Whittier Law School
| Whittier Law School | |
|---|---|
| Parent school | Whittier College |
| Established | 1966 |
| School type | Private |
| Dean | Judith Daar (interim) |
| Location | Costa Mesa, California, United States |
| Enrollment | 392 (full- and part-time) |
| Faculty | 49 |
| USNWR ranking | Rank not published |
| Bar pass rate | 22% (July 2016) |
| Website | law.whittier.edu [1] |
| ABA profile | LSAC link: Whittier Law School |
Whittier Law School is a law school in Costa Mesa, California founded in 1966. The law school is part of Whittier College, a private institution. As of April 15, 2017 Whittier Law School will no longer be taking students and the legal program will be discontinued.
The school was founded as the Beverly College of Law in 1966, and was located in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles' Westside. It was a private, nonprofit educational institution intended to meet the growing need for a law school in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
In 1974, the Whittier College Board of Trustees voted to merge the Beverly College of Law into Whittier College. In 1975, the Law School became known as the Whittier College School of Law and later as Whittier Law School. In response to a significant gift to the Law School, the Hancock Park building was dedicated as the Ross McCollum Law Center during a ceremony at which Supreme Court Associate Justice Byron R. White presented the major address.
During the 1990s, the Law School, along with leaders at Whittier College, decided to relocate the campus to Orange County in order to satisfy space needs and in response to requests by the community for an ABA law school in Orange County. In 1996, the college acquired the present 14-acre campus in Costa Mesa, remodeled the buildings on the site to accommodate the needs of the Law School, and moved the faculty and students over a period of three years. In 1997, the move was completed and Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy gave the major address at the opening ceremony.
In 2013, Chief Justice of California Tani Cantil-Sakauye spoke at the grand opening of law school's 4,400 sq. ft. court room. A substantial amount of the funds to build the new $2-million facility was donated by Paul Kiesel, a Whittier alumnus and partner at Kiesel Law, LLP. Over 150 contributors, including alumni, faculty, judges, law firms, members of the Orange County community, and even Whittier Law School student groups, were responsible for the remainder.
In April 2017, the school announced that it would admit no more first-year students and would work with 400 current students to complete their degree. No firm closing date was announced. It became the first fully accredited law school in the country to announce closure in a time of challenge for legal-education institutions.
Whittier Law School offers both full and part-time J.D. programs. The full-time program takes three years to complete, while the part-time program takes four years to complete.
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