SCHOOL OF LAW

Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean

General Information: law@uci.edu
http://www.law.uci.edu/

Faculty

Dan Burk, J.S.M. Stanford Law School, J.D. Arizona State University, UCI Chancellor's Professor of Law

Erwin Chemerinsky, J.D. Harvard Law School, Dean of the School of Law and UCI Distinguished Professor of Law and Political Science

Linda R. Cohen, Ph.D. California Institute of Technology, Associate Dean for Graduate Studies, School of Social Sciences, and Professor of Economics and Law

Joseph F. DiMento, Ph.D., J.D. University of Michigan, Professor of Law; Planning, Policy, and Design; Environmental Health, Science, and Policy; and Management

Catherine Fisk, J.D. University of California, Berkeley; LL.M. University of Wisconsin at Madison, UCI Chancellor's Professor of Law

Carrie Hempel, J.D. Yale University School of Law, Associate Dean of Clinical Education and Service Learning Programs, and Clinical Professor of Law

Trina Jones, J.D. University of Michigan Law School, Professor of Law

Elizabeth F. Loftus, Ph.D. Stanford University, UCI Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Social Behavior; Criminology, Law and Society; Cognitive Sciences; and Law

Carrie Menkel-Meadow, J.D. University of Pennsylvania, Professor of Law

Rachel F. Moran, J.D. Yale University School of Law, Professor of Law

Ann Southworth, J.D. Stanford Law School, Professor of Law

Beatrice Tice, J.D. Stanford Law School, M.L.I.S. University of Washington, Associate Dean of Library and Information Services and Clinical Professor of Law

Grace Tonner, J.D. Loyola Law School, Associate Dean of Lawyering Skills and Clinical Professor of Law

Kerry Vandell, Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Professor of Management; Law; and Planning, Policy, and Design

Henry Weinstein, J.D. University of California, Berkeley, Clinical Professor of Law and Literary Journalism

It is anticipated that six additional full-time faculty will be appointed within the School by fall 2009. For up-to-date information on these appointments, please monitor the School's Web site at http://www.law.uci.edu.

OVERVIEW

The School of Law, will welcome its founding class of students in fall 2009. The School offers the J.D. (Juris Doctor). In addition, joint-degree programs will connect legal education with the wide range of academic and professional opportunities of a major research university. The School emphasizes interdisciplinary studies and encourages dual degrees in many different fields.

Students completing the J.D. degree will be fully prepared for the practice of law based on the ultimate objective of any legal system—the realization of justice. The curriculum, described in further detail below, includes in-depth study of legal doctrine and also provides experiential learning based on clinical practice and the professional training in lawyering skills necessary for the practice of law at the highest level. Every student will have a clinical experience or the equivalent.

The School of Law builds on UCI's existing strengths in emerging technology, social policy, international business, environmental science and policy, health care, and other fields to produce leaders in law, government, and business for the twenty-first century. UCI law graduates are encouraged to pursue careers in public service, including non-governmental organizations and philanthropic agencies. Financial aid and a loan-repayment assistance program will be available to support students interested in these fields. The School will work aggressively to place students in law firms, public interest and legal services offices, and government agencies. A wide array of employers, from both the public and private sectors, have already committed to interview on campus.

The School of Law will seek accreditation from the American Bar Association as soon as possible. That process takes place over a three- to five-year period including an initial application for provisional accreditation for new law schools. (Students and graduates of provisionally approved law schools are entitled to the same recognition given to students and graduates of fully approved law schools. The Law School is eligible for provisional accreditation in 2010 and if it is received, students will be eligible for any bar exam.) The Dean is fully informed as to the Standards and Rules of Procedure for the Approval of Law Schools by the American Bar Association. The administration and the Dean are determined to devote all necessary resources and in other respects to take all necessary steps to present a program of legal education that will qualify for approval by the American Bar Association. The School of Law makes no representation to any applicant that it will be approved by the American Bar Association prior to the graduation of any matriculating student.

The School of Law seeks to enroll outstanding students who reflect a wide diversity of life experiences. The initial students will receive a top-quality legal education and also have the chance to participate in the shaping of an exciting new institution. Further information about admission requirements, application deadlines, fee levels, and curriculum developments will be updated regularly on the School's Web site at http://www.law.uci.edu/.

Degree

Law

J.D.

CURRICULUM

The first-year curriculum will teach students areas of legal doctrine traditionally taught in the first year, but in an innovative way that focuses on teaching methods of legal analysis and skills that all lawyers constantly use.

All first-year students will take the following curriculum:

Fall Semester
Common Law Analysis: Private Ordering (4 units)
Lawyering Skills I (3 units)
Legal Profession I (2 units)
Procedural Analysis (4 units)
Statutory Analysis (3 units)

Spring Semester
Common Law Analysis: Government Regulation (4 units)
Constitutional Analysis (4 units)
International Legal Analysis (3 units)
Lawyering Skills I (3 units)
Legal Profession II (2 units)

The Lawyering Skills course, which will be part of both semesters, will focus on teaching students the skills that all lawyers use, such as fact investigation, interviewing, legal writing and analysis, legal research, negotiation, and oral advocacy. In the spring semester, all students will have a clinical experience where they will conduct in-take interviews of actual clients for the Legal Aid Society of Orange County.

The Legal Profession course, which also will be in both semesters, will teach students legal ethics and professional responsibility. It also will provide instruction in the economics of the profession, the psychology of the profession, and the sociology of the profession. In this way, it will provide interdisciplinary instruction, which is often so important for the practice of law. As part of this course, there will be a speaker series where lawyers from many different areas of practice will describe their work, enabling students to gain a sense of the varied and diverse types of work that lawyers do.

Each of the other courses will focus on a method of analysis which is used in many areas of law and legal practice. Two courses, one in the fall and one in the spring, will focus on common law analysis, the method of analysis used in areas where the law is derived from judicial decisions rather than statutes or the constitution. In the fall, Common Law Analysis: Private Ordering will focus primarily on the common law of contracts to teach this method of analysis. In the spring, Common Law Analysis: Government Regulation will use torts as a way of further examining the common law and how lawyers reason and develop arguments in this area.

Statutory Analysis, in the fall semester, will use criminal law as a basis for teaching students the methods that are used in all areas of law in analyzing statutes.

Procedural Analysis, also in the fall semester, will use civil procedure as the foundation for teaching students about areas of law where there are procedural rules and how analysis and arguments are made in such contexts.

Constitutional Analysis, in the spring semester, will teach students basic areas of constitutional law such as separation of powers, federalism, and individual liberties. The focus will be on how constitutional arguments are made and how courts and lawyers analyze constitutional issues.

International Legal Analysis, also in the spring semester, will introduce students to international law and the ways in which analysis in this area are similar to and different from other areas of law.

Students thus will receive an education that includes the traditional areas of legal doctrine, but in an innovative context designed to prepare them for practice in the twenty-first century. Additionally, many other features of the first year will be designed to prepare students for the practice of law. All first-year students will be assigned a lawyer mentor and be required to spend a number of hours observing that lawyer at work. There will be an active pro bono program where students will have the opportunity to do volunteer work in many different contexts beginning in their first year. Also, students will be actively engaged in helping to create the institutions of the new law school.

At the time the Catalogue went to press, the founding faculty of the Law School had not yet finalized the entire course of study for the J.D. degree. Please refer to the School's Web site at http://www.law.uci.edu for additional detail and information.

Produced by University Editor's Office