Case Western Reserve University School of Law | |
---|---|
Established | 1892 |
School type | Private |
Dean | Jessica Wilen Berg and Michael Scharf |
Location | Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. |
Enrollment | 422 |
Faculty | 68 full-time |
USNWR ranking | 80th (2024) [1] |
Bar pass rate | 86.73% (2022 first time takers) [2] |
Website | www |
Case Western Reserve University School of Law is one of eight schools at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. It was one of the first schools accredited by the American Bar Association. [3] It is a member of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). [4] It was initially named for Franklin Thomas Backus, a justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, whose widow donated $50,000 to found the school in 1892. [5]
According to Case Western Reserve's official 2018 ABA-required disclosures, 65.9% of the Class of 2018 obtained full-time, long-term, bar passage-required employment nine months after graduation, excluding solo-practitioners, ranking 114th out of 200 ABA-approved law schools. [6] [7]
The student-faculty ratio is 6.8:1. [8] In August 2013, by a near-unanimous vote, the faculty adopted a new curriculum to reflect changes in the legal profession. The model is designed to blend practice, theory, and professionalism in all three years of law school. Students begin working with clients in the first year of law school. Writing and skills-oriented courses track course content to the school's substantive-law courses to blend theory and practice. Students also learn transactional drafting, financial literacy, and statutory and regulatory analysis during their first year.
During the second year of law school, students specialize and continue to build on the skills they learned during their first year. The law school's concentrations include health care law, international law, national security law, and law, technology, and the arts.
Beginning in 2016, a capstone semester became a hallmark of the third year. All students practice law full-time by working on cases through the Milton A. Kramer Law Clinic Center at the law school or through an externship. Students may do externships in the U.S. or abroad. A select number of students may competitively apply to spend their third year in Europe, completing a foreign LLM degree in addition to their Case JD, at no additional cost.
Students learn leadership through courses developed by faculty at Case Western's Weatherhead School of Management, and students graduate with e-portfolios of their work to share with employers.
For the class entering in 2022, the school accepted 39.18% of applicants and, from those accepted, 29.08% enrolled, with enrolled students having an average 160 LSAT score and 3.66 average undergraduate GPA. [9]
The school was ranked 78th by the U.S. News & World Report on its 2023—2024 law school rankings. [10] U.S. News & World Report has ranked its Health Care Law program ranked tied for 9th in the nation. [11] In addition to its JD curriculum, the law school offers LLM and SJD degrees to foreign-trained lawyers. It also offers an Executive Master of Arts in Financial Integrity and a Masters in Patent Practice.
According to Case Western Reserve's official 2018 ABA-required disclosures, 65.9% of the Class of 2018 obtained full-time, long-term, bar passage-required employment nine months after graduation, excluding solo-practitioners. [6] The school ranked 114th out of 200 ABA-approved law schools in terms of the percentage of 2018 graduates with non-school-funded, full-time, long-term, bar passage required jobs nine months after graduation. [7]
For 2021, Case Western Reserve's Law School Transparency under-employment score was 15%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2021 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job nine months after graduation. [12] 93.4% of the Class of 2021 was employed in some capacity including non-professional, part-time, and short-term employment, while 0.7% were pursuing graduate degrees, and 5.9% were unemployed nine months after graduation. [6] The most graduates, 23.5%, were employed in public service. [13]
Ohio was the primary employment destination for 2021 Case Western Reserve graduates, with 46.1% of employed graduates working in the state. [6] The next two most popular locations for Case Western graduates to accept employment were nine graduates in Washington, D.C., and nine in New York. In addition, two graduates from the class of 2021 accepted positions abroad. [6]
The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at Case Western Reserve for the 2022-2023 academic year was $85,792. [14] Case Western Reserve's tuition and fees on average increase 3.03% annually. [13] The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $320,718, while 47.8% of students received an annual discount greater than or equal to $40,000. [13]
Among Case Western alumni are prominent elected officials, particularly from the State of Ohio. Examples of such include current Ohio State Treasurer Josh Mandel, former Ohio Attorneys General Marc Dann, Lee Fisher, and Jim Petro, and former U.S. Representatives Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Ron Klein.
Members of the bench who are Case Western alumni include Kathleen M. O'Malley of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and John J. McConnell, Jr. of the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island. Both were appointed to their current positions by President Barack Obama. Associate Justice John Hessin Clarke of the United States Supreme Court (from 1916 to 1922) was educated when the school was known as Western Reserve College. Associate Justice Jeffrey Hjelm of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court is also an alumnus.
Other Case alumni are involved in the fields of government, business, academia, and the judiciary.
Boston College Law School is the law school of Boston College, a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. It is situated on a 40-acre (160,000 m2) campus in Newton, Massachusetts, about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the university's main campus in Chestnut Hill.
Quinnipiac University School of Law is located in North Haven, Connecticut. It is one of Quinnipiac University's graduate schools. Quinnipiac Law is the newest law school in Connecticut, having received full accreditation from the American Bar Association (ABA) in 1992. It is a member of the Association of American Law Schools, and is currently ranked 147-192 by U.S. News & World Report.
The Paul M. Hebert Law Center, often styled "LSU Law", is a public law school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is part of the Louisiana State University System and located on the main campus of Louisiana State University.
Mississippi College School of Law is an American Bar Association accredited law school. MC Law is one of two law schools in the state of Mississippi, and is the only law school in the capital city of Jackson, Mississippi. The school is a professional school of Mississippi College, founded in 1826.
The Michael E. Moritz College of Law is the law school of Ohio State University, a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. Founded in 1891, the school is located in Drinko Hall on the main campus of the Ohio State University in Columbus. The school is accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA) and is a charter member of the Association of American Law Schools.
Atlanta's John Marshall Law School (AJMLS) is a private for-profit law school in Atlanta, Georgia. It was founded in 1933 and named for John Marshall, the fourth chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. AJMLS is accredited by the American Bar Association.
The Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University in White Plains, New York is the law school of Pace University, a private university with multiple locations in New York. Founded in 1976 as Pace Law School, the American Bar Association (ABA) accredited it in 1978.
The UA Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law is a public law school, part of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The school is both American Bar Association (ABA) accredited and a member of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS).
The Thomas Goode Jones School of Law is the law school of Faulkner University, located in Montgomery, Alabama.
The University of Idaho College of Law is the law school of the University of Idaho. Its main location is in Moscow, and a second campus is in the state capital of Boise. As of the entering class of 2017–18, students may take all three years of instruction at either location. The UI College of Law was established in 1909, has been a member of the Association of American Law Schools since 1914, and has been accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA) since 1925. In the 2023 rankings, U.S. News & World Report ranked Idaho Law at #142 of ABA-accredited law schools in its annual law school rankings.
The Arizona Summit Law School was a for-profit law school in Phoenix, Arizona, that operated from 2005 to 2018. The law school was known until 2013 as the Phoenix School of Law, and was a part of the InfiLaw System of independent, for-profit law schools, which includes Florida Coastal School of Law and Charlotte School of Law, owned by Sterling Partners.
The Gonzaga University School of Law is the professional school for the study of law at Gonzaga University. Established in 1912, the Jesuit-affiliated law school has been fully accredited by the American Bar Association since 1951, and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools.
The Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law is a private law school in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1976, the law school is one of six graduate programs offered by Campbell University. The school is named after its founder, Norman Adrian Wiggins, former President and Chancellor of Campbell University, and creator of the institution's law division. Originally housed on the main campus of Campbell University in Buies Creek, the school moved to a newly constructed facility in downtown Raleigh in September, 2009.
Widener University Delaware Law School is a private law school in Wilmington, Delaware. It is one of two separate ABA-accredited law schools of Widener University. Widener University Law School was founded in 1971 as the Delaware Law School and became affiliated with Widener in 1975. In 1989, it was known as Widener University School of Law when it was combined with the campus in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. In 2015, the two campuses separated, with the Harrisburg one renamed to Widener University Commonwealth Law School.
The Liberty University School of Law is the law school of Liberty University, a private evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia. The school offers the J.D., L.L.M., and J.M. degrees.
The University of Dayton School of Law (UDSL) is a private law school located in Dayton, Ohio at Keller Hall. It is affiliated with the University of Dayton, which is a Catholic university of the Society of Mary. The school is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools.
The University of Missouri School of Law is the law school of the University of Missouri. It is located on the university's main campus in Columbia, forty minutes from the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City. The school was founded in 1872 by the Curators of the University of Missouri. Its alumni include governors, legislators, judges, attorneys general, and law professors across the country. According to Mizzou Law's 2016 ABA-required disclosures, 82 percent of the 2016 class obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation.
The University of Toledo College of Law is the law school at the University of Toledo, and is located on the university's main campus in a residential neighborhood in western Toledo, Ohio. The school is fully accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools.
Claude Pettit College of Law is the law school of Ohio Northern University. Located in Ada, Ohio, it is the second oldest law school in Ohio, having been founded in 1885. The college is centered in Tilton Hall, which houses all law classes and the Taggart Law Library. The College of Law is located on the east-northeast side of the ONU campus.
Cooley Law School (Cooley) is a private law school in Lansing, Michigan, and Riverview, Florida. It was established in 1972. At its peak in 2010, Cooley had over 3,900 students and was the largest US law school by enrollment; as of the Spring of 2022, Cooley had approximately 500 students between its two campuses. In November 2020, Western Michigan University's board of trustees voted to end its affiliation with Cooley, which began in 2014, with disassociation effective November 5, 2023. As of 2023, Cooley has failed to reach the 75% two year bar passage required of ABA Standard 316 for continued accreditation.