Los Angeles area law schools use diversity to draw students from across the country.

Los Angeles area law schools use diversity to draw students from across the country

Young people are drawn from all over California and the nation to enjoy Southland weather, lifestyle and opportunity. But there is another "draw" that brings droves of eager minds to the Los Angeles area. The draw is law.

As many as 50 percent of students at some Southland law schools are from out of state. What attracts them, besides the sunshine, are some of the best law schools in the country.

"We have very rigorous curriculums in Southern California," says Leslie Steinberg, spokeswoman for Southwestern University School of Law. "Students have to be prepared for one of the toughest bars in the country."

While the Los Angeles area has several law schools accredited by the state, the major schools are accredited by the American Bar Association and the Association of American Law Schools. Graduates from an ABA accredited school can take the bar in any other state, as well as in Canada. Entrance requirements to those schools are much stricter than to the state-recognized schools.

Southwestern which celebrates its 80th anniversary next year, has 950 students. The school is attractive to many because it offers a variety of programs to suit non-traditional students. "We have four programs of study because we try to accommodate people who have various lifestyles," says Steinberg. "We have the traditional three-year day and four-year evening program; a part-time program that takes four years - that was originally to accommodate people who have child-care responsibilities - and the SCALE program."

SCALE (Southwestern Concept Approach to Legal Education) takes two calendar years and is an extremely intensive course of study. "It approaches law school in a different way," Says Steinberg. "There's a lot of hands-on experience. The second year is based on a simulation situation where students are doing hypothetical client files." And she adds, "It's really for people who have been out in the business world."

UCLA School of Law prides itself on pulling students from all walks of life. "As one of the nation's great national law schools, we receive many highly qualified applicants from all sections of the nation," says Susan Westerberg Prager, dean of the UCLA law school. "From among these applicants we select an intellectually distinguished, interesting, and culturally diverse student body." Prager notes that UCLA has played a major role in the growth of minority representation within the legal profession.

But more important than UCLA's diversity is its curriculum. The university has a strong clinical program offering courses in lawyering skills such as interviewing, counseling, negotiation and trial advocacy. A new building has been designed especially for clinical teaching and student practice. "Students will see more focus on the attorney/client relationship," says Prager. "In their education at UCLA they will see more of what will ultimately face them as lawyers and policy-makers.

The ability to get out into the trenches is a plus for all Southland law schools. Los Angeles has one of the country's largest concentrations of lawyers and the availability of law firms for externships, as well as the natural communication between the legal community and the law schools, is value added for students.

"Our graduating students have excellent prospects," says Marilynn Stewart, a spokeswoman for USC Law Center. "most students stay in the area, and we employ more than 90 percent of them." USC graduates going to a major law firm can expect to earn around $65,000 their first year.

But many students pick up an interest in the less lucrative area of public interest law during their years at USC. "We have a public interest law foundation here at the school," says Stewart. Since many firms can't afford to pay very firms can't afford to pay very much, the grants allow students to survive."

Students are further introduced to a broader view of law by the interdisciplinary faculty at USC. "A good number of our faculty have advanced degrees in other disciplines," says Steward. "Some teach at Cal Tech as well as here, for example. That allows people to see law in a much larger contest as opposed to a very narrow body of information."

With a faculty of almost 40, USC law school has kept its student numbers low. The school has approximately 500 students and entering classes usually number less than 200.

Loyola Law School, on the other hand, has the largest student body of the ABA schools. Yet the 1,000 students and 90 (55 full-time) faculty have managed to maintain the more intimate scale of a much smaller school.

It's partly due to the physical design of the buildings: small structures grouped around a quadrangle. Designed by noted architect Frank Gehry, the lay-out encourages interaction between students and faculty. "It's like a small village where people can meet and get involved." says Susan Sheppard, assistant dean for admissions and special projects at the law school.

"At some schools, law is a very remote experience. Here there's a humane quality that's rarely found in urban schools. The faculty is highly accessible outside the classroom which is unique for a school our size. We have a very warm and supportive environment."

Loyola student appear to flourish under those conditions: the school has a drop-out rate of 3 percent, much lower than the 30 and 35 percent in some other schools, according to Shepard.

The school's high bar pass rate - 85 percent last summer - also attracts recruiters from around the country. Loyola places graduates in major law firms in Washington, Chicago and New York. "U.S. firms who do international business increasingly request our students," says Shepard. "Pacific Rim activity has changed Los Angeles from a regional legal entity into an internationally important legal and commercial scene."

Pepperdine University's international law program includes a semester in London, where students can clerk under both commons from other state, making Pepperdine truly a national law school.

Of course, Pepperdine's location doesn't hurt. As Cynthia Greer, assistant dean at the law school, puts it, the campus itself is a great stress reliever. "When students are in classes its very intense. Being located in Malibu gives them a kind of release: the lack of traffic, smog and congestion give them a better outlook on life."

But it's not just the scenery that attract students to Pepperdine. One drawing card is the school's institute for dispute resolution, one of only five in the nation according to Greer.

"Traditionally, when individuals attended law school the thought was that you would always go out and litigate issues," say says. "Now, because it can take five years for a case to come to court, mediation, arbitration and negotiation are becoming much more common." Pepperdine offers classes in those disciplines and also puts students through clinical experience.

Pepperdine may also be unique in its attention to ethics and values. "Pepperdine is a Christian university," says spokesman Jeff Bliss, "and ethics are an important part of day to day life in and outside the classroom."

The ABA is putting more emphasis on ethics, notes Greer. And Pepperdine students are getting a head start.

PHOTO : Legal battle: USC keeps its student/teacher ratio low.