Chapman University School of Law
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 (JD), 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 (ABA) 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 134th by the "U.S. News & World Report"s annual law school rankings, tumbling  23 spots from its ranking the previous year, the largest decline of any school in 2022. Bar passage rate. In October 2020, the first-time bar passage rate for Chapman School of Law was 81%. The overall first-time pass rate for ABA-accredited California law schools was 84%. 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 "U.S. News & World Report", 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 2020 ABA-required disclosures, 73% of the Class of 2020 obtained bar passage required employment 10 months or less after graduation, 11% were employed in JD advantage jobs where bar passage was a desired qualification, but not required, and 12% 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. John C. Eastman was Dean from June 2007 to January 2010. Law journals. 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 symposium at the start of the spring semester each year.