University of Southern California Law School
The University of Southern California Law School (Gould School of Law), located in Los Angeles, California, is a graduate school within the University of Southern California. The oldest law school in the Southwestern United States, USC Law had its beginnings in 1896, and was officially established as a school of the university in 1904. It currently has about 630 J.D. students (210 per year), and also has a growing LL.M. program of about 90 students. Law School 100, a ranking scheme that purports to use qualitative criteria instead of quantitative, ranks the law school fourteenth overall, tied with Duke, UCLA, and the University of Texas. The 2008 U.S. News & World Report list of "America's Best Graduate Schools" ranks USC Law School at number sixteen.
USC Law publishes three academic journals: Southern California Law Review, Interdisciplinary Law Journal, and Southern California Review of Law and Social Justice (formerly the Review of Law and Women's Studies).
Deans[edit | edit source]
- Frank M. Porter, 1904-1927
- Justin Miller, 1927-1930
- William G. Hale, 1930-1948
- Shelden Elliott, 1948-1952
- Robert Kingsley, 1952-1963
- Orrin B. Evans, 1963-1968
- Dorothy W. Nelson, 1968-1980
- Scott H. Bice, 1980-2000
- Matthew L. Spitzer, 2000-2006
- Edward J. McCaffery (interim dean), 2006-2007
- Robert K. Rasmussen, 2007-present
Notable faculty[edit | edit source]
- Susan Estrich - Professor of Law and Political Science. A Fox News commentator, Professor Estrich is frequently asked to comment on political interest stories. As an author, most recently, she has published The Case for Hillary Clinton, 2005, and Soulless: The Right Wing Church of Hate, 2006. Estrich is a woman of firsts; she was the first woman to become Editor in Chief of the Harvard Law Review, the youngest woman to receive tenure from Harvard Law School (before leaving to teach at USC), and the only woman to ever run a Presidential campaign (Dukakis, 1988).
- Elizabeth Garrett - appointed to President Bush's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform; USC Vice Provost, and Provost of Academic Affairs, Professor of Public Interest Law, Legal Ethics, Political Science, and Policy, Planning and Development
Additional current faculty[edit | edit source]
- Jody Armour - specializes in race issues; author of Negrophobia and Reasonable Racism
- Alexander Capron - specializes in law and medicine
- George Lefcoe - Real Estate expert. Author of the widely used, "Real Estate Transactions" textbook.
- Edward McCaffery - Tax expert
- Charles Whitebread - lecturer for BarBri; author of The Eight Secrets of Top Exam Performance in Law School
Former faculty[edit | edit source]
- Erwin Chemerinsky - former Sydney M. Irmas Professor of Public Interest Law, Legal Ethics, and Political Science, 1983-2004
- Richard Epstein - well-known for his arguments against anti-discrimination laws; currently the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School
- James Brown Scott - authority on international law, founding dean of USC Law School
Notable alumni[edit | edit source]
Business[edit | edit source]
- Sol Price, 1937 - founder of Fed Mart and Price Club
- Louis Galen, 1951 - former CEO of Golden West Financial, philanthropist
- Frank Rothman, 1951 - former chairman and CEO of MGM Studios and noted trial attorney
- Walt Zifkin, 1961 - CEO Emeritus, William Morris Agency
- James Rogers, 1963 - CEO & owner, Sunbelt Communications
- Richard Ziman, 1967 - CEO, Arden Realty
- Stanley Gold, 1967 - President and CEO of Shamrock Holdings
- Bruce Karatz, 1970 - CEO of KB Home
- Larry Flax, 1971 - co-founder of California Pizza Kitchen
- Jeff Smulyan, 1972 - founder and CEO of Emmis Communications
- Charles Prince, 1975 - CEO of Citigroup
- Alan Hoffman, 1991 - Chief of Staff for Senator Joe Biden; former Vice President of Timmons and Co.
- Richard Rosenblatt, 1994 - Founder, CEO, Intermix & Demand Media; former Chairman, myspace; Founder, former CEO,iMALL
Law[edit | edit source]
- Litta Belle Hibbens Campbell, 1913 - first female deputy district attorney in the United States
- You Chung Hong, 1924 - first Chinese American admitted to practice in California
- Gordon Dean, 1930 - former USC Law School professor; chairman of the US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)
- Edwin Jefferson, 1931 - first African American judge west of Chicago
- William P. Hogoboom, 1949 - former California Superior Court judge
- David Eagleson, 1950 - former California Supreme Court justice
- Dorothy Nelson, 1956 - former USC Law Dean; Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- Dickran Tevrizian, 1965 - United States federal judge for the Central District of California
- Mary Ann Cohen, 1967 - Judge of the United States Tax Court
- Scott Bice, 1968 - Dean of USC Law School from 1980-2000, Supreme Court Clerk for Chief Justice Earl Warren. Board of Directors, Arena Pharmaceuticals.
- Stephen Cooley, 1973 - Los Angeles County's 36th District Attorney
- Joyce L. Kennard, 1974 - first female Asian American to serve as an associate justice on the California Supreme Court
- Nora Manella, 1975 - U.S. District Court Judge for the Central District of California
- Margaret Radin, 1976 - influential law professor at Stanford Law School; former USC Law School professor
- Matthew Spitzer, 1977 - Robert C. Packard Trustee Chair in Law and Political Science and visiting professor of Law and Economics at the California Institute of Technology; Dean of USC Law School from 2000-2006
Politics[edit | edit source]
- Bertrand W. Gearhart, 1910 - lawyer and former member of the United States House of Representatives
- Fletcher Bowron - former mayor of Los Angeles
- Robert H. Finch - attorney, former Lieutenant Governor of California, former United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare
- Craig Hosmer, 1940 - former United States Representative
- Carlos Moorhead, 1949 - former United States Representative
- Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, 1956 - Los Angeles County supervisor, former member of the United States House of Representatives
- Thomas Kuchel - former United States Senator
- John Heilman - mayor of West Hollywood
Sports and media[edit | edit source]
- Terry Baker, 1968 - played quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams and the CFL's Edmonton Eskimos while earning a J.D. at USC
- Carey McWilliams - journalist, editor of The Nation for twenty years
- Amy Trask, 1985 - CEO of the Oakland Raiders
- Joseph Wapner, 1948 - Judge of The People's Court, former Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge
External links[edit | edit source]
- USC Law website
- USC Law School Library Catalog
- University of Southern California
- Southern California Law Review
- Interdisciplinary Law Journal
- Review of Law and Women's Studies