Stanford first offered a curriculum in legal studies in 1893, when the university hired its first two law professors: former U.S. president Benjamin Harrison and Nathan Abbott. Abbott headed the new program and assembled a small faculty over the next few years. The law department primarily enrolled undergraduate majors at this time and included a large number of students who might not have been welcome at more traditional law schools at the time, including women and students of color, especially Hispanic, Chinese and Japanese students.
In 1900, the department moved from its original location in Encina Hall to the northeast side of the Inner Quadrangle. These larger facilities included Stanford’s first law library. Beginning to focus more on professional training, the school implemented its first three-year curriculum and became one of 27 charter members of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). In 1901, the school awarded its first professional degree, the Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.).
Starting in 1908, the law department began its transition into an exclusively professional school when Stanford's Board of Trustees passed a resolution to officially change its name from Law Department to Law School. Eight years later, Frederic Campbell Woodward became the first dean of the law school, and in 1923, the law school received accreditation from the American Bar Association (ABA). In 1924, Stanford's law program officially transitioned into a modern professional school when it began requiring a bachelor's degree for admission.
The 1940s and 1950s brought considerable change to the law school. After World War II caused the law school's enrollment to drop to fewer than 30 students, the school quickly expanded once the war ended in 1945. A move to a new location in the Outer Quadrangle, as well as the 1948 opening of the law school dormitory Crothers Hall (the result of a donation by Stanford Law graduate George E. Crothers), allowed the school to grow, while the 1948 inaugural publication of the Stanford Law Review (helmed by future U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher '49) helped to augment the law school's national reputation. The decision that Stanford should remain a small law school with a very limited enrollment emerged during this period. For the third time in its history, the law school relocated in the 1970s, this time to its current location in the Crown Quadrangle.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the law school aimed to diversify its student body. During this period, students established a large number of new and progressive student organizations, including the Women of Stanford Law, the Stanford Chicano Law Student Association, the Environmental Law Society, and the Stanford Public Interest Foundation. Additionally, in 1966, the school sought to academically diversify its student body by collaborating with the Stanford Business School to create its first joint-degree program. A year earlier, in 1965, the law school enrolled its first black student, Sallyanne Payton '68, and in 1972, the school hired its first female law professor, Barbara Babcock, and its first professor of color, William Gould. In 1968, Stanford appointed Thelton Henderson, future judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, as the first assistant dean for minority admissions. Henderson expanded minority enrollment from a single student to approximately a fifth of the student body. Stanford Law's commitment to diversity continues today, and The Princeton Review currently ranks Stanford Law as one of the ten best law schools for minority students.
Earning national recognition in the 1980s and 1990s, the law school embarked on innovating its curriculum. Stanford offered new courses focusing on law and technology, environmental law, intellectual property law, and international law, allowing students to specialize in emerging legal fields. In 1984, the law school launched its first clinical program, the East Palo Alto Community Law Project. By the 21st century, a new focus on interdisciplinary education emerged. In 2009, the law school transitioned from a semester system to a quarter system to align itself with Stanford's other graduate schools. Additionally, Stanford began to expand its upper-level curriculum by bolstering its offerings in international law, by adding new clinics, academic centers, and simulation courses, and by aggressively expanding its joint degree programs.
Academics and admissions
Stanford Law School is known for its student-to-faculty ratio (7.3 to 1), one of the lowest in the country. The first-year class of approximately 180 students is divided into six smaller sections of 30 students each.
The academic program is flexible and includes a diverse array of courses. First-year students (or 1Ls) are required to take Criminal Law, Civil Procedure, Contracts, Torts, and Legal Research & Writing during the autumn quarter, and Constitutional Law, Property, Federal Litigation, and one elective during the winter quarter. In the spring quarter, first-year students complete Federal Litigation and enroll in advanced electives. Stanford Law offers 280 course titles beyond the first-year curriculum, and advanced courses range from White-Collar Crime to a Supreme Court Simulation Seminar. Additionally, because of the law school's proximity to other top academic programs on campus, there is a strong focus on joint-degree programs and interdisciplinary learning, and upper-level students may take classes at Stanford's other professional and graduate schools.
Stanford Law also enables second- and third-year students to gain hands-on experience by working full-time in one of eleven legal clinics, including a Criminal Defense Clinic, a Religious Liberty Clinic, and an Intellectual Property and Innovation Clinic. The Supreme Court Litigation Clinic has successfully brought over thirty cases before the Court, making it one of the most active Supreme Court practices of any kind. The clinic has served as lead counsel or co-lead counsel on the merits in numerous cases, including Kennedy v. Louisiana (2008), Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts (2009), United States v. Windsor (2013), Riley v. California (2014), and Bourke v. Beshear (2015). In 2015, U.S. News & World Report ranked Stanford Law's clinical program as the eighth best program in the nation (tied with Yale Law School).
Launched in 2013, Stanford's Law and Policy Lab provides further opportunities for experiential learning. The Policy Lab allows second- and third-year students to enroll in faculty-supervised policy practicums, where students work in small teams to conduct policy research and analysis for real-world clients. Topics have ranged from wildlife trafficking to prison realignment to copyright reform, and prior clients include California Attorney General Kamala Harris, Governor of California Jerry Brown, the California Law Revision Commission, the U.S. Copyright Office, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and the White House Office of Management and Budget.
Given the strength of Stanford's curriculum, practical training, and emphasis on teaching, students and alumni routinely report high satisfaction with their academic experience. In surveys conducted by Above the Law, Stanford Law received an "A+" from both students and alumni for their satisfaction with Stanford's academic program, and the law school also received an "A+" rating from students for practical/clinical training, career counseling, and financial aid advising. Based on surveys with students at the nation's 169 best law schools, The Princeton Review currently ranks Stanford Law as having the best "Classroom Experience", and students provided Stanford with the highest score (99) for its "Academic Experience Rating" and "Professors Interesting Rating". Additionally, the 2014 "Midlevel Associates Survey" conducted by The American Lawyer magazine found that based on mid-level associates' assessments of their legal education, Stanford Law placed in the top five law schools for effectively preparing its graduates for law firm life.
Outside of the classroom, Stanford Law students run over fifty student organizations and publish twelve legal journals. The most influential journal is the Stanford Law Review, which has been ranked as the top law review by the Washington & Lee Law Review Rankings in both 2013 and 2014. Advocacy skills are tested in the Marion Rice Kirkwood Moot Court competition.
The Robert Crown Law Library at Stanford holds 500,000 books, 360,000 microform and audiovisual items, and more than 8,000 current serial subscriptions.
In August 2008, Stanford Law School changed its grading system, which no longer relies on traditional letter grades, joining Yale Law School, the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, and Harvard Law School. Students now receive one of four grades: honors, pass, restricted credit, or no credit. As part of Stanford's grade reform, the law school no longer awards the honors of the Order of the Coif or Graduation with Distinction.
Between 4,000 and 5,000 students apply for admission each year. Selection is competitive: the median undergraduate grade point average of admitted students is 3.89 and the median LSAT score is 171 (out of 180). Beyond numbers, Stanford places considerable emphasis on factors such as extracurricular activities, work experience, and prior graduate study. About three quarters of the members of each entering class have one or more years of prior work experience and over a quarter have another graduate degree. In 2015, Stanford Law had an acceptance rate of 11.3%, the second-lowest of any law school in the country. The school also accepts a small number of transfers each year.
According to ABA Required Disclosures, Stanford Law School had an average bar passage rate of 90% in 2014 and an average bar passage rate of 92% in 2013.
In 2013, 90% of Stanford Law graduates taking the California bar exam for the first time passed, and 97% of Stanford Law graduates who took the New York bar exam for the first time passed.
Upon graduation, about a third of the class clerks for a judge; about half join law firms.
According to Stanford Law School's official 2014 ABA-required disclosures, 90.4% of the Class of 2014 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation, excluding solo-practitioners. Stanford's Law School Transparency under-employment score is 3.2%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2014 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job nine months after graduation.
According to the American Bar Association for 2014 Stanford Law graduates, 90.9% are employed in a position that required the graduate to pass the bar exam; 2.7% are employed in a position in which the employer sought an individual with a J.D. or in which the J.D. provided a demonstrable advantage in obtaining or performing the job, but which did not itself require an active law license; 2.7% are employed in other professional positions; 1.1% are pursuing graduate work full-time; 1.1% have a deferred employment starting date; and 1.6% are unemployed and seeking employment.
Despite its small size, Stanford Law has the third highest (per capita) placement rate for law professors at the nation's 43 leading law schools, according to a 2011 study, and has achieved the second-highest (per capita) placement rate for U.S. Supreme Court clerkships, according to a 2013 finding. Stanford Law alumni have clerked for the U.S. Supreme Court every year for the past 40 years. Based on a 2012 to 2014 average, Stanford Law has also achieved the second-highest (per capita) placement rate for federal judicial clerkships, and for the class of 2014, reported the highest placement rate for federal judicial clerkships at 30.5%.
The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at Stanford Law School for the 2016-17 academic year is $88,169. Law School Transparency estimated that Stanford Law's debt-financed cost of attendance for three years (at full cost) is $315,604.
A 2015 study by M7 Financial, which assessed law schools' "credit ratings" using data on average starting salaries, employment trends, and student loan obligations, found that Stanford Law had the lowest student debt burden of any law school in the study.
Programs and centers
Stanford Constitutional Law Center
Stanford Criminal Justice Center (SCJC)
Stanford Three Strikes Project
Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy Program (ENRLP)
Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance
China Guiding Cases Project (CGCP)
Rule of Law Program
Stanford Center on International Conflict and Negotiation (SCICN)
Stanford Human Rights Center
Stanford Program in International and Comparative Law
Stanford Program in Law and Society
Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance
John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics
Securities Class Action Clearinghouse (SCAC)
Center for E-Commerce
Center for Internet and Society
Center for Law and the Biosciences
Stanford Center for Computers and the Law (CodeX)
Fair Use Project
Stanford Center in Law, Science, & Technology
Stanford Program in Neuroscience and Society (SPINS)
Transatlantic Technology Law Forum
Stanford Center on the Legal Profession
Martin Daniel Gould Center for Conflict Resolution Programs
Gould Negotiation and Mediation Teaching Program
Center for Internet and Society (CIS)
John and Terry Levin Center for Public Service and Public Interest Law
The Stanford Law School faculty ranks among the top three law faculties in the United States in terms of scholarly impact, and faculty members include the most widely cited legal scholars in intellectual property law (Mark Lemley), legal history (Lawrence Friedman), and legal ethics (Deborah L. Rhode). A 2012 study found that five Stanford Law professors are among the 50 most relevant law professors in the nation, and a 2013 study found that 25 percent of Stanford Law School's tenured faculty have been elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
In 2013, The National Law Journal recognized Professors Jeffrey L. Fisher and Mark Lemley as two of the 100 most influential lawyers in America, and in 2014, a study by Reuters identified former Dean Kathleen M. Sullivan and Professors Jeffrey L. Fisher, Pamela S. Karlan, and Brian Wolfman as among the 66 most successful appellate litigators before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Notable Current Faculty
Barbara Allen Babcock (emerita) – criminal law, civil procedure, women's legal history
Ralph Richard Banks – family law, employment discrimination law, race and the law
Paul Brest (emeritus) – former Dean of the law school; constitutional law, judgment and decision-making
Gerhard Casper (emeritus) – former President of Stanford University; constitutional law scholar
Joshua Cohen – political theorist and philosopher
John J. Donohue III – law and economics, empirical analysis
Jeffrey L. Fisher – co-director of the Stanford Supreme Court Litigation Clinic and appellate litigator who has argued 27 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court
Lawrence M. Friedman – legal historian
Paul Goldstein – international intellectual property, copyright, trademark; author of best-selling legal fiction novels
Thomas C. Grey (emeritus) – legal theory, modern American legal thought, constitutional law
Joseph Grundfest – corporate governance and securities litigation
Thomas Heller – international trade and tax specialist
Pamela S. Karlan – co-director of the Stanford Supreme Court Litigation Clinic; election law and constitutional law scholar who is currently serving as the U.S. Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Voting Rights in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice
Mark Kelman - Vice Dean of the law school; application of social sciences to law
Michael Klausner – corporate law, business transactions, corporate governance, financial regulation
Larry Kramer – constitutional law, conflict of laws
Mark Lemley – intellectual property law, patent law, law and technology
M. Elizabeth Magill – current Dean of the law school; constitutional law and administrative law scholar
Jennifer Martínez – human rights and international law scholar; represented José Padilla before the U.S. Supreme Court
Michael W. McConnell – constitutional law scholar and former Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
Nathaniel Persily – election law and constitutional law scholar
A. Mitchell Polinsky – law and economics
Deborah L. Rhode – legal ethics, gender and the law; former president of the Association of American Law Schools
Jane S. Schacter – sexual orientation law, statutory interpretation, constitutional law
Norman Spaulding – federal civil procedure, legal ethics
Allen S. Weiner – international law scholar
Robert Weisberg – criminal law and law and literature
Notable Visiting Faculty and Lecturers
Viola Canales – former litigator, short story author, and published novelist
Lanhee Chen – lecturer in law and former chief policy advisor to Mitt Romney
Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar – visiting professor, current Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California, former White House official, and former Stanley Morrison Professor of Law at Stanford
Russ Feingold – lecturer in law and former U.S. Senator
Bertram Fields – lecturer in law and entertainment attorney
Benjamin Ginsberg – lecturer in law and former national counsel to the 2000 and 2004 Bush-Cheney presidential campaigns
Jennifer Granick – intellectual property and First Amendment scholar and practitioner
Thomas B. Griffith – lecturer in law and current judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Goodwin Liu – lecturer in law and current Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California
Notable Former Faculty
Michelle Alexander – associate professor of law and author of The New Jim Crow
Anthony G. Amsterdam – professor of clinical education (1969-1981)
Tom Campbell – professor of law (1987-2002), associate professor of law (1983-1987)
Barbara A. Caulfield – lecturer in law (1988-2010)
Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar – professor of law (2001-2015), former White House official, and former Director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford
John Hart Ely – professor of law (1982-1996); former Dean (1982-1987)
Tom Goldstein – clinical lecturer (2004-2012); co-founder of the Stanford Supreme Court Litigation Clinic
Gerald Gunther – professor of law (1962-1995), professor emeritus (1995-2002)
Lawrence Lessig – professor of law (2000-2009); founder of the Stanford Center for Internet and Society
Richard Posner – associate professor of law (1968-9)
Margaret Jane Radin – professor of law (1989-2006)
Joseph Tyree Sneed, III – professor of law (1962-1971)
Kathleen M. Sullivan – professor of law (1992-2012); former Dean (1999-2004)
Stanford Law School alumni practice in 61 countries, 50 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Marshall Islands, and Washington D.C. Stanford Law alumni are partners at 87 of the 100 largest law firms in the United States; 94 of the largest law firms employ Stanford Law alumni as attorneys. Consistent with Stanford's expertise in law and technology, Stanford Law graduates currently work or have previously worked as general counsels for many of the leading high-tech companies, including Microsoft, Google, Cisco, eBay, Yahoo!, Qualcomm, Oracle, and Genentech.
Executive branch
William Baer (1975), Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division, United States Department of Justice
Joshua B. Bolten (1980), White House Chief of Staff (2006–2009)
Warren Christopher (1949), 63rd U.S. Secretary of State
Nelson Cunningham, Cofounder of Kissinger Associates, former Special Advisor to the President for Western Hemisphere affairs
Fred Dutton (1949), Special Assistant to U.S. President John F. Kennedy, managed Robert F. Kennedy's presidential campaign
John Ehrlichman (1951), infamous figure in the Watergate scandal
Ivan K. Fong (1987), General Counsel of the Department of Homeland Security
David J. Hayes (1978), Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer of the U.S. Department of the Interior
Reuben Jeffery III, Under Secretary for Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State and former Chairman of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission
Carol Lam (1985), former United States Attorney for the Southern District of California
Michelle Kwok Lee (1992), Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office
Cheryl Mills (1990), Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Wendy J. Olson (1990), United States Attorney for the District of Idaho
Robert S. Rivkin, 21st General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Transportation
John Roos (1980), United States Ambassador to Japan (2009–present)
Tony West (1992), Associate Attorney General of the United States
Legislative branch
Max Baucus (1967), U.S. Senator (1978-2014) and former U.S. Ambassador to China
Xavier Becerra (1984), U.S. Congressman (1984–2017) and current Attorney General of California
Jeff Bingaman (1968), U.S. Senator (1983–2013)
Frank Church (1950), U.S. Senator (1957–1981)
William Donlon Edwards (1939), U.S. Congressman (1963–1995)
Charles M. Teague (1931), U.S. Congressman
Judicial branch
Supreme Court
Sandra Day O'Connor (1952), first female U.S. Supreme Court Justice (1981–2006)
William Rehnquist (1952), Chief Justice of the United States (1986–2005)
Courts of Appeals
Carlos Bea (1958), Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
Richard Harvey Chambers (1932), Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
Benjamin Cushing Duniway (1931), Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
Raymond C. Fisher (1966), Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
Michelle Friedland (2000), Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
Cynthia Holcomb Hall (1954), Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
Shirley Hufstedler (1949), first United States Secretary of Education (1979–1981) and Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (1968–1979)
Procter R. Hug, Jr. (1958), Judge and former Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
Gilbert H. Jertberg (1922), Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
Cheryl Ann Krause (1993), Judge of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals
Justin Miller (1914), Judge of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
William Albert Norris (1954), Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
John B. Owens (1996), Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
Pamela Ann Rymer (1964), Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
Sri Srinivasan (1995), Judge of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
District Courts
Wayne Edward Alley (1957), Judge of the Western District of Oklahoma
D. Brook Bartlett (1962), Judge of the Western District of Missouri
Jesus Bernal (1989), Judge of the Central District of California
Rudi M. Brewster (1960), Judge of the Southern District of California
Paul G. Cassell (1984), Judge of the District of Utah
Deborah K. Chasanow (1974), Judge of the District of Maryland
Samuel Conti (1948), Judge of the Northern District of California
Christopher Reid Cooper (1993), Judge of the District Court for the District of Columbia
Walter Early Craig (1934), Judge of the District of Arizona
James Donato (1988), Judge of the Northern District of California
Gary Feinerman (1991), Judge of the Northern District of Illinois
Haywood Stirling Gilliam, Jr. (1994), Judge of the Northern District of California
Joan B. Gottschall (1973), Judge of the Northern District of Illinois
Thomas Poole Griesa (1958), Judge of the Southern District of New York
Harry Lindley Hupp (1955), Judge of the Central District of California
Susan Yvonne Illston (1973), Judge of the Northern District of California
Fred Kunzel (1927), Judge of the Southern District of California
Charles A. Legge (1954), Judge of the Northern District of California
Lawrence Tupper Lydick (1942), Judge of the Central District of California
Brian Morris (1992), Judge of the District of Montana
Kimberly J. Mueller (1995), Judge of the Eastern District of California
S. James Otero (1976), Judge of the Central District of California
Halil Suleyman Ozerden (1998), Judge of the Southern District of Mississippi
Robert Francis Peckham (1945), Judge of the Northern District of California
John Rolly Ross (1926), Judge of the District of Nevada
James V. Selna (1970), Judge of the Central District of California
Fern M. Smith (1975), Judge of the Northern District of California
Christina A. Snyder (1972), Judge of the Central District of California
Gus Jerome Solomon (1929), Judge of the District of Oregon
Bruce Rutherford Thompson (1936), Judge of the District of Nevada
Vaughn R. Walker (1970), Judge of the Northern District of California
James Ware (1972), Judge of the Northern District of California
Stanley Alexander Weigel (1928), Judge of the Northern District of California
David Keith Winder (1958), Judge of the District of Utah
Barbara Durham (1968), Chief Justice of the Washington Supreme Court (1995–1998)
Ronald M. George (1964), Chief Justice of California (1996–2011)
Elizabeth A. Grimes, Associate Justice of the California Second District Court of Appeal, Division Eight
Curtis A. Kin, Judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court
Rhoda V. Lewis (1929), Associate Justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court and first woman to serve on the Court (1959-1967)
John S. W. Lim (1983), Judge of the Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals (1999–2006)
Carlos R. Moreno (1975), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California (2001–2011)
Frank K. Richardson (1938), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California
Homer R. Spence (1915), Justice of the Supreme Court of California
Delbert E. Wong (1949), first Chinese-American judge in the continental United States
Chen Show Mao (1992), Member of Parliament, Singapore
Sian Elias (JSM 1972), Chief Justice of New Zealand
Ronald Kenneth Noble (1982), Secretary General of Interpol and law professor
Brooksley Born (1964), former chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Edward C. DuMont (1986), Solicitor General of California
Dana K. Chipman (1986), Judge Advocate General of the United States Army
Matt Gonzalez (1990), Ralph Nader's 2008 vice presidential running mate, former president of San Francisco Board of Supervisors
Roderick Hills (1955), former Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (1975–1977) and Cofounder of Munger, Tolles & Olson
Charles F. Lettow (1968), Judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims
Dick Murphy, 33rd Mayor of San Diego, California
Chuck Reed (1978), Mayor of San Jose, California
William A. Sutherland (1898), former California State Assemblyman
John Van de Kamp (1959), 28th California Attorney General
Jenifer Rajkumar (2008), current District Leader in Lower Manhattan and candidate for the New York State Assembly's 65th District
Michelle Alexander (1992), associate professor of law at Ohio State University and author of The New Jim Crow
H. Verlan Andersen (1946), former professor of law and business at Brigham Young University
Douglas G. Baird, professor of law and former Dean at the University of Chicago Law School
Bernard Bell, professor of law at Rutgers School of Law–Newark
Stuart Banner, legal historian and professor of law at the UCLA School of Law
Lillian BeVier, constitutional law scholar and professor emerita at the University of Virginia Law School
Brian W. Casey, president of DePauw University and former associate dean for academic affairs at Harvard University
Aaron Edlin, scholar of law and economics; professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley
Laura E. Gomez, former president of the Law and Society Association and law professor at the UCLA School of Law
Joseph Grundfest, scholar of corporate law, corporate governance, securities regulation, and professor at Stanford Law School
Chris Guthrie (1994), Dean of Vanderbilt University Law School
Gillian K. Hadfield, professor of law and economics at the University of Southern California
Michael Heller, real estate law scholar and professor of law at Columbia Law School
C. Scott Hemphill, antitrust and intellectual property scholar and professor of law at New York University Law School
Daniel P. Kessler (1993), health law scholar and professor at Stanford Law School and Stanford Business School
Michael Klarman (1983), constitutional law scholar and Harvard Law School professor
David F. Levi (1980), Dean of Duke University Law School and former Judge of the Eastern District of California
Sanford Levinson, constitutional law scholar and professor of law at the University of Texas School of Law
Bernadette Meyler, constitutional law scholar and professor of law at Stanford Law School
Naomi Mezey, civil procedure scholar and professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center
Nathaniel Persily, election law and constitutional law scholar and professor at Stanford Law School
Gary R. Roberts, professor of law and former Dean of the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law
Catherine Sandoval (1990), professor at Santa Clara University School of Law and first Hispanic commissioner in the California Public Utilities Commission
Gregory Shaffer, international trade law scholar and law professor at the University of California, Irvine School of Law
Norman Spaulding, civil procedure scholar and professor of law at Stanford Law School
Richard Harold Steinberg, international law scholar and professor of law at the UCLA School of Law
Allen S. Weiner, international legal scholar and co-director of the Stanford Center on International Conflict and Negotiation at Stanford Law School
Robert Weisberg, criminal law scholar and professor of law at Stanford Law School
Paul R. Williams, president of the Public International Law & Policy Group and law professor at the American University Washington College of Law
Graham J. Zellick CBE QC, Ford Foundation Fellow (1970-71), Vice Chancellor of the University of London (1997-2003)
Maya Harris (1992), Vice President for Peace and Social Justice at the Ford Foundation
Denis Hayes (1985), Founder, Earth Day Network
Greg Lukianoff, President of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE)
Rebecca Love Kourlis (1976), Executive Director at the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System
Anthony Romero (1990), Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (2001–present)
Marc Rotenberg, President and Executive Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center
John D. Trasviña (1983), President of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF)
Chuck Armstrong (1967), president of the Seattle Mariners
Michael Arrington (1995), Internet journalist and entrepreneur
Riley Bechtel (1977), billionaire, Chairman and CEO, Bechtel Corporation
James Crown (1980), President of Henry Crown and Company
David C. Drummond (1985), Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer of Google
Larry Irving, former Vice President of Global Government Affairs for the Hewlett-Packard Company and President and CEO of the Irving Information Group
Richard Jencks, television executive and counsel, former President of CBS Broadcast Group
Fred von Lohmann, Senior Copyright Counsel at Google
William Neukom (1967), first General Counsel at Microsoft, president of the American Bar Association
Mark Oldman, Cofounder of Vault.com and wine critic
Penny Pritzker (1984), billionaire and CEO of Pritzker Realty
Peter Thiel (1992), founder of PayPal
Dennis Woodside (1984), COO of Dropbox (service)
Markus U. Diethelm, Swiss businessman and Group General Counsel of UBS
Raymond Bonner (1967), investigative reporter for the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune
Amanda Brown, author of Legally Blonde
Robert Cochran (1974), creator of the television shows 24 and La Femme Nikita
Christy Haubegger (1992), founder of Latina magazine and film producer
Dahlia Lithwick (1995), Senior Editor at Slate
David Margolick, Contributing Editor at Condé Nast Portfolio, former Contributing Editor at Vanity Fair
Twist Phelan, author
Carlos Watson (1995), television host and journalist
Katharine Weymouth (1992), Publisher of the Washington Post
Michael G. Wilson (1966), Producer of James Bond films
H. Verlan Andersen (1946), former member of the Utah State Legislature and former member of the First Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church)
Quentin L. Cook (1966), member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church)
Harry Usher, General Manager of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee
Bill Walton (never graduated), former NBA basketball player
W. Richard West, Jr. (1971), Founding Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
Lance B. Wickman (1972), General Counsel of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church)
The film Legally Blonde was originally set at Stanford Law School, which is also the setting of the book it is based on; however, Stanford did not approve of the script, so the setting was changed to Harvard.
Elizabeth North in the breakout drama Scandal proclaimed to having earned her law degree from Stanford Law School.
Arnold Vinick, the fictional Republican candidate for President of the United States in the final season of The West Wing, was a Stanford Law graduate.
Greg in Dharma & Greg was an alumnus of Stanford Law School.
In the movie Beaches, the character Hillary adheres to family tradition by studying law at Stanford Law School and becomes a human rights lawyer.
In the movie Die Hard, villain Hans Gruber reads aloud the educational history of Nakatomi CEO Joseph Yoshinobu Takagi while searching for him in a crowd of hostages. Takagi's pedigree includes University of California, Harvard Business School, and Stanford Law School.
The character Eli Stone (from the legal comedy-drama of the same name) is a Stanford Law graduate.
The character Sam Winchester from the television series Supernatural is a former student of Stanford Law School.
In the film Red Corner, Richard Gere plays a Stanford Law graduate and international businessman who is forced to navigate China's legal system after being framed for murder.
In the film The Devil Wears Prada, it is revealed that the character Andy had turned down an acceptance at Stanford Law School to pursue a career in journalism.
In the film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Ace falsely claims, with comic effect, to have attended Stanford Law School.
Elijah Wood's character, Ryan, from the FX TV series Wilfred says that he graduated from Stanford Law School.
