About Chapman Law

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.

The School of Law has quickly earned a reputation as an emerging center for legal education. Since opening in 1995, the School of Law has:

• Earned a Top Schools position in the U.S. News and World Report.
• Secured the services of its current dean, Tom Campbell, a former U.S. congressman, UC Berkeley dean and Stanford Law professor.
• Seen a significant rise in first-time California Bar exam pass rates.
• Received full and unconditional approval by the American Bar Association.
• Opened a spectacular facility for legal study.
• Placed graduates in high-profile firms, prestigious judicial clerkships and government positions.
• Competed exceedingly well against many well-established schools in key law school rankings.
• Attracted faculty who have clerked for Supreme Court Justices and who hold degrees from Harvard, Stanford, Chicago, UCLA, USC, Pennsylvania, Georgetown and Michigan and with publications in distinguished law reviews and journals such as Minnesota Law Review, Wisconsin Law Review, Harvard Environmental Law Review, the Georgetown Journal of Law and Policy, Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy and many others.
• Launched new LL.M. degrees in taxation and prosecutorial science, and added an exciting new certificate program in entertainment law.
• Seated students with consistently stronger academic credentials year after year.
• Routinely competed head to head against some of the nation's top law schools in its burgeoning student competition program.

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.

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. 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, Rutan & Tucker and the United States District Court. (sidebar)