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Santa Clara University School of Law

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Santa Clara University
School of Law
Motto Lawyers Who Lead
Parent school Santa Clara University
Established 1911
School type Private
Parent endowment $1.03 billion (2020)[1]
Dean Michael J. Kaufman
Location Santa Clara, California, US
Enrollment 880[2]
Faculty 117
USNWR ranking 158th (2024)[3]
Bar pass rate 67.48% (July 2021, first-time takers)[4]
Website law.scu.edu
ABA profile Santa Clara University School of Law

The Santa Clara University School of Law (Santa Clara Law) is the law school of Santa Clara University, a Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California, United States, in the Silicon Valley region. The School of Law was founded in 1911.[5]

Santa Clara Law offers a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree, as well as several double-degree programs, including a J.D./Master of Business Administration (J.D./M.B.A.) and a J.D./Master of Science in Information Systems (MSIS) offered in conjunction with Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business. In addition, the school offers Master of Laws (LL.M.) degrees in intellectual property law, in U.S. law for foreign lawyers, and in international and comparative law. Santa Clara Law also features specialized curricular programs in high tech and intellectual property law, international law, public interest, social justice law, and is one of few law schools to offer a certificate in privacy law.[6]

History

Santa Clara University School of Law was founded in 1911. The school is part of Santa Clara University (founded 1851), the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California and the oldest Catholic university in the American West. It was approved by the American Bar Association in 1937.[7] It joined the Association of American Law Schools in 1940.[8]

Prior to the requirement that all California law graduates must take the state bar exam, Santa Clara Law was one of the five schools whose graduates were exempt from the examination, along with Boalt Hall, UC Law San Francisco, Stanford, and USC.[9]

Rankings

According to the required disclosures under ABA Section 509, not counting those employed where a JD degree was an advantage, employed in a professional position, and those enrolled in graduate studies, 55% of the Class of 2021 was employed in full-time, long-term positions that require bar admission within nine months of graduation.[10]

Law school rankings of Santa Clara Law include:

Bar passage rates

Based on a 2001–2007 six-year average, 73% of Santa Clara University Law graduates passed the California State Bar.[11]

Post-graduation employment

According to Santa Clara's official 2025 ABA-required disclosures, 75.25% of the Class of 2025 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation.[12]

According to the American Bar Association's "Official Guide to ABA-Approved Law Schools," 94.5 percent of Santa Clara students were employed nine months after graduation, with 77 percent of graduates employed in the private sector and 21 percent employed in the public sector.[13]

According to the Princeton Review, the average private-sector starting salary for Santa Clara Law graduates in 2020 is $100,000.[14] According to Forbes magazine, mid-career median salary is currently $188,000 a year.[15]

According to a study done by online salary-information company PayScale, graduates of Santa Clara Law have the third highest mid-career median salary among all graduate programs in the United States.[16] The report found that Santa Clara Law graduates typically make $76,900 the first year following graduation and attain a mid-career median salary of $197,700.[17]

ABA employment summary for 2013 graduates[18]
Employment status Percentage
Employed - bar passage required 50.0%
Employed - J.D. advantage 20.19%
Employed - professional position 6.83%
Employed - non-professional position 0.31%
Employed - undeterminable 0.0%
Pursuing graduate degree full time 1.55%
Unemployed - start date deferred 0.93%
Unemployed - not seeking 0.31%
Unemployed - seeking 17.7%
Employment status unknown 2.17%
Total of 322 graduates

Costs

The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at Santa Clara for the 2026-2027 academic year was $101,724 for first-year law students.[19] The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $262,472.[20]

Students

For the 2025 entering class, the top-five feeder schools into Santa Clara Law in order were UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Santa Clara University, and San Jose State University.[21]

For the 2025 entering class, 2,648 people applied to the School of Law and 213 full-time and 51 part-time students matriculated. The top-five feeder states in order for the 2021 entering class were California, Texas, Nevada, Washington, and Arizona.[22]

For the 2025 entering class, the LSAT scores for entering full-time students were 162 for the 75th percentile and 157 for the 25th percentile. The undergraduate GPA for full-time entering students was 3.73 for the 75th percentile and 3.22 for the 25th percentile.[23]

Santa Clara Law has a chapter of the Order of the Coif, a national law school honorary society founded for the purposes of encouraging legal scholarship and advancing the ethical standards of the legal profession.[24]

Campus

Over the last century, the Santa Clara University campus, located along El Camino Real in Santa Clara, has expanded to more than 104 acres (0.4 km2; 0.2 sq mi). Amid its many Mission-style academic and residential buildings are the historic mission gardens, rose garden, and palm trees.

Until 1939, the law school inhabited present-day St. Joseph's Hall at the center of Santa Clara University's campus. Under the tenure of Dean Edwin Owens, Bergin Hall was constructed and became home to the school in 1939. The new building was built using monies collected through Santa Clara football's successful appearances in the Sugar Bowl and named after Thomas Bergin, Santa Clara's first graduate, a California legal pioneer, and an early donor to the School of Law.

The Edwin Heafey Law Library was constructed in 1963, and expanded in 1973 to include more space for library materials. Heafey was renovated and expanded again in 1988. The collection contains over 400,000 volumes in print and digital formats.[25] Additionally, the library manages an institutional repository which currently contains over 4,000 digital items including a collection of papers related to the Congressional hearings regarding the Watergate Scandal donated by Congressman Don Edwards.[26] Other digital collections include documents relating to litigation over the Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act (also known as Obamacare) and the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.[27]

In 1973, Bannan Hall was built, which allocated space for the Law School on the ground floor. In 2008, Dean Donald Polden announced the law school would have exclusive use of Bannan Hall, and the building was renovated and used exclusively by the law school shortly thereafter.

In 2018, the law school moved into Charney Hall, a new $60-million building built specifically to house the law school.[28]

Notable faculty

Notable alumni

Law School deans

Timeline of historical events, including previous deans.[46]

  • James Campbell – 1911 to 1918
  • Lawrence E. O'Keefe, SJ – 1919 to 1920
  • Clarence Coolidge – 1920 to 1933
  • Edwin J. Owens – 1933 to 1953
  • Byron J. Snow – 1953 to 1955
  • Warren P. McKenney – 1955 to 1959
  • Leo Huard – 1959 to 1969
  • George Strong (acting) – 1970
  • George Alexander – 1970 to 1985
  • Richard Rykoff (acting) – 1985 to 1986
  • Gerald Uelmen - 1986 to 1994
  • Mack Player – 1994 to 2003[47]
  • Donald J. Polden – 2003 to 2013[48]
  • Lisa Kloppenberg – 2013 to 2019[49]
  • Anna Han (acting) – 2019 to 2021[50]
  • Michael J. Kaufman – 2021 to present[51]

References

  1. Back to citation As of June 30, 2020. U.S. and Canadian Institutions Listed by Fiscal Year 2020 Endowment Market Value and Change in Endowment Market Value from FY19 to FY20 (Report). National Association of College and University Business Officers and TIAA. February 19, 2021. Retrieved February 20, 2021.
  2. Back to citation "Santa Clara University Consumer Information" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-11-01.
  3. Back to citation occurrence 3.0 Back to citation occurrence 3.1 "U.S. News & World Report, "Best Law Schools: Santa Clara University"".
  4. Back to citation Rubino, Kathryn (16 December 2019). "California Bar Exam Results: A Breakdown By Law School (July 2019)". Above the Law. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  5. Back to citation "Santa Clara Law historical timeline". Santa Clara Law. Archived from the original on 2018-08-03. Retrieved 2021-10-29.
  6. Back to citation "Privacy Law Certificate - Santa Clara Law". law.scu.edu. Archived from the original on 2018-02-17. Retrieved 2018-02-16.
  7. Back to citation "ABA-Approved Law Schools by Year". ABA website. Archived from the original on October 5, 2015. Retrieved April 20, 2011.
  8. Back to citation "Member Schools - Association of American Law Schools". Archived from the original on 2012-07-17. Retrieved 2011-05-01.
  9. Back to citation "Coolidge Years | Santa Clara Law". Archived from the original on 2016-03-07. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
  10. Back to citation "Santa Clara University School of Law - Class of 2021 Employment Summary 509 Report". Retrieved on 20 June 2022.
  11. Back to citation "Internet Legal Research Group: Santa Clara University, 2009 profile". Archived from the original on June 11, 2011. Retrieved April 13, 2011.
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  13. Back to citation "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-10-29. Retrieved 2008-06-17.
  14. Back to citation "Santa Clara University - School of Law - The Princeton Review Law School Rankings & Reviews". www.princetonreview.com. Archived from the original on 2011-06-04. Retrieved 2009-03-26.
  15. Back to citation Badenhausen, Kurt. "In Pictures: The Best Law Schools For Getting Rich". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2018-02-17. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
  16. Back to citation Belkin, Douglas (22 October 2014). "Harvard Law Graduates Top Salary Survey". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 7 February 2018. Retrieved 21 February 2018 – via online.wsj.com.
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37°21′04″N 121°56′19″W / 37.35115°N 121.93855°W

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