# Lincoln Law School of San Jose

Lincoln Law School of San Jose is a small, private, unranked, unaccredited, law school located in San Jose, California. Founded in 1926, the law school was formerly part of Lincoln University (California), prior to separating in 1993.

## History

The school traces its roots to 1919 when Benjamin Lickey and his wife Susan Lickey founded a law study program in San Francisco as a way to provide veterans and working-class students a part-time night school for law studies.
The school was incorporated in 1926 as a part of Lincoln University and located in San Francisco. In 1961, a second law school campus was opened in San Jose, graduating its first class in 1965. By 1987, Lincoln University's entire law school program was concentrated in San Jose. In 1993, the San Jose campus formally separated from Lincoln University becoming independent changing its name to Lincoln Law School of San Jose. The school moved to downtown San Jose in 1999. In 2000, the 25-year-old Peninsula University School of Law merged into Lincoln Law School of San Jose.

## Academics

Lincoln is exclusively an evening-study program that lasts 4 or 4.5 years, depending upon the starting date of the student. 84 units of study are required for graduation with each unit equal to 15 hours of in-class instruction. Students usually attend classes 3 or 4 nights a week, with a few options for elective or seminar classes scheduled during the daytime on Saturdays.

### Accreditation

The school is not accredited by the American Bar Association and graduates may not qualify to be admitted to the bar in states other than California. From 1993 to 2022, the school was accredited by the Committee of Bar Examiners of the State Bar of California.
As of July 1, 2022, the school reported that it did not meet the State Bar of California five-year bar passage rate of 40 percent for state-accredited law schools and as a result, the school's accreditation was terminated on December 31, 2022. The law school became a registered, unaccredited, fixed-facility law school effective January 1, 2023.
As an unaccredited school, the school’s students can only take the California Bar Examination, and earn academic credit towards a J.D., if they pass the California Bar’s First Year Law Students' Examination (known as the "Baby Bar") within three attempts after completing the first year of study.

### Admissions and attrition

As reported by the school in January 2025, the school accepted 12 of 45 applicants (26.6%), with 4 (33.3%) of those accepted enrolling. The median enrollee had a 2.9 undergraduate GPA. More than 77% of the student body identifies as Black, Indigenous, or Persons of Color (BIPOC). The school does not utilize the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) for admissions. From 2021 through September 2024, 15 students transferred out of the school and 72 other students did not remain enrolled.

## Tuition and fees

The total estimated tuition for attendance at the school through graduation was $84,000 plus estimated fees of $4,500 for a total of $88,500.

## Notable people
### Alumni

* David D. Cortese (JD 1995), current California state senator and former member Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors
* Linda J. LeZotte (JD 1980), former San Jose city council member
* Vartkes Yeghiayan (JD 1965) (deceased), former lawyer and legal activist for the victims of the Armenian genocide charged with misappropriating money intended for genocide survivors

### Dean, instructors, and board members

* Maya Harris, former dean of the law school, sister of Kamala Harris, and former chair of the Kamala Harris 2020 presidential campaign
* James S. Ware, retired reprimanded judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (chief judge 2010-12); also teaches at Santa Clara University School of Law
* Rod Diridon Sr., the law school’s chairman of the board, not a professor; former chair of the California High-Speed Rail Authority
* Desiree Reed-Francois, taught sports law courses at the law school (2002-2003); current athletic director of the University of Arizona