Chapman University School of Law

Accreditation history

Established in 1995 as part of Chapman University, Chapman Law gained provisional accreditation from the American Bar Association (ABA) in 1998. In 2002, the ABA awarded the school full accreditation. In addition to its ABA membership, the Association of American Law Schools has admitted Chapman Law as one of its members in 2006, noting that "the school has an outstanding physical facility and has developed a faculty with a strong commitment to teaching and scholarship." In 2013, the ABA fully accredited the school until 2020.

Rankings

Chapman University School of Law is currently ranked 136th (Third Tier) in the 2016 US News and World Report's annual law school rankings.

Bar passage rates

In July 2016, the first time bar passage rate for Chapman School of Law was 57%, well below the California ABA accredited law school pass rate of 62%, marking a steady and consistent decline from the peak bar pass rate of 82% in 2012.

Costs

The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at the Chapman University School of Law for the 2014-2015 academic year is $75,061. The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $279,419.

Employment Outcomes

According to Chapman's official 2016 ABA-required disclosures, 52% of the Class of 2015 obtained bar passaged required employment 10 months after graduation, with 19% unemployed and unable to find work.

Student Debt

According to U.S. News & World Report, the average indebtedness of 2013 graduates who incurred law school debt was $134,073 (not including undergraduate debt), and 85% of 2013 graduates took on debt.

Scholarship Retention

Chapman, like some other law schools, uses merit based scholarships in order to entice high quality prospective students who might otherwise pass over the school for better ranked competitors and to enhance its own ranking. The fact that fewer than half of all students retain such scholarships has been described as a “bait and switch” and landed the school on The ABA Journal's list of law schools "most likely to yank merit-based scholarships."

Faculty

The interim dean of Chapman Law is Scott Howe, the Frank L. Williams Professor of Criminal Law and one of the longest tenured faculty members at the Fowler School of Law. Dean Howe replaces former Dean Tom Campbell who concluded his five-year term as dean in February 2016. Incoming Dean Matt Parlow will begin as the new dean of Fowler School of Law July 2016.

ADR and Mediation Clinic

The Chapman Law Mediation Clinic mediates 700 real cases annually. The Mediation Clinic received the Louise Otis Award for Excellence in Mediation Education at the International Competition for Mediation Advocacy (ICMA, formerly CNMAC) in Toronto by the lead of the international coach professor David P. Dowling. The award was in recognition of a superior commitment to the integration of mediation and advocacy skills into legal education. The ICMA focuses on acknowledging and evaluating mediation advocacy skills that demonstrate commitment to addressing the resolution, prevention, or creative management of clients’ disputes. Chapman Arbitration team was ranked the #2nd internationally.

Nobel Prize

In 2007, Chapman Law added Dr. Vernon L. Smith, who won the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work in experimental economics, to the list of its faculty.

Other faculty

Other members of the Chapman Law faculty include Constitutional law and legal ethics scholar Ronald D. Rotunda. Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, the author of Painting the Map Red, The Fight To Create A Permanent Republican Majority and A Mormon In The White House, 10 Things Every American Should Know About Mitt Romney, is also a Professor of Constitutional Law.

Also notable is Professor Larry Rosenthal, a former Supreme Court clerk for Justice John Paul Stevens, who as Deputy Corporation Counsel for the City of Chicago argued the case of Chicago v. Morales, 527 U.S. 41 (1999), among other cases, and Professor Danny Bogart, a property law expert and member of the American Law Institute. Visiting Professors have included progressive international law scholar Richard A. Falk, W. H. (Joe) Knight, Jr., a noted scholar and member of the American Law Institute, and controversial law professor and former Bush Administration official John Yoo.

The Honorable James E. Rogan has served as an adjunct professor at Chapman Law for many years. While a member of Congress, Rogan was one of the lead prosecutors in the United States Senate impeachment trial of President Clinton in 1998-1999, and later served as U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and as Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. In 2006 Governor Schwarzenegger appointed Rogan to the Superior Court of California.

Chapman Law's faculty includes four former U.S. Supreme Court law clerks, including Professors Rosenthal and Campbell (above), as well as former Dean Eastman, and former Associate Dean Celestine McConville.

John C. Eastman, former Dean of Chapman University of Law and current professor of constitutional law is the Chair of the Board of the National Organization for Marriage, a non-profit organization committed to preventing the legalization of same-sex marriage. Eastman publicly opposed the granting of a law license to Sergio C. Garcia, the first undocumented immigrant to be admitted to the California Bar. Eastman said, "He's here unlawfully. He's not gone back to his home country and sought to apply like everybody else who had waited in line."

Law journals

Chapman Law has two law publications: the Chapman Law Review, and the Nexus Journal of Law and Policy, a student edited journal with an accompanying blog.