University of California, Hastings College of the Law

The University of California, Hastings College of the Law (UC Hastings or Hastings) is a public law school in San Francisco, California, located in the Civic Center neighborhood.

Founded in 1878 by Serranus Clinton Hastings, the first Chief Justice of California, it was the first law school of the University of California and was one of the first law schools established in the Western United States. It is also one of the few university-affiliated law schools in the United States that does not share its campus with undergraduates or other graduate programs.


 History

Hastings has a unique relationship with the University of California. In 1878, when Supreme Court of California Justice Serranus Clinton Hastings gave $100,000 to the University of California to start the law school bearing his name, he imposed two conditions: the school must remain in San Francisco near the courts; and it could not be governed by the Regents of the University of California. Thus the school's leader (who holds the dual titles of chancellor and dean) must obtain funds directly from the California State Legislature, unlike other UC institutions, which receive money from the Regents.In a commencement address, Hastings called his school "a temple of law and intellect, which shall never perish, until, in the lapse of time, civilization shall cease, and this fair portion of our country shall be destroyed or become a desert."

In 1900, it became one of 27 charter members of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS).

Hastings College of the Law was for many years considered the primary law school of the University of California with the purpose of preparing lawyers for the practice of law in the state, whereas the Department of Legal Jurisprudence on the Berkeley campus, which later became Boalt Hall School of Law (now styled Berkeley Law), was intended for the study of law as an academic discipline.

In the 1960s, Hastings began the "65 Club," the practice of hiring faculty who had been forced into mandatory retirement at age 65 from Ivy League and other élite institutions. After the passage of age discrimination laws, however, the "65 Club" slowly phased out, and Hastings hired its last "65 Club" professor in 1998. In the mid-1950s, Newsweek published a story where then Harvard Law School dean and jurist Roscoe Pound declared, referring to UC Hastings: "Indeed, on the whole, I am inclined to think you have the strongest law faculty in the nation


Location

UC Hastings campus spreads among three main buildings located near San Francisco's Civic Center: 200 McAllister Street houses academic space and administrative offices,[6] 198 McAllister contains mainly classrooms and faculty offices, and 100 McAllister (known casually as "The Tower") is student housing

The campus is within walking distance of the Muni Metro and Bay Area Rapid Transit Civic Center/UN Plaza Station. UC Hastings is commonly but affectionately derided by students and alums as being located in the ugliest corner of the most beautiful city in the world. Indeed, the school has been referred to in jest as "UC Tenderloin."

Located within a two-block radius of the campus is the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, the California Supreme Court, the California Court of Appeal for the First District, San Francisco Superior Court, San Francisco City Hall, United Nations Plaza (and Federal Building Annex), the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, and the Main Library of the San Francisco Public Library system. The heavy concentration of public buildings within the Civic Center, as well as the high crime rate, result in heavy police presence, and high security, around UC Hastings.


Academics

Hastings offers a three-year Juris Doctor program with concentrated studies available in seven areas: civil litigation, criminal law, international law, public interest law, taxation, family law, and recently, a new concentration in intellectual property law. Most J.D. students follow a traditional three-year plan. During the first year, students take required courses as well as one elective course. In the second and third years, students may take any course or substitute or supplement their courses with judicial externships or internships, judicial clinics, or study abroad. The college also offers a one-year LL.M. degree in U.S. legal studies for students holding law degrees from foreign law programs. It is an American Bar Association (ABA) approved law school since 1939.

Hastings participates in the Concurrent Degree Program with U.C. Berkeley's Haas Graduate School of Business. Upon completion of a four-year program, the student earns a Berkeley M.B.A. degree and a J.D. degree from UC Hastings College of the Law.

UC Hastings College of the Law and UCSF Medical School have commenced a joint degree program, and in 2011 began enrolling their first class of graduate students in the Master of Studies in Law (MSL) and LL.M. in Law, Science and Health Policy programs. Students have coursework available at each institution for fulfillment of the degrees.This program is a component of the UCSF/UC Hastings Consortium on Law, Science and Health Policy.

A new joint program, the first of its kind in the University of California system, enables UC Santa Cruz students to earn an undergraduate and law degree in six years instead of the usual seven. The “3+3 BA/JD” Program between UC Santa Cruz and UC Hastings admitted its first applicants in Fall 2014.

UCSC students who declare their intent in their freshman or early sophomore year will complete three years at UCSC and then move on to UC Hastings to begin the three-year law curriculum. Credits from the first year of law school will count toward a student's bachelor's degree. Students who successfully complete the first-year law course work will receive their bachelor's degree, graduate with their UCSC class, then continue at UC Hastings for the final two years of law study.

UC Hastings has a chapter of the Order of the Coif, a national law school honorary society founded for the purposes of encouraging legal scholarship and advancing the ethical standards of the legal profession.It joined the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) as a charter member in 1900; it renewed its membership in 1949.