Michael E. Waterstone, JD, Dean
School of Law
1242 Law Building
310-825-4841
By any standard, UCLA School of Law is recognized as one of the nation’s great law schools. Each year a lively, talented, and diverse law student population assembles in a rigorous, innovative, and supportive environment. Faculty members frequently receive awards for teaching excellence, and are highly regarded University-wide and nationally. They also are recognized worldwide for their scholarship in a broad spectrum of fields that dramatically affect the world—constitutional law, environmental law and policy, human rights, criminal law, corporate law, corporate governance, employment law, international law, immigration law, and intellectual property, to name a few. The structure of U.S. democracy; the underpinnings of individual liberties and regulation of business; the powerless; the many permutations of a race-conscious society—all are subjects of investigation and study. Faculty members are committed to being intellectually and professionally demanding of students and supportive at the same time, encouraging and fostering a genuine spirit of collaboration and community.
Law students select courses from an intellectually rich curriculum. Courses are taught in both traditional and clinical settings, with some offered as part of coordinated concurrent degree programs or specializations in business law and policy; critical race studies; environmental law and policy; international and comparative law; law and philosophy; media, entertainment, technology, and sports law; technology, law, and policy; and public interest law and policy. Situated at a major gateway to the Pacific Rim, and part of an outstanding research university, UCLA School of Law affords law students myriad interdisciplinary opportunities in the classroom and through independent research.
The school’s nationally recognized experiential education program offers sophisticated courses that help students develop core lawyering skills, implement integrated advocacy strategies to solve clients’ problems, and gain from their UCLA education a deeper understanding of what it means to be a lawyer. The experiential education curriculum includes courses that help students develop expertise in client interviewing and counseling, negotiation, business transactions, trial advocacy, community lawyering, environmental law, human rights, and criminal justice. Law clinics offer students opportunities to provide direct representation and policy advocacy to clients in areas including immigration law, veterans advocacy, and prisoners’ rights. Their client communities span a broad spectrum, from artists pursuing film careers to incarcerated individuals seeking pardons.
The technologically advanced, spacious, and comfortable Hugh and Hazel Darling Law Library—replete with natural lighting and views—houses an extensive collection of legal materials.
Successful professional placement of graduates is a hallmark of the law school. Approximately 400 interviewers from law firms, corporations, government agencies, and public interest organizations across the country participate in campus events annually. More than 18,000 UCLA graduates work in coveted positions in California and around the world, serving in law firms and government agencies and working as in-house counsel, business executives, law professors, judges, and lawmakers.
