Starting from Scratch

• Author: Stephanie Francis Ward
• Pages: 33-34

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2019 ABA JOURNAL || 33

PHOTOS COURTESY OF UC IRVINE SCHOOL OF LAW, RACHEL DELETTO

Business of Law

Starting from Scratch

As the University of California at Irvine School of Law prepares to mark

its 10th anniversary, those who helped build it reflect on its first decade

By Stephanie Francis Ward

While other law schools have exp eri-

enced significant d rops in both class size

and median LSAT score s, the University

of California at Ir vine School of Law has

bucked both of t hose trends.

UCI, which starte d its law school from scratch 10 years

ago, has grown en rollment from 60 to 514 students while its

median LSAT has never d ipped below 162.

That was largely po ssible thanks to supportive univer -

sity presidents and chance llors as well as a talented adm is-

sions sta who all under stood that creating a diverse student

body brings aca demic prestige, UCI Law Dean L. Song

Richardson says.

“What makes us

unique is that we

truly don’t mea sure

ourselves against

what others are

doing. We focus on

how can we be where

legal educat ion is

going and not where

it has been,” says

Richardson, a crimi-

nal law professor who

took over in 2017 after

founding Dean Er win

Chemerinsk y left to

lead the University of Cal ifornia at Berkeley School of Law.

“It was clear from the cha ncellor and provost that what

they wanted was a t op law school from the very beginning,”

Chemerinsky says. “My ex perience at UCI was better than

one could have ever i magined.”

That sentiment may seem surpr ising in light of the frosty

reception he got when he arrive d at UCI’s Orange County

campus more than 11 year s ago. After signing his UCI con-

tract in Septemb er 2007, the school voided it a week later,

reportedly under i ntense pressure from Orange Count y’s

conservatives w ho didn’t want a well-known liberal in thei r

midst. For instanc e, during his time as a law professor at the

University of Southern Cal ifornia and then Duke University,

Chemerinsky had s erved as co-counsel w ith civil rights

groups on various issue s and chaired a citizens commi ssion

focused on reforming L os Angeles’ city charter.

It was also report ed that Chemerinsky’s candida cy would

provoke a big fight with the UC Board of Regents. The

regents, however, disagree d, telling the Los Angeles Times

that UC chancellors had hi ring responsibility for the dean’s

spot, and there was no i ndication that any of the regents

interfered wit h Chemerinsky’s firing or rehiri ng.

On Sept. 17, 2007, UCI Chancellor Michael Drake rehi red

Chemerinsky. Accordi ng to Chemerinsky, Drake gave him

assurances t hat as UCI Law’s dean he could “say anything

I wanted, handle a ny case I wanted, and he would back me

up.”

“We worked together wonderfully, and tod ay he is a dear

friend,” Chemer insky adds.

NEW-SCHOOL APPEAL

The idea for a law school at UCI started i n the early 1960s,

but it wasn’t until the 1990s that at torneys in the area,

including some former Orange Count y Bar Association lead-

ers with big-firm par tnerships, helped make it a priority.

“We thought there was a very good dema nd for another

first-rate law school in the st ate. It was a little bit harder to

attract [associates], with them not know ing how Orange

County had change d over the years and not realizing the

diversity of the busines s community,” says Gary Singer, a

former managing pa rtner of O’Melveny & Myers’ Newport

Beach oce who is now a lectu rer at UCI Law.

The UC Board of Regents approved a plan for UCI Law in

2006. The school got a $1 million donation from t he Irvine

family, prominent

Californ ia landown-

ers, early in 2007,

followed by a $20 mil-

lion donation from

Donald Bren, chair-

man of the Irv ine Co.,

that summer. Also,

law firms made indi-

vidual donations to

the law school.

For much of 2007,

Chemerinsk y focused

on putting toge ther

the law school and

fundraising while still

teaching at Duke . By 2008, founding faculty was in pla ce,

and they worked with Chemer insky as he continued to focus

Law

Schools

Current UCI Law Dean

L. Song Richardson

Founding UCI Law Dean

Erwin Chemerinsky