USC Gould School of Law

The University of Southern California Law School (Gould School of Law), located in Los Angeles, California, is a law school within the University of Southern California. The oldest law school in the Southwestern United States, USC Law had its beginnings in 1896, and was officially established as a school of the university in 1904.^[1]

History

USC Law School had its beginnings in 1896 when Judge David C. Morrison opened his courtroom for 36 law apprentices, among whom were future California Supreme Court Justice Frederick W. Houser and his wife, Sara Isabella Wilde; the couple would soon form the Los Angeles Law Students Association to discuss the concept of a formal law school.^[2] Their efforts resulted in the incorporation of the Los Angeles Law School in 1898.^[3] The first law degree was awarded in 1901 to Gavin W. Craig.^[2] Over the next several decades, USC Law rose to become one of the most prominent national law schools, priding itself on an interdisciplinary form of study. 2002 saw the beginning of the USC Law Graduate and International Programs. It is an American Bar Association (ABA) approved law school since 1924.^[4] It joined the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) in 1907.^[5]

USC Law School

Academics

USC Law awards the J.D., LL.M., and M.C.L. law degrees. It currently has about 600 J.D. students (200 per year), and a growing LL.M. program of about 90 students. It offers two certificate programs: business and entertainment law.^[6]

USC Law will also offer a LL.M. in Taxation in Fall 2011.^[7]

Rankings

Template:See also USC Law has consistently been ranked between 15th and 18th by the U.S. News & World Report list of "America's Best Graduate Schools" since the magazine has published an annual version of its rankings,^[8][9] ranking 18th in 2011.^[10] "The Law School 100", a ranking scheme that uses qualitative criteria instead of quantitative, ranks the law school 14th overall, tied with Duke, UCLA, and Vanderbilt University.^[11] In addition, USC Law was ranked 14th in the 2008 National Law Journal job placement study, with over 43% of its graduating class hired by the NLJ 250 largest law firms in the United States.^[12] It was listed with an "A-" in the March 2011 "Diversity Honor Roll" by The National Jurist: The Magazine for Law Students.^[13]

Academic journals and honors programs

USC Law hosts three academic journals and offers one additional honors program: Southern California Law Review, Interdisciplinary Law Journal, Southern California Review of Law and Social Justice (formerly the Review of Law and Women's Studies), and the Hale Moot Court Honors Program.^[14]

Selected law students can participate in one honors program in an academic year.^[15]

USC Law has a chapter of the Order of the Coif, a national law school honorary society founded for the purposes of encouraging legal scholarship and advancing the ethical standards of the legal profession.^[16]

Clinical programs

USC maintains six client clinics to provide students real experience with lawyering skills.^[17]

• Employer Legal Advice Clinic – counseling Los Angeles-area non-profits with employment law issues; assisted small businesses to regenerate after the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
• Immigration Clinic – providing pro bono representation to clients in a variety of immigration cases from over 25 different countries
• Intellectual Property and Technology Law Clinic – assisting artists, entrepreneurs, non-profit organizations, and policymakers with intellectual property issues
• Mediation Clinic – providing mediation for small claims and civil harassment cases for the Los Angeles County Superior Court
• Post-Conviction Justice Project – representing clients on civil issues related to incarceration, parole hearings, and constitutional rights
• Small Business Clinic – providing corporate legal assistance to entrepreneurs, non-profit organizations, and small businesses

Study abroad program

USC Law offers two international study abroad programs, providing credit to J.D. students. Students may spend a semester abroad at the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law or pursue a J.D./LL.M dual degree with the London School of Economics.^[18]

Dual Degree Programs

USC Law maintains dual degree programs with the Marshall School of Business, the Department of Economics, the School of Public Administration, the School of Urban and Regional Planning, the School of Social Work, the Davis School of Gerontology, the School of Religion, the Annenberg School of Communications, and the School of International Relations.

Dual degree programs are accelerated - If a Master's degree normally requires one year of study, a student in a dual degree program earns both degrees in only three years. If the Master's degree normally requires two years of post-baccalaureate courses, a total of four years is required.

Qualified students can earn the following degrees in conjunction with their J.D.:

• Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.)
• Master of Real Estate Development (M.R.E.D.)
• Master of Business Taxation (M.B.T.)
• Master of Public Administration (M.P.A.)
• Master of Social Work (M.S.W.)
• Master of Science in Gerontology (M.S.G.)
• Master of Arts in Communications Management (M.A.)
• Master of Arts in Economics (M.A.)
• Master of Arts in International Relations (M.A.)
• Master of Arts in Philosophy (M.A.)

USC Law also maintains two other dual degree programs. A program administered in conjunction with the California Institute of Technology enables a student to receive a J.D. from USC and a Ph.D. in social science from Cal Tech. A dual degree program initiated with the USC School of Pharmacy enables a qualified student to earn a J.D. and a Pharm.D. degree. Students admitted to the J.D./Pharm.D. program must begin their studies in the School of Pharmacy.At the request of individual students, other dual degree programs may be initiated with the concurrence of USC Law and the other departments involved.^[19]

Noted people

Deans

1. 1904–1927, Frank M. Porter
2. 1927–1930, Justin Miller
3. 1930–1948, William G. Hale
4. 1948–1952, Shelden Elliott
5. 1952–1963, Robert Kingsley
6. 1963–1968, Orrin B. Evans
7. 1968–1980, Dorothy W. Nelson
8. 1980–2000, Scott H. Bice
9. 2000–2006, Matthew L. Spitzer
10. 2006–2007, Edward J. McCaffery (interim)
11. 2007–present, Robert K. Rasmussen

Faculty

• Jody Armour^[20] – specializes in race issues; author of Negrophobia and Reasonable Racism
• Scott Bice – expert on federal courts; former dean of USC law school (1980–2000)
• Alexander Capron^[21] – specializes in law and medicine
• Susan Estrich^[22] – Professor of Law and Political Science. A Fox News commentator, Professor Estrich is frequently asked to comment on political interest stories. As an author, most recently, she has published The Case for Hillary Clinton, 2005, and Soulless: The Right Wing Church of Hate, 2006. Estrich is a woman of firsts; she was the first woman to become Editor in Chief of the Harvard Law Review, the youngest woman to receive tenure from Harvard Law School (before leaving to teach at USC), and the first woman to ever run a Presidential campaign (Dukakis, 1988).
• Elizabeth Garrett^[23] – appointed to President Bush's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform; USC Vice President of Academic Planning and Budget, Professor of Law, Political Science and Public Policy
• Carole E. Handler – Professor of antitrust and intellectual property law
• Edward Kleinbard^[24] – tax expert; former chief of staff of Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation
• George Lefcoe^[25] – real estate expert; author of the widely used "Real Estate Transactions" textbook
• Edward McCaffery^[26] – tax expert
• Matthew McCubbins^[27] – specializes in statutory interpretation
• Elyn Saks^[28] – expert on mental health law, author of The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness

Former faculty

• Erwin Chemerinsky – former Sydney M. Irmas Professor of Public Interest Law, Legal Ethics, and Political Science, 1983–2004; former professor at the Duke University School of Law; founding Dean at the University of California, Irvine School of Law
• Richard Epstein – well-known for his arguments against anti-discrimination laws; currently the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School
• James Brown Scott – authority on international law, founding dean of USC Law School
• Charles Whitebread – expert on Criminal Procedure and lecturer for BarBri; author of The Eight Secrets of Top Exam Performance in Law School
• Debra Wong Yang – trial advocacy expert; the first Asian American woman served as a United States Attorney
• Jean Rosenbluth – former professor of Legal Writing and noted expert on criminal law; currently serving as a Federal Magistrate Judge in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California^[29]

Alumni

Law

U.S. federal Court of Appeals judges

• Arthur Lawrence Alarcon (1951) – Judge of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (1979–1992)
• James Marshall Carter (1927) – Judge of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (1967–1971); Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California (1949–1967)
• Walter Raleigh Ely, Jr. (LL.M. 1949) – Judge of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (1964–1979)
• Ferdinand Francis Fernandez (1962) – Judge of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (1989–2002); Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (1985–1989)
• Warren J. Ferguson (1949) – Judge of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (1979–1986); Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (1966–1979)
• Dorothy Wright Nelson (LL.M. 1956) – Judge of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (1979–1995)
• David R. Thompson (1955) – Judge of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (1985–1998)
• Charles E. Wiggins (1956) – Judge of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (1984–1996)

U.S. federal District Court for the Central District of California judges

• William Matthew Byrne, Jr. (1956) – Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (1971–1998)
• Thurmond Clarke (1927) – Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (1966–1970); Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California (1955–1966)
• Elisha Avery Crary (1929) – Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (1966–1975); Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California (1962–1966)
• Richard Arthur Gadbois, Jr. (1960) – Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (1982–1996)
• Peirson Mitchell Hall – Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (1966–1968); Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California (1942–1966)
• James M. Ideman (1963) – Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (1984–1998)
• David Vreeland Kenyon (1957) – Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (1980–1995)
• George H. King (1974) – Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (1995–present)
• Stephen G. Larson (1989) – Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (2006–2009)
• Nora Margaret Manella (1975) – Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (1998–2006)
• Edward Rafeedie (1959) – Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (1982–1996)
• Albert Lee Stephens, Jr. (1938) – Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (1966–1979); Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California (1961–1966)
• Alicemarie Huber Stotler (1967) – Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (1984–2009)
• Robert Mitsuhiro Takasugi (1959) – first Japanese American federal judge; Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (1976–1996)
• Dickran Tevrizian (1965) – Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (1985–2005)
• Laughlin Edward Waters, Sr. (1947) – Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (1976–1986)
• David W. Williams (1937) – first African American federal judge west of the Mississippi River; Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (1969–1981)

Other U.S. federal court judges

• Mary Ann Cohen (1967) – Judge of the United States Tax Court (1982–present)
• J. Lawrence Irving (1963) – Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California (1982–1990)
• David W. Ling (1913) – Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona (1936–1964)
• Leland Chris Nielsen (1946) – Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California (1971–1985)
• Howard Boyd Turrentine (1939) – Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California (1970–1984)
• Ronald M. Whyte (1967) – Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (1992–2009)

California Supreme Court justices

• David Eagleson (1950) – Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court (1987–1991)
• Douglas L. Edmonds (1910) – Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court (1936–1955)
• Frederick W. Houser (1900) – Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court (1937–1942)
• Marcus Kaufman (1956) – Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court (1987–1990)
• Joyce L. Kennard (1974) – first Asian-American to serve as an Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court (1989–present)
• Malcolm M. Lucas (1953) – 26th Chief Justice of California (1987–1996); Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court (1984–1987); Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (1971–1984)

From 1989–1990, with Eagleson, Kaufman, Kennard, and Lucas were concurrently serving on the California Supreme Court, USC Gould School of Law became the first (and so far only) law school whose alumni constituted a majority of that Court's justices.^[30] All four were appointed by Republican Governor George Deukmejian.

Business

• C. Bertrand Thompson (1900) – First African-American graduate of USC Law School at age 18, later a Unitarian minister, assistant to Frederick W. Taylor and early scholar of scientific management, lecturer at the Harvard Business School (1908–1917), international business consultant (awarded the French Légion d'honneur), and researcher in biochemistry
• Louis Galen (1951) – former CEO of Golden West Financial, philanthropist
• Frank Rothman (1951) – former chairman and CEO of MGM Studios and noted trial attorney
• Sol Price (1957) – founder of Fed Mart and Price Club(Costco Wholesale Corp.)
• Walt Zifkin (1961) – CEO Emeritus, William Morris Agency
• James E. Rogers (1963) – CEO & owner, Sunbelt Communications
• Richard Ziman (1967) – CEO, Arden Realty
• Stanley Gold (1967) – President and CEO of Shamrock Holdings
• Bruce Karatz (1970) – CEO of KB Home
• Larry Flax (1971) – co-founder of California Pizza Kitchen
• Jeff Smulyan (1972) – founder and CEO of Emmis Communications
• Charles Prince (1975 – former chairman & CEO of Citigroup
• Alan Hoffman (1991) – Chief of Staff for Senator Joe Biden; former Vice President of Timmons and Co.
• Richard Rosenblatt (1994) – Founder, CEO, Intermix & Demand Media; former Chairman, MySpace; Founder, former CEO, iMALL

Other

• Arthur Alber – Los Angeles, California, City Council member (1927–29
• Litta Belle Hibbens Campbell (1913) – first female deputy district attorney in the United States
• Mabel Walker Willebrandt (1916) – Assistant U.S. Attorney General (1921–1929
• You Chung Hong (1898–1977) (1924) – first Chinese American admitted to practice in California
• Gordon Dean (1930) – former USC Law School professor; chairman of the US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)
• Edwin Jefferson (1931) – first African American judge west of Chicago
• Jack Carl Greenburg (1933) – former Chief Clerk of the California State Assembly
• William P. Hogoboom (1919–2003) (1949) – former California Superior Court judge, author of Rutter Group California legal practice guides^[31][32]
• David Getches (1967) – Dean and Raphael J. Moses Professor of Natural Resources Law at the University of Colorado School of Law
• Scott Bice (1968) – Dean of USC Law School from 1980–2000, Supreme Court Clerk for Chief Justice Earl Warren. Board of Directors, Arena Pharmaceuticals.
• James P. Gray (1971) – presiding judge of the Superior Court of Orange County; former Libertarian candidate for the U.S. Senate
• Stephen Cooley (1973) – Los Angeles County's 36th District Attorney
• Douglas Kmiec (1976) – U.S. AmbassadorCaruso Family Chair in Constitutional Law at Pepperdine University,fmr. U.S. Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, fmr. Dean and St. Thomas More Professor, The Catholic University of America, fmr. Director of Law & Government Center, University of Notre Dame
• Margaret Radin (1976) – influential law professor at Stanford Law School; former USC Law School professor
• Matthew Spitzer (1977) – Robert C. Packard Trustee Chair in Law and Political Science and visiting professor of Law and Economics at the California Institute of Technology; Dean of USC Law School from 2000–2006; currently Hayden W. Head Regents Chair for Faculty Excellence and professor of administrative law, regulatory policy, and broadcast regulation at the University of Texas School of Law
• Jacob Stein – attorney, authority on the subject of asset protection
• George Hedges (1978) – senior partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges LLP and attorney to numerous celebrity clients; led team of archaeologists in discovering the lost city of Ubar in Oman in 1991.

Politics

• Arthur Alber – Los Angeles City Council member (1927–29)
• Bertrand W. Gearhart (1910) – lawyer and former member of the United States House of Representatives
• Fletcher Bowron (1911) – former mayor of Los Angeles
• J. Curtis Counts (1941) – Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.^[33]
• Buron Fitts (1916) – former Lieutenant Governor of California
• Thomas Kuchel (1935) – former United States Senator
• Craig Hosmer (1940) – former United States Representative
• Fred Hall (1941) – former Governor of Kansas
• James B. Utt (1946) – former United States Representative
• Carlos Moorhead (1949) – former United States Representative
• Robert Finch (1951) – attorney, former Lieutenant Governor of California, former United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare
• Yvonne Brathwaite Burke (1956) – Los Angeles County supervisor, former member of the United States House of Representatives
• Michael L. Williams (1979) – senior commissioner of the Railroad Commission of Texas
• John Heilman (1982) – mayor of West Hollywood
• James Stuart McKnight (1908) – Los Angeles City Council member (1931–33)

Sports and media

• Carey McWilliams (1927) – author (lawyer (journalist (and editor of The Nation for twenty years
• Joseph Wapner (1948) – Judge of The People's Court (former Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge
• Terry Baker (1968) – played quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams and the CFL's Edmonton Eskimos while earning a J.D. at USC
• Amy Trask (1985^[34]) – CEO of the Oakland Raiders
• Rick Neuheisel (1990) – College and professional Football Coach. Current head football coach at UCLA and former UCLA quarterback.

Notes and references

External links

• Template:Official website
• USC Law School Library Catalog
• Interdisciplinary Law Journal
• Review of Law and Social Justice