School of Law | UCI

UCI's School of Law is the first public law school in California in nearly 50 years. Fulfilling a longstanding vision of the campus, the school opened its doors to its first class of 60 law students in 2009. Today, the UCI Law community includes more than 50 full-time faculty members and over 400 students.

UCI Law is an innovative and visionary law school focused on training talented and passionate lawyers. It is driven by academic excellence, intellectual rigor and a commitment to enrich communities through public service. From the outset, its goal has been to create one of the top law schools in the country and to prepare students for the practice of law at the highest levels of the profession. The school combines the best of a large and renowned academic institution with a collegial, supportive and friendly environment.

Law faculty members are accomplished thought leaders from around the country with a broad range of expertise. The school's curriculum is innovative, challenging and hands-on with an emphasis on strategic problem-solving. Clinical education is a cornerstone of the experience at UCI Law. Each student is required to participate in a clinic and many students engage in pro bono work. Since opening our doors, 92 percent of UCI Law students have provided more than 60,000 hours of pro bono legal services for the poor and underserved – locally and beyond.

Students develop practical legal skills through public interest work in core clinics including appellate litigation; community and economic development; criminal justice; domestic violence; environmental law; immigrant rights; intellectual property, arts, technology; and international justice. The school also offers elective clinics in topics such as fair employment and housing rights; civil rights litigation; international human rights; reproductive justice; and startup and small business issues.

The School of Law also is highly interdisciplinary, with many faculty members holding joint appointments across the campus. Students can take courses in other fields and can earn joint degrees in almost any area. A robust array of programs complements the school's curriculum including speaker series and a myriad of student organizations.

The school received its founding gift from the Donald Bren Foundation to endow 10 faculty chairs and a dean's chair. It also received generous support from the Joan Irvine Smith and Athalie R. Clarke Foundation and Mark P. Robinson Jr.

The school was granted full accreditation from the American Bar Association in June 2014.

Bryant Garth comes to UCI after a number of administrative positions. Most recently, he served as Dean of Southwestern Law School from 2005 until 2012. Before coming to Southwestern, he was Dean of the Indiana University-Bloomington School of Law (1986-90) and Director of the American Bar Foundation (1990-2004).

His scholarship focuses on the legal profession, the sociology of law, and globalization. Two of his books co-authored with Yves Dezalay, Dealing in Virtue (1996) and Asian Legal Revivals (2010), were given the Herbert Jacobs Award from the Law and Society Association as the best books in the field of Law and Society published that year. He also served as co-editor of the Journal of Legal Education from 2011-14.

He is on the Executive Coordinating Committee of the “After the J.D.” project, the first longitudinal study of the legal profession, and chairs the advisory committee of the Law School Survey of Student Engagement (LSSSE).

UCI Law is No. 7 among public universities and No. 23 overall in the U.S. News and World Report ranking of Best Law Schools. U.S. News & World Report also ranks UCI Law:

UCI Law faculty and programs also rank highly in other prominent lists.

UCI School of Law centers and institutes provide in-depth impact by forging interdisciplinary partnerships with leaders from around the world. These include:

School Website: School of Law

Colleen Taricani 949-824-3063 [email protected]