The Chapman University School of Law (officially the Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law) is a private, non-profit law school located in Orange, California. The school offers the Juris Doctor degree (JD) and combined degree programs including a JD/MBA,[5] and a JD/MFA[6] in Film & Television Producing. The school also offers emphasis options in Business Law, Criminal Law, Entertainment Law, Environmental Law, Entrepreneurial Law, International Law, Trial Advocacy, and Taxation. Currently, the school has 41 full-time and 58 part-time faculty and a law library with holdings in excess of 290,000 volumes and volume equivalents.[7]
Accreditation history
Established in 1995 as part of Chapman University, Chapman Law gained provisional accreditation from the American Bar Association (ABA) in 1998[8] and received full ABA accreditation in 2002.[9][10] In addition to its ABA membership, the Association of American Law Schools admitted Chapman Law as one of its members in 2006.[10] In 2019, the ABA again fully accredited the school until 2027, the standard seven-year accreditation term.[11]
Admissions
For the class entering in 2023, the school accepted 30.68% of applicants, with 24.51% of those accepted enrolling. The average enrollee had a 161 LSAT score and 3.67 undergraduate GPA.[2]
Bar passage rate
For 2023, the overall first-time bar passage rate for Chapman University's Dale E. Fowler School of Law was 80%, while the overall first-time pass rate for ABA-accredited law schools for the California bar was 76.3%. The Ultimate Bar Pass Rate, which the ABA defines as the passage rate for graduates who sat for bar examinations within two years of graduating, was 83.94% for the class of 2021.[4]
Entrance to School of LawDonald P. Kennedy Hall, home of the School of Law
Post-graduation employment
According to Chapman's official ABA-required disclosures, 93.00% of the Class of 2023 obtained bar passage required employment (i.e., as attorneys) 10 months or less after graduation, 11.00% were employed in JD advantage jobs where bar passage was a desired qualification, but not required. Positions were in various size law firms, most being in 1-10 attorney firms (26%) with employment in firms of up to 501+ attorneys; no graduates obtained local or state judicial clerkship, but three graduates secured federal clerkships. Of the Class of 2023, 18% of graduates were employed in public interest, government, higher education, or business employment. 4% of the graduating class was unemployed at the time of publication.[12]
Chapman University School of Law is currently ranked tied for 108th by the U.S. News & World Report's annual law school rankings.[13]
Costs and average student indebtedness
The cost of tuition for full-time JD students at Chapman for the 2023–2024 academic year was $61,286, which does not include living expenses and fees; for part-time students with between 8 – 11.5 credits tuition was approximately $48,960 per annum, for part-time students with between 0.5 – 7.5 credits tuition was approximately $2,040 per credit.[14]
Scholarships
Chapman, like some other law schools, uses merit-based scholarships in order to entice competitive students who might otherwise pass over the school for higher ranked competitors and to enhance its own ranking.[15][16]
Dean
Paul D. Paton was named dean of Chapman University's Dale E. Fowler School of Law and the Donald P. Kennedy Chair in Law in March 2023. He assumes the role from Interim Dean Marisa Cianciarulo who served as interim-dean from December 1, 2021 through June 30, 2023. Prior deans include Matthew J. Parlow[17] who served as dean from July 1, 2016 to December 1, 2021 who, in turn, succeeded Tom Campbell, dean of Fowler School of Law from 2011-2016, Scott W. Howe served as dean from 2010-2011, John C. Eastman from 2007-2010, and Parham Williams served as dean from 1997-2007.[18]
Notable faculty
Tom Campbell, Member of the United States Congress, 1989–1993 and 1995–2001, member of the California State Senate 1993–1995, and director of the California Department of Finance from 2004–2005.[19]
John C. Eastman, who represented Donald Trump in disputes over the 2020 US presidential election. On January 13, 2021, Eastman retired from the Chapman University faculty after he creating controversy by speaking at a Trump rally that preceded the storming of the United States Capitol.[20][21]
Hugh Hewitt, radio host and co-panelist in several of the 2016 presidential debates.[22]
Chapman's Fowler School of Law publishes the Chapman Law Review, a student-run scholarly journal.[25] In addition to publishing the scholarly journal, the Chapman Law Review hosts a symposium at the start of the spring semester each year.[26]
