Position Announcement

University and School of Law Overview

Chapman’s Beginnings: Founded in 1861, Chapman University is one of the oldest private universities in California. Originally called Hesperian College, the school later merged with California Christian College in Los Angeles. In 1934, the institution was renamed in honor of C.C. Chapman, an Orange County entrepreneur and benefactor of the school. In 1954, the college moved to its current location in Old Towne Orange, California, a charming historic community located in the heart of historic Orange County, just a few miles from the Santa Ana appellate, federal and state court complex. In 1991, the college adopted the “University” designation to more fully reflect its commitment to international education and exemplary undergraduate and graduate programs.

Chapman University prides itself on the deep commitment of its faculty to provide undergraduate and graduate programs of the highest order, with instructors who are committed to providing personal attention to each and every student.

The School of Law

An Historical Perspective: With its fresh approach to legal education and its ties to California’s origins as a state, Chapman University School of Law uniquely bridges a gap between traditional legal values and cutting edge modern legal education.

The Chapman University School of Law began with the premise that legal education should be a deeply stimulating intellectual experience. Chapman sought to challenge old paradigms and put students at the center of the educational experience, providing personalized education in a smaller class size environment. Chapman is driven by the vision of making a legal education personal, dynamic and effective.

Chapman University School of Law opened in 1995 as Orange County’s only law school on a university campus. In 1997, construction began on a home for the school at a site that was once part of the historic Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana, granted by the Spanish government in 1810. 

Nearly 200 years after that original grant, the state-of-the-art Donald P. Kennedy Hall opened in 1999. Named for benefactor, Chapman Trustee, and chairman of the board of First American Financial Corporation, the building incorporates the historic façade of a 19th century structure while also integrating the latest technology for legal study and teaching. By marrying the old with the new, Kennedy Hall symbolizes Chapman’s commitment to its legacy and to providing innovative, personalized and results-oriented legal training.

Students First: What distinguishes a Chapman University School of Law legal education? Faculty passionately interested in the law and student success. A school with the momentum to forge a place for itself in the American legal landscape. A students-first philosophy. A law school that seeks to provide innovative educational experiences.

Passion: Spend 15 minutes in Kennedy Hall and you are likely to hear a “buzz.” This is the sound of a dynamic learning environment, the sound of people passionately engaged in their work. These halls are not silent and intimidating, rather they are alive with student and faculty debate, collaborative research and a sense of mutual purpose—that is to prepare the next generation of legal practitioners and scholars to become ethical and successful global citizens.

Programmatic Goals: In the eleven years of its existence, Chapman School of Law has established several important academic programs.  These include:

• Tax Law Clinic
• Elder Law Clinic
• Three Certificate Programs:  (1) Taxation; (2) Environmental Law, Land Use, and Real Estate (“ENLURE”); and (3) Advocacy and Dispute Resolution
• Joint JD/MBA
• LL.M in Taxation
• LL.M in Prosecutorial Science (anticipated by August 2007)
• Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence
• Center for Global Trade & Development
• Center for Land Resources
• Chapman Law Review
• Nexus Journal
• Annual Madison Lecture (a yearly program dedicated to celebrating a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States.  The program generally features a lecture by a distinguished jurist and a re-argument of the landmark decision)

These existing programs provide positive visibility for the Law School, and a solid focal point for future marketing and fundraising.  They also demonstrate Chapman’s commitment to programmatic diversity, underscoring the faculty’s willingness to entertain new, creative, and innovative ideas for improving the delivery of legal education.  One natural example of a future program would be a joint degree with Chapman University’s own Dodge College of Film and Television. 

In addition to promoting existing programs and cultivating new ones, the new Dean also has the opportunity to make a mark on the Law School by creating positions for distinguished visitors and by increasing the number of endowed chairs for law faculty.

Momentum: The Chapman University School of Law is quickly gaining a reputation as an emerging center for legal education. Since opening in 1995, the School of Law has:

• Received full approval by the American Bar Association and membership in the AALS.
• Opened a spectacular facility for legal study.
• Placed graduates in high-profile firms, prestigious judicial clerkships and government positions.
• Attracted faculty who have clerked for three Supreme Court Justices, who hold degrees from the nation’s top law schools, including Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Chicago, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Duke, Georgetown, U.C.L.A. and U.S.C. and who have published in such distinguished law reviews and journals as University of Chicago Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Vanderbilt Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, UCLA Law Review, Washington and Lee Law Review,  William and Mary Law Review, University of Illinois Law Review North Carolina Law Review, Wisconsin Law Review, Harvard Environmental Law Review, Stanford Journal of International Law and many others.
• Launched a new LL.M. degree in Taxation.
• Seated students with consistently stronger academic credentials year after year, with a current LSAT median of 158.
• Recently was one of the top 10 law schools in California in terms of Bar pass rate, in a state with one of the toughest Bar Exams in the country.

Personalization: Chapman operates on the philosophy that a legal mind develops most effectively in a collaborative environment. Professors view themselves as teachers and mentors and are available to students for intellectual partnerships as well as academic and career advice.

Innovation: At Chapman, the Socratic method is only one of our teaching tools. Professors also employ other pedagogical styles including lectures, small seminars, student study groups and simulation courses. Chapman also stresses ethics and citizenship in its legal training; we see ourselves as a community dedicated to fostering the intellectual and personal development of good people who also happen to be great lawyers.

And the results speak for themselves: This “Chapman difference” has enabled several students to argue before the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals well before graduation. By nine months after graduation, 91 percent of our students have jobs, some with regionally or nationally renowned employers. And Chapman has had alumni accept clerkships for the United States District Courts in California, Nevada and the Virgin Islands, U.S. Bankruptcy Courts, the Minnesota State Court of Appeals, the Colorado State Court of Appeals and the U.S. Department of Labor. Graduating students have also taken positions at Bonne Bridges Mueller, O’Keefe & Nichols, Bryan Cave, California Court of Appeal, Chistensen Miller Fink Jacobs Glasser Weil & Shapiro, Jackson DeMarco & Peckenpaugh, Kirkland & Ellis, Morrison & Foerster, MyCFO, O’Melveny & Myers, Orange County District Attorney, Orange County Public Defender, Public Law Center, and Rutan & Tucker.

Students, Faculty, Accreditation and Programs: The Law School’s student body currently numbers about 556 students, including 181 first year students, from more than 110 undergraduate institutions.  Nearly one-quarter of the student body attended school at one of the University of California campuses, most notably UCLA, UC Irvine, UC San Diego and UC Berkeley.

Chapman University’s School of Law prides itself on its distinguished faculty, educated at some of the best law school in the country, most of which graduated in the top third of their classes.  Several of the 35 full time faculty hold PhD degrees and three faculty members previously clerked for the United States Supreme Court.  The faculty student ratio is 16:1.

The School of Law is fully approved by the American Bar Association (ABA) and is a member of the AALS (Association of American Law Schools).

The Chapman University School of Law offers a full-time program leading to the Juris Doctor degree, a joint JD/MBA degree with Chapman’s AACSB-accredited Argyros School of Business and Economics, and the LL.M. in Taxation.  Additionally, there are Certificate Programs offered in the areas of tax law, advocacy and dispute resolution and environmental/land use/real estate law, enabling students to learn an area of law in-depth before graduating from professors who know and understand their areas of expertise.  At Chapman University’s School of Law, students are also able to participate in a variety of legal clinics and externships which consist of the Ninth Circuit Appellate Clinic, the Claremont Institute Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, the Tax Law Clinic and the Elder Law Clinic. 

Chapman is fortunate currently to be one of only two law schools in California – and a very small percentage of ABA approved law schools nationwide – to be awarded a federal grant to operate a “low income taxpayer clinic” (LITC).  Chapman’s program has been a grant recipient in each year of the low income taxpayer clinic grant program since inception.

The Position

The Dean will report to the Provost of the University and be a key member of the Deans’ Council. 

The Dean of Chapman’s School of Law is the chief academic and administrator of the school and has overall responsibility for providing the continual vision and leadership necessary to achieve academic excellence and the highest level of operational efficiencies.  The Dean will also provide financial and personnel management, assist in fundraising activities and work with the faculty to refine existing academic programs, develop new programs, sustain an environment that fosters scholarly excellence and promotes attracting, retaining and developing the highest caliber of faculty, students and staff possible.

The Successful Candidate: The Law School is seeking a dean with the energy and commitment to enhance the school’s scholarly reputation and to continue to foster and develop relationships with the bar and the broader community.   The size, growth and diversity of Orange County’s population and legal and business communities provide numerous opportunities for an ambitious school such as Chapman. Chapman seeks, for example, to expand efforts to seek funding for programs and endowed chairs, to increase placements of graduates in judicial clerkships, at top tier firms, and to expand clinical offerings to meet the needs of the county’s growing population.

Chapman seeks to foster a climate of committed scholarship and to draw scholars of national prominence to the school as visiting faculty, symposium participants and lecturers.

Potential candidates interested in learning more about this opportunity should possess the following qualifications and experience:

• A record of scholarship and teaching experience required for appointment as a tenured professor.
• Leadership experience in an academic environment or comparable setting.
• Demonstrated ability and creativity as an administrator to develop resources.
• Good collaboration skills with the ability to build trust and good working relationships with all internal and external constituencies of the Law School.
• Budgetary experience ensuring that financial resources are adequately and prudently managed through the development of an effective annual operating budget and additional long term strategies.
• A commitment to diversity, as demonstrated by a record of promoting diversity within a student body, faculty and administrative team or within a corporation or law environment.
• Interpersonal skills and dedication that nurtures and supports excellence in scholarship and teaching as well as service to alumni and the community.
• A reputation as an advocate for law and the legal system, championing the highest degree of ethics and fostering a learning environment that produces exceptional lawyers.
• A commitment to faculty governance.
• The capability to  exploit the significant opportunities that only present themselves at a newer Law School, for example, the building of a relationship with Chapman’s burgeoning Dodge College of Film & Media Arts.

Nominations, Inquiries and Application Process: Applicants must submit a letter of application and a detailed curriculum vitae.  Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until a new Dean has been announced.

Nominations, inquiries and expressions of interest should be forwarded to, and will be held in the strictest of confidence by:

Review of applications begins immediately. The position will remain open until filled.

To learn more about Chapman University and their School of Law, it is encouraged that you peruse their website at:  www.chapman.edu.

Chapman University is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to providing career opportunities to all people, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, or veteran status.