University of California, Hastings College of the Law

Not to be confused with Hastings College.
University of California,
Hastings College of the Law
Established 1878[1]
School type Public
Dean David L. Faigman (Acting Chancellor and Dean)
Location San Francisco, California, US
Enrollment 930 (approx.)[1]
Faculty 172 (full- and part-time)[1]
USNWR ranking 50 (2016)[1]
Bar pass rate 76% (ABA profile)
Website www.uchastings.edu
ABA profile UC Hastings College of Law

The University of California, Hastings College of the Law (UC Hastings or Hastings) is a public law school in San Francisco, California, located in the Civic Center neighborhood.

Founded in 1878[1] by Serranus Clinton Hastings, the first Chief Justice of California, it was the first law school of the University of California and was one of the first law schools established in the Western United States. It is also one of the few university-affiliated law schools in the United States that does not share its campus with undergraduates or other graduate programs.

History

Serranus Clinton Hastings, founder of UC Hastings

Hastings has a unique relationship with the University of California. In 1878, when Supreme Court of California Justice Serranus Clinton Hastings gave $100,000 to the University of California to start the law school bearing his name, he imposed two conditions: the school must remain in San Francisco near the courts; and it could not be governed by the Regents of the University of California. Thus the school's leader (who holds the dual titles of chancellor and dean) must obtain funds directly from the California State Legislature, unlike other UC institutions, which receive money from the Regents.[2] In a commencement address, Hastings called his school "a temple of law and intellect, which shall never perish, until, in the lapse of time, civilization shall cease, and this fair portion of our country shall be destroyed or become a desert."

In 1900, it became one of 27 charter members of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS).[3]

Hastings College of the Law was for many years considered the primary law school of the University of California with the purpose of preparing lawyers for the practice of law in the state, whereas the Department of Legal Jurisprudence on the Berkeley campus, which later became Boalt Hall School of Law (now styled Berkeley Law), was intended for the study of law as an academic discipline.

In the 1960s, Hastings began the "65 Club," the practice of hiring faculty who had been forced into mandatory retirement at age 65 from Ivy League and other élite institutions.[4] After the passage of age discrimination laws, however, the "65 Club" slowly phased out, and Hastings hired its last "65 Club" professor in 1998. In the mid-1950s, Newsweek published a story where then Harvard Law School dean and jurist Roscoe Pound declared, referring to UC Hastings: "Indeed, on the whole, I am inclined to think you have the strongest law faculty in the nation."[5]

Location

100 McAllister Street, view from the west, off Golden Gate Avenue
View west from the 24th floor James Edgar Hervey Skyroom at 100 McAllister Street. Visible buildings include San Francisco City Hall with its prominent dome, the city's Asian Art Museum of San Francisco at the left foreground and the Supreme Court of California on the right

UC Hastings campus spreads among three main buildings located near San Francisco's Civic Center: 200 McAllister Street houses academic space and administrative offices,[6] 198 McAllister contains mainly classrooms and faculty offices, and 100 McAllister (known casually as "The Tower") is student housing[7]

The campus is within walking distance of the Muni Metro and Bay Area Rapid Transit Civic Center/UN Plaza Station. UC Hastings is commonly but affectionately derided by students and alums as being located in the ugliest corner of the most beautiful city in the world. Indeed, the school has been referred to in jest as "UC Tenderloin."[8]

Located within a two-block radius of the campus is the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, the California Supreme Court, the California Court of Appeal for the First District, San Francisco Superior Court, San Francisco City Hall, United Nations Plaza (and Federal Building Annex), the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, and the Main Library of the San Francisco Public Library system. The heavy concentration of public buildings within the Civic Center, as well as the high crime rate, result in heavy police presence, and high security, around UC Hastings.

Organization and structure

UC Hastings is managed by a nine-member Board of Directors. The UC Hastings Board of Directors exists independently of, and is not controlled by, the Regents of the University of California. Pursuant to California law, eight of the directors are appointed by the Governor of California. Pursuant to the UC Hastings constitutive documents, the ninth director must be a direct lineal descendant of UC Hastings founder Clinton Serranus Hastings. The Hastings family member now serving on the board is Claes H. Lewenhaupt.

UC Hastings' detachment from the UC Regents gives it a broad degree of independence in shaping educational and fiscal policies; however, due to a shrinking California education budget, Hastings must also compete for limited educational funds against its fellow UC campuses. Despite the apparent competition among the UC law schools, Hastings was able to maintain its traditionally high standards without having to decrease class size or raise tuition to higher levels than fellow UC law schools, until the California budget crisis in June 2009, first raised the possibility of slashing $10 million in state funding.

A few days later, however, lawmakers rejected the harsh budget cut, agreeing to cut only $1 million and apparently preventing dramatic tuition hikes.[9]

Under California law, if the government ever cuts funding to Hastings to below the 19th-century figure of $7,000 a year, the state must return the $100,000, plus interest, to the Hastings family.[10] State Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) has argued that the rejected $10 million budget cut, in abandoning state financial support for the school, would have allowed the Hastings family to launch an expensive court fight to reclaim the $100,000 plus hefty interest.[11]

Academics

Hastings offers a three-year Juris Doctor program with concentrated studies available in seven areas: civil litigation, criminal law, international law, public interest law, taxation, family law, and recently, a new concentration in intellectual property law. Most J.D. students follow a traditional three-year plan. During the first year, students take required courses as well as one elective course. In the second and third years, students may take any course or substitute or supplement their courses with judicial externships or internships, judicial clinics, or study abroad. The college also offers a one-year LL.M. degree in U.S. legal studies for students holding law degrees from foreign law programs. It is an American Bar Association (ABA) approved law school since 1939.[12]

Hastings participates in the Concurrent Degree Program with U.C. Berkeley's Haas Graduate School of Business. Upon completion of a four-year program, the student earns a Berkeley M.B.A. degree and a J.D. degree from UC Hastings College of the Law.[13]

UC Hastings College of the Law and UCSF Medical School have commenced a joint degree program, and in 2011 began enrolling their first class of graduate students in the Master of Studies in Law (MSL) and LL.M. in Law, Science and Health Policy programs. Students have coursework available at each institution for fulfillment of the degrees.[14] This program is a component of the UCSF/UC Hastings Consortium on Law, Science and Health Policy.

A new joint program, the first of its kind in the University of California system, enables UC Santa Cruz students to earn an undergraduate and law degree in six years instead of the usual seven. The “3+3 BA/JD” Program between UC Santa Cruz and UC Hastings admitted its first applicants in Fall 2014.[15]

UCSC students who declare their intent in their freshman or early sophomore year will complete three years at UCSC and then move on to UC Hastings to begin the three-year law curriculum. Credits from the first year of law school will count toward a student's bachelor's degree. Students who successfully complete the first-year law course work will receive their bachelor's degree, graduate with their UCSC class, then continue at UC Hastings for the final two years of law study.

UC Hastings 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] It joined the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) as a charter member in 1900; it renewed its membership in 1949.[17]

Costs

The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at UC Hastings for the 2014-2015 academic year is $71,247 for California residents and $77,247 for non-residents.[18] The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $296,028.[19]

Employment outcomes and rankings

Post-graduation employment

According to UC Hasting's official 2013 ABA-required disclosures, 41.6% of the Class of 2013 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation, excluding solo-practitioners.[20] UC Hasting's Law School Transparency under-employment score is 47.2%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2013 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job nine months after graduation.[21]

ABA Employment Summary for 2013 Graduates[22]
Employment Status Percentage
Employed - Bar Passage Required (Full-Time, Long-Term)
  
 42.9%
Employed - Bar Passage Required (Part-Time and/or Short-Term)
  
 21.18%
Employed - J.D. Advantage
  
 5.09%
Employed - Professional Position
  
 1.07%
Employed - Non-Professional Position
  
 1.07%
Employed - Undeterminable
  
 0.0%
Pursuing Graduate Degree Full Time
  
 1.07%
Unemployed - Start Date Deferred
  
 1.34%
Unemployed - Not Seeking
  
 2.95%
Unemployed - Seeking
  
 22.79%
Employment Status Unknown
  
 0.54%
Total of 373 Graduates

Rank

U.S. News & World Report ranks Hastings 50th among top law schools in the US and as the most diverse of the five law schools in the UC system.[1][23] It was listed with a "B+" in the March 2011 "Diversity Honor Roll" by The National Jurist: The Magazine for Law Students.[24] UC Hastings also has the largest student body and student/faculty ratio of the UC law schools.[25]

In January 2011, UC Hastings was given a "B" in the "Best Public Interest Law Schools" listing by The National Jurist: The Magazine for Law Students.[26]

In 2009, Super Lawyers magazine ranked UC Hastings 11th in terms of law schools that produced the most "Super Lawyers".[27]

According to Brian Leiter's law school rankings, Hastings ranks 27th in the nation in terms of scholarly impact as measured by academic citations of tenure-stream faculty, on par with USC.[28] In terms of student quality, Hastings ranks 33rd in the nation by average LSAT score.[29]

According to the Web site "Law School Advocacy," UC Hastings had the No. 1 Moot Court program in the country in 2011, with Top 5 rankings in each of the last five years.[30]

A 2013 article in Forbes Magazine ranks Hastings 20th among 'The 25 Law Schools Whose Grads Earn The Most'.[31]

Bar passage rates

In 2014, 68% of Hastings Law graduates taking the test for the first time passed the California State Bar.[32]

Publications

Journals

The oldest law journal at UC Hastings is the Hastings Law Journal, which was founded in 1949.[33] The second oldest journal is the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly, which was founded in 1973. Inaugurated in 1997 to oversee the growing number of publications at UC Hastings, the O'Brien Center for Scholarly Publications now manages the publication of the nine UC Hastings journals.[34]

Books

The O'Brien Center at UC Hastings has published several books:[35]

Noted people

Alumni

Faculty

The Battle of Hastings (1066) as depicted on a stained glass window over the main entrance of 100 McAllister Street
Current

Some of the current tenured Hastings faculty include:

Former

Some of the notable former faculty include

Sixty-Five Club

Some of the members of the UC Hastings Sixty-Five Club include

Hastings in popular culture

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Best Law Schools: University of California (Hastings)". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved Sep 5, 2015.
  2. ↑ Donna Domino, “Outgoing Dean Revitalized Troubled Hastings,” San Francisco Daily Journal, 6 April 2006, 1.
  3. ↑ AALS Member Schools. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
  4. ↑ Charles Hillinger, "Hastings Faculty Is Anything But Retiring," Los Angeles Times, 14 December 1982, D12.
  5. ↑ "The Era of The Sixty-Five Club."
  6. ↑ Hastings College of the Law. Institutional Master Plan. EIP Associates, March 2004.
  7. ↑ Student Guidebook, UC Hastings, Student Services.
  8. ↑ Robin Williams at UC Hastings Commencement 1983 (Video). San Francisco: University of California, Hastings College of the Law. 1983. Event occurs at 2 mins 35 secs. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
  9. ↑ "Hastings Beats Back Budget Axe," The Recorder, June 5, 2009
  10. ↑ California Education Code, 92212, http://law.justia.com/california/codes/edc/92200-92215.html
  11. ↑ "California legislators reject cuts to Cal Grants, Hastings law school". Sacramento Bee. June 6, 2009.
  12. ↑ "ABA-Approved Law Schools by Year". ABA website. Retrieved April 20, 2011.
  13. ↑ "Concurrent Degree Programs". Haas School of Business. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved December 9, 2014.
  14. ↑ "UCSF/UC Hastings Consortium on Law, Science and Health Policy". University of California, San Francisco and University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Retrieved December 9, 2014.
  15. ↑ UC Hastings-UCSC 3+3 B.A./J.D. Program
  16. ↑ Order of the Coif member schools
  17. ↑ AALS Member Schools
  18. ↑ "Tuition and Expenses".
  19. ↑ "UC Hastings Profile".
  20. ↑ "ABA Disclosures" (PDF).
  21. ↑ "UC Hastings Profile".
  22. ↑ "Employment Summary for 2013 Graduates".
  23. ↑ "America's Best Graduate Schools 2015, Law School Diversity Index". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved 2015-04-09.
  24. ↑ Larsen, Rebecca (March 2011), "Most Diverse Law Schools (Diversity Honor Roll)", The National Jurist (San Diego, California: Cypress Magazines) 20 (6): 30–37
  25. ↑ "America's Best Graduate Schools 2008, What are the largest and smallest law schools?". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved 2007-10-20.
  26. ↑ Weyenberg, Michelle (January 2011), "Best Law Schools for Public Interest", The National Jurist (San Diego, California: Cypress Magazines) 20 (4): 24–28
  27. ↑ 2009 Super Lawyers, U.S. Law School Rankings, http://www.superlawyers.com/toplists/lawschools/united-states/2009/
  28. ↑ "Top 35 Law Faculties Based on Scholarly Impact, 2007". Brian Leiter's Law School Rankings. Retrieved 2007-10-21.
  29. ↑ "Brian Leiter's Law Schools Ranked by Student (Numerical) Quality, 2008". Brian Leiter's Law School Rankings. Retrieved 2009-07-30.
  30. ↑ "Law School Advocacy". Retrieved 2011-05-11.
  31. ↑ Smith, Jacquelyn (March 14, 2013). "The Law Schools Whose Grads Earn The Biggest Paychecks". Forbes. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
  32. ↑ 2014 California Bar Pass Rates
  33. ↑ "About Hastings Law Journal". Hastings Law Journal. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
  34. ↑ "Journals". O'Brien Center for Scholarly Publications. University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
  35. ↑ "Hastings Books". O'Brien Center for Scholarly Publications. University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
  36. ↑ Edwards, Andrew (2010-12-09). "Former SB mayor W.R. "Bob" Holcomb laid to rest". Contra Costa Times. Retrieved 2010-12-12.

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