| University of California, Davis School of Law | |
| Established: | 1965 |
| Parent Endowment: | $2.2 billion (2021)[1] |
| Country: | U.S. |
| Students: | 622 |
| Faculty: | 62 |
| Ranking: | 55th (tie) (2024)[2] |
| Bar Pass Rate: | 84% (July 2019 1st time takers)[3] |
| Motto: | Fiat lux (Latin) |
| Aba Profile: | Standard 509 Report |
The University of California, Davis School of Law (commonly known as King Hall) is the professional graduate law school of the University of California, Davis. The school received ABA approval in 1968.[4] It joined the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) in 1968.[5]
UC Davis School of Law is the smallest of the five law schools in the University of California system, with a total enrollment of under 600 students. The school is located in a building named for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and commonly referred to as King Hall.[6]
During the late 1940s, the rapid expansion of the Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco partially relieved some of the political pressure on Boalt Hall at the Berkeley campus to compromise on its rigid standards for student admissions and faculty hiring.[7] Boalt Hall was able to hold the line on its standards and thereby ascended to the top tier of American law schools by the 1990s.
To further protect Boalt Hall, the university appointed a committee in 1960 to prepare recommendations for the establishment of additional law schools in the UC system. The committee recommended that law schools should be established at Davis, San Diego, and Santa Barbara, but Davis was identified as the highest priority because of its proximity to the California State Capitol at Sacramento.
Formal planning for the law school at Davis began in 1962. The Boalt Hall faculty actively supported and worked on the development of the new law school at Davis because they knew it would relieve the pressure on themselves to ease up on admissions standards. It helped that one of their own, Edward L. Barrett, Jr., was appointed as Davis's first dean in 1964. King Hall opened in a temporary space in 1966 and moved to a permanent building in fall 1968. The first class of 69 students graduated in June 1969.
Apart from Barrett, no one else went from Berkeley to Davis. Barrett was exceedingly careful to not compete against Berkeley in hiring the first law professors at Davis. He knew Boalt Hall regarded Stanford Law School as its only equal within California, and was "sensitive to the somewhat elitist stance of the Boalt Hall faculty and their skepticism that a first-rate law school could be built on an agricultural campus".
In 2016, U.S. News & World Report ranked UC Davis 30th among all law schools in the United States.[2]
For diversity among the five law schools in the UC system, UC Davis was named the second-most diverse after UC Hastings by U.S. News & World Report.[8] Princeton Review placed UC Davis Law tenth in the nation for faculty diversity in the 2009 version of its annual law ranking. It is listed as an "A−" in the March 2011 "Diversity Honor Roll" by The National Jurist: The Magazine for Law Students.
It is listed as an "A" (#16) in the January 2011 "Best Public Interest Law Schools" ratings by The National Jurist: The Magazine for Law Students.[9]
UC Davis Law has the smallest student body of the UC law schools. It has a slightly higher student/faculty ratio than UCLA or Berkeley.[10]
UC Davis has been ranked as the fifth most-expensive public law school in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.[11] It is also ranked first for providing the most financial aid.[11]
UC Davis grants the second-most in financial aid in the country.[12] [13] [14] UC Davis Law's King Hall Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP), founded in 1990 to help alumni working in relatively low-income public-service law careers to repay student loans, was the first loan repayment assistance program established at any UC law school.[15]
According to Brian Leiter's Law School rankings, Davis ranks 23rd in the nation for scholarly impact as measured by total academic citations of tenure-stream faculty.[16]
On November 28, 2022, UC Davis Law withdrew from U.S. News & World Report rankings and will no longer provide data to contribute to those rankings.[17]
Based on a 2001-2007 6 year average, 79.4% of UC Davis Law graduates passed the California State Bar exam.[18] In 2009, 89% of first-time test takers passed the California bar.[19]
For July 2012, 78.9% of first-time test takers passed the California bar exam.[20] For July 2013, 85.0% of first-time test takers passed the California Bar Exam.[21]
For July 2014, 86% of first-time test takers passed the California bar exam.[22]
According to King Hall's official 2019 ABA-required disclosures, 85% of the Class of 2019 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation.[23] King Hall's Law School Transparency under-employment score is 6.5%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2019 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job nine months after graduation.[24]
The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at King Hall for the 2013–2014 academic year is $68,346 for California residents and $80,591 for non-residents.[25] The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $265,806 for residents.[26]
The California International Law Center is a research center at the Davis School of Law (Martin Luther King, Jr. Hall) that focuses on international, comparative, and transnational law. It works to promote scholarship, curricular and career development, and partnerships with organizations such as the American Society of International Law and the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. It was founded in 2009. CILC's director is Diane Marie Amann, a distinguished scholar in the area of international law. The acronym "CILC" is pronounced as "silk." CILC sponsors the Asylum and Refugee Law National Moot Court Competition.[27]
CILC has partnered with the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights for special project focused on the crisis in Darfur. RFK's 2007 Human Rights Laureate Dr. Mohammed Ahmed Abdallah, academic faculty from throughout California, and CILC's fellow, students, and alumni will participate in creating a report of past reconciliation efforts.[28]
CILC's Global Council consists of leaders in international legal and policy advocacy. Current members of the council include Prof. Clayborne Carson, Prof. Mireille Delmas-Marty, Prof. William A. Schabas, former ambassador Derek Shearer, and Judge Patricia M. Wald.
The law school completed a $30 million expansion project in 2011. The project has added an additional wing to the law school's current building, increasing assignable space by nearly 30 percent to provide for additional classrooms, offices, and a new courtroom, named the Paul and Lydia Kalmanovitz Appellate Courtroom in honor of a $1 million gift to the project from the Kalmanovitz Charitable Foundation. The courtroom is used by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, California Supreme Court, and California Court of Appeal.