Pacific Coast University

Pacific Coast University (PCU), currently exclusively consisting of the Pacific Coast University School of Law, is a private, non-profit law school located in Long Beach, California, United States.

Contents

• Accreditation
• In popular culture
• References

The sole program offered is a curriculum in Law, leading to the Juris Doctor degree and qualifying graduates to take the Bar examination of California. As such, the course of studies includes all those subjects covered in California’s Bar examination along with additional classes, such as Legal Research, Writing and Lawyering Skills, Trial Techniques (“Moot court”) and Pleading and Practice which the school believes are essential for a lawyer just beginning practice. PCU has remained small: limiting classes to only 50 students and draws its law professors from local practicing attorneys and judges.

History:

Founded in 1927, the PCU originally consisted of an undergraduate program along with graduate schools in business, divinity and law. However, all but the School of Law closed during the Great Depression. World War II nearly eliminated the School of Law but for the persistence of then Dean Carl Manson, who taught all the classes while the other professors were off at war. Manson continued as Dean until his death in 1980. In 1981 Dean Irving Schleimer, previously a member of the faculty, became the PCU's new dean.

One of the first African-American Superior Court Judges in Southern California, William A. Ross, was a PCU graduate, as was the first woman Superior Court Judge, Kathleen Parker. During a period when, for example, women made up only 2.7% of the profession as late as 1963, PCU was graduating 30% or more women each year.