Chapman University's Dale E. Fowler School of Law, commonly referred to as Chapman University School of Law or Chapman Law School, is a private, non-profit law school located in Orange, California. The school offers the Juris Doctor degree, combined programs offering a JD/MBA and JD/MFA in Film & Television Producing, and multiple LL.M. degree options. The school also offers emphasis options in Business Law, Criminal Law, Entertainment Law, Environmental Law, International Law, Trial Advocacy, and Taxation. Currently, the school has 74 full- and part-time faculty members and a law library with holdings in excess of 290,000 volumes and volume equivalents.
Accreditation History
Established in 1995 as part of Chapman University, Chapman Law gained provisional accreditation from the American Bar Association in 1998 and received full ABA accreditation in 2002. In addition to its ABA membership, the Association of American Law Schools admitted Chapman Law as one of its members in 2006. In 2019, the ABA again fully accredited the school until 2027, the standard seven-year accreditation term.
Rankings
Chapman University School of Law is currently ranked 111th by the US News and World Report's annual law school rankings. It is currently ranked 48th for Best Part-Time Law Programs by the US News and World Report's annual law school rankings.
Bar passage rate
In July 2019, the first time bar passage rate for Chapman School of Law was 59%. The overall first-time pass rate for ABA-accredited California law schools was 71%.
Costs and average student indebtedness
The cost of tuition for full-time JD students at Chapman for the 2016-2017 academic year is $50,076, which does not include living expenses and fees. According to US News, the cost of such living expenses is approximately $16,848 per year. Accordingly, of 2018 graduates, 74% incurred debt to attend Chapman, with an average indebtedness of $144,718.
Post-graduation employment
According to Chapman's official 2018 ABA-required disclosures, 58% of the Class of 2017 obtained bar passage required employment 10 months or less after graduation, 16% were employed in JD advantage jobs where bar passage was a desired qualification, but not required, and 20% reported they were unemployed.
Scholarships
Chapman, like some other law schools, uses merit based scholarships in order to entice competitive students who might otherwise pass over the school for higher ranked competitors and to enhance its own ranking.
Dean
Matthew J. Parlow is the Dean and Donald P. Kennedy Chair in Law at the school. He joined Chapman as dean in July 2016 after serving as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law at Marquette University Law School. He previously taught at Chapman from 2005-2008. He succeeded Tom Campbell, Dean from 2011-2016.
Chapman's Fowler School of Law publishes the Chapman Law Review, a student-run scholarly journal. In addition to publishing the scholarly journal, the Chapman Law Review hosts a major symposium at the start of the spring semester each year.
