UCLA School of Law

ABOUT Known as a trailblazer, honored as an institution, renowned as a place for tomorrow’s leaders. Founded in 1949, UCLA School of Law has garnered a reputation for artful teaching, influential scholarship and enduring innovation. As the first public law school in Southern California and the youngest top-ranked law school in the United States, UCLA Law has consistently pushed new boundaries in the study and practice of law. Beginning in the 1970s, our clinics were among the first to teach students systematically about the link between doctrinal mastery and practical skills. We remain committed to this integration of theory and practice with an extraordinary array of simulated transaction courses and live-client clinics that cover everything from mergers and acquisitions to workers’ rights and environmental law. In the 1990s, UCLA Law created an Empirical Research Group (ERG) so that faculty could incorporate sophisticated data techniques into their research. During this time, the law school also established think tanks where policy and legal issues could be discussed free of partisan influence and ideological biases. These institutes have consistently promoted the highest standards of intellectual discourse. Through research and published articles, our centers offer invaluable information for legislators, the judiciary and the public while providing critical training for UCLA Law students and the legal community. Over the decades, UCLA Law has developed a depth and breadth of academic offerings unsurpassed by any other law school in the nation. Our Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy is among the best anywhere. We are one of four among the top 20 law schools with a specialization in Business Law and Policy – and the only one to offer a specialization in Critical Race Studies. UCLA Law’s faculty also has emerged as one of the most influential nationwide. Our professors are leading scholars in areas including bankruptcy, corporate law, constitutional law, critical race theory, entertainment law, environmental law, intellectual property and tax law. Today, the UCLA Law alumni community is more than 15,000 strong and extends around the world. Alumni live and practice in virtually every state, the District of Columbia, multiple U.S. territories and more than 50 foreign nations. These graduates excel in their chosen fields, from private practice to business to government to public interest and beyond. We have a long tradition of distinction on the bench, with more than 320 alumni who are serving, or have served, on courts throughout the country. Six UCLA Law alumni are now judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit – the largest number of graduates from any one law school who are serving on the court. We take pride in these achievements and recognize that the strength of UCLA Law is a direct result of the superlative work of our faculty and staff, the talents of our diverse and academically gifted student body, and the accomplishments and unstinting generosity of our alumni. By building on past successes, UCLA Law continues to propel the school, students, faculty and alumni into a future of unparalleled distinction.