • Howard W. Foss, Professor of Law; Author, Introduction to Commercial Law
  • William W. Patton, Associate Dean and Professor of Law; Co-Author, Juvenile Law and its Processes
  • Peter L. Reich, Professor of Law; Author, Mexico's Hidden Revolution: The Catholic Church in Law and Politics Since 1929

Judges

  • Florence-Marie Cooper
    Florence-Marie Cooper
    Florence-Marie Cooper was a United States federal judge.-Early life and education:Cooper was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and moved to San Francisco with her family in 1952. Cooper graduated from high school in 1958 and began working as a legal secretary...

     ('75): Judge, United States District Court for the Central District of California
    United States District Court for the Central District of California
    The United States District Court for the Central District of California serves over 18 million people in southern and central California, making it the largest federal judicial district by population...

  • Mablean Ephriam
    Mablean Ephriam
    Mablean Deloris Ephriam, Esq. served as the judge on the courtroom series, Divorce Court from 1999 to 2006. She was replaced by Judge Lynn Toler....

     ('78): Host, Divorce Court
    Divorce Court
    Divorce Court is a judge show about cases which only involve divorcing couples. Out of the shows currently airing in the court-themed genre, Divorce Court is the oldest...

  • Mildred Escobedo ('89): Judge, Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles
  • Cristina Pérez
    Cristina Pérez (judge)
    Cristina Pérez is an American TV judge who had a television show on the Telemundo/NBC network. She was born in New York City, received two BAs at UCLA and her JD at Whittier Law School...

     ('94): Judge, Corte de Familia; Judge, Cristina's Court
  • Stephanie Sautner ('82): Judge, Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles

Law firm partners

  • Robert Berns ('87): Partner, Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker
    Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker
    Wilson Elser is a full-service law firm with over 800 attorneys in 22 offices throughout the United States. Wilson Elser ranks among the top law firms identified by The American Lawyer and is listed in the “Top 50” by The National Law Journal...

  • Karen Canaan ('97): Partner, Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton
  • Harry Scolinos
    Harry Scolinos
    Harry Frank Scolinos is an American attorney, businessman and politician. He ran for the United States Congress as a Republican in California's 29th District.-Biography:...

     ('74): Scolinos, Sheldon & Nevell
  • Peter Valert ('93): Managing Partner, DLA Piper
    DLA Piper
    DLA Piper is a global law firm with 76 offices across 30 countries and more than 4,200 lawyers. As of May 2011, it was the largest law firm in the world by number of attorneys. The firm's global revenues were $1.92 billion in 2009-2010. The firm is composed of two partnerships, DLA Piper...


Other appointments and vocations

  • Bill Handel
    Bill Handel
    William Wolf Handel is the director and founder of the Center for Surrogate Parenting and an AM radio personality in Los Angeles, California....

     ('79): Morning drive talk show host on KFI
    KFI
    KFI is an AM radio station in Los Angeles, California. It received its license to operate on March 31, 1922 and began operating on April 16, 1922 as one of the United States' first high-powered, "clear-channel" stations...

    -AM in Los Angeles
  • Diane Tebelius
    Diane Tebelius
    Diane Tebelius is an American attorney and former federal prosecutor, Tebelius was the chair of the Republican Party of Washington from 2006 to 2007...

     ('79): Chairman, Washington State Republican Party
    Republican Party (United States)
    The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

    (2006–2007)

External links

33°41′37.18"N 117°55′03.60"W
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