Summary: California community colleges have paired up with local law schools to help students gain admission and bring diversity to the state’s legal community.

Without proper guidance, it can be overwhelming for prospective law students to figure out what they need to do to apply to law schools, and especially how to increase the odds of being accepted. What courses should they take? How does one prepare for the Law School Admission Test (LSAT)? How will law school be different from undergraduate classes?

The Pathway to Law School Initiative seeks to provide answers to the above questions to students in California, according to PE.com. The partnership includes 24 community colleges and 6 law schools. The program will be available to all students who are interested in receiving such guidance and applying to law school.

Students who participate will receive financial aid counseling, mentoring, and will be assisted as they study for the notorious LSAT examination. They will follow an education plan and have monthly meetings with advisors to ensure they are staying on track with their studies. Advisors will select courses that will transfer to four-year universities. These students will even receive a waiver on application fees to participating law schools.

A 2.8 GPA is required to enter the program. A 3.0 is necessary to graduate. Priority registration is also offered to students, ensuring they can sign up for necessary courses.

Students who are successful in the program will have a better chance of being admitted to one of the law schools in the program: Santa Clara University School of Law, UC Irvine School of Law, USC Gould School of Law, University of San Francisco School of Law, Loyola Law School, and UC Davis School of Law.

The program is centered at Riverside City College’s Riverside, California campus. Norco and Moreno Valley colleges, as well as Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga, are also included in the partnership.

The program’s ultimate goal is to increase diversity among those who practice law in California. The State Bar of California Council on Access and Fairness created the initiative.

Laneshia Judon, associate professor of paralegal students and business administration at Riverside City College, stated, “There’s not enough people in the legal field to represent the community they serve. I think that people don’t see the pathway, and they don’t see those who are like them in the profession.” Judon and Don Ajené Wilcoxson, professor of business administration at Riverside City College, will direct the program.

Although 60 percent of California’s residents are racial and ethnic minorities, less than 25 percent of its attorneys are minorities, according to a 2011 survey. The program hopes to change these numbers and increase diversity in the profession. The community college system was chosen due to its diverse population. For example, the Riverside Community College District is 78 percent non-white.

The program’s goal is to graduate 50 students per year who will go on to four-year colleges, and, eventually, law school. David Karp, a professor of business and business law at Chaffey College, added that the program provides several benefits that students at community colleges typically do not receive. For example, they can participate in statewide debate competitions, visit law schools, and interact with attorneys, judges, and law school personnel.

Students are excited about the opportunities the program will provide. Griselda Arredondo, an 18-year-old student at Riverside Community College, said, “I was confused about how to move on to law school. I thought it would be extremely hard. Having a set plan, it makes it seem more possible than before.”

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The University of California, Irvine School of Law announced on Friday that the American Bar Association has granted full accreditation to the school with immediate effect. Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, observed happily in the press release, “I am very proud that the decision by the ABA is at the earliest possible time under the ABA rules.”

Dean Chemrinsky commented, “From the outset, our goal has been to build a top law school that emphasizes preparing students for the practice of law at the highest levels of the profession … The ABA’s decision puts the official seal of approval on the hard work of scores of faculty, administrators, students, and supporters, both on campus and in the legal community. We are so grateful for the generosity and support we have received in building the University of California, Irvine School of Law.”

In nearly half a century, University of California, Irvine School of Law was the first public law school in the state. It created an innovative curriculum that included requirements like mandatory participation in legal clinics for every student; new courses that did not exist in other law schools in the state; emphasizing methods of legal analysis in the first-year, and creating upper-level courses for incorporating skills training in law school courses.

A recent study ranked the Irvine School of Law 7^th in the country for scholarly impact, and to its pride, in 2013, its students completed 10,000 hours of pro bono work. The Orange County Register reported that out of 134 UC Irvine law school graduates who have taken the bar exam in different states since July 2012, 118 have passed. The school graduated another 92 students in the latest batch.

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Community college students in California now have easier access to admission at law schools, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.

Beginning today, six law schools and their undergraduate campuses are partnering with 24 community colleges in an effort to offer counseling for students who have an interest in legal careers. The partnership will provide advice, mentoring, tutoring, networking and access to faculty members at the law schools.

“I’m ecstatic,” said Adrien Abuyen, 20, a student at College of Alameda. “This is a door opening that would not have opened otherwise.”

The plan is being sponsored by the State Bar of California’s Council on Access & Fairness.

“We’ll create a person at the law school who is a champion of this pipeline program,” Kevin R. Johnson said. Johnson is the dean at the UC Davis School of Law. “We’ll bring community college students to the law school and expose them to a legal education. We’ll do our very best to work with students to make sure they get the information they need to come to law school.”

Johnson spoke about using this partnership to diversify the enrollment of law schools in the state.

“Our goal would also be to make it easier for socioeconomically disadvantaged students to enroll,” Johnson said. “I see this as a public duty.”

A spokesperson for California Community Colleges, Paul Feist, said, “We want students to identify their educational goals early in their college career, because the research says that those students are usually more successful. It doesn’t mean they can’t change their mind.”

The community colleges taking part include Alameda, Chabot College, Contra Costa College, Merritt College, Solano Community College and San Jose City College. There are a total of 24 colleges taking part.

The law schools taking part in the plan include UC Davis, UC Irvine, University of San Francisco School of Law, Loyola Law School, Santa Clara University School of Law and the University of Southern California Gould School of Law.

If you’re trying to find paralegal jobs, click here.

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Malibu, CA – Harrison Barnes, the founder and principal of Harrison Barnes PLC, is currently involved in a case in front of the Supreme Court of Texas, where the most influential First Amendment scholar in the United States, Erwin Chemerinsky, has assisted our side by submitting an amicus brief.

On February 6, 2014, Erwin Chemerinsky and Professor Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky, experts in First Amendment and Internet law, urged the Supreme Court of Texas to rule in favor of Harrison Barnes in the lawsuit Kinney v. Barnes. Professor Erwin Chemerinsky is the founding Dean and Distinguished Professor of Law, and Raymond Pryke Professor of First Amendment Law, at the University of California, Irvine School of Law. He has frequently argued matters of constitutional law in front of the nation’s highest courts, including a United States Supreme Court decision involving injunctions in defamation cases. In addition, Professor Lidsky has written extensively on issues of Internet free speech, cyberbullying, and defamation and other privacy torts, including the article, Silencing John Doe: Defamation and Discourse in Cyberspace, 49 Duke L.J. 855 (2000), which was referenced by Kinney in his brief to the high court (but note Professor Lidsky submitted an amicus brief in support of Harrison Barnes – not Kinney).

Kinney was an employee of a legal recruiting firm run by Harrison Barnes. Barnes terminated Kinney’s employment because Kinney devised an unethical kickback scheme, attempting to pay a law firm under the table to hire one of his candidates. Several years after his termination for attempting to bribe someone, Kinney posted a variety of statements disparaging Harrison Barnes and his companies. Instead of using his real name, Kinney lied and used the name “Albert” to disguise his identity. After years of investigation and litigation, Barnes was able to learn “Albert” was Kinney. Despite Kinney hiring a well-known attorney to try and keep his identity secret, Kinney’s identity was ultimately ordered released by two separate courts.

Harrison Barnes contended that these statements constituted defamation and subsequently filed suit against Kinney in California state court for “anonymously maligning Barnes and his companies online.” In August of 2007, a publication owned by Harrison Barnes posted a non-defamatory news item on the website JD Journal about the California litigation. This news item reported on the allegations made in the California suit, including the history of the employment relationship between Harrison Barnes and Kinney, Kinney’s termination, Kinney’s establishment of a business designed to compete with Harrison Barnes’ legal recruiting firm, and Kinney’s decision to post maligning comments about Harrison Barnes and his companies on a website.

Claiming that these statements about the California litigation constituted actionable defamation, Kinney responded to the JD Journal posting by filing a lawsuit against Harrison Barnes for defamation seeking injunctive relief. Both the trial court and the court of appeals in Texas have thrown out Kinney’s case on the grounds that even assuming arguendo that Harrison Barnes’ posting on JD Journal was defamatory (which it is not), that the injunction requested by Kinney would violate the Texas Constitution because it would act as a prior restraint on and infringe upon Harrison Barnes’ First Amendment Rights to free speech.

The Texas Supreme Court is expected to rule in Kinney v. Barnes soon, and experts in First Amendment and Internet law have urged the Court to rule in Harrison Barnes’ favor and dismiss Kinney’s defamation lawsuit.

In another related action in California between Kinney and Barnes, the California Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District dismissed all six of Kinney’s causes of action, including malicious prosecution and misappropriation. The Court, who ruled on June 23, 2014, determined that Kinney’s lawsuit was barred under the statute of limitations and that Barnes and the other Defendants were entitled to an award of attorney’s fees. To read the Court’s ruling in its entirety, click here.

Harrison Barnes PLC attorneys have ample experience in defamation, internet, and First Amendment law, as well as general litigation, employment law, release estate transactions and litigation, bankruptcy, divorce and family law and criminal law. Harrison Barnes PLC will continue to fiercely defend the rights of their clients.

At Harrison Barnes PLC, the attorneys are proud of their work and of their contributions to their clients’ successes. A commitment to serving the client’s needs best while focusing on high quality work has made this law firm among the preferred choice for litigation matters. “Facing a great opportunity or a major crisis, you need to trust the experience, creativity, and dedication we provide. We are proud to be lawyers,” says founder Harrison Barnes.

About Harrison Barnes PLC:

Harrison Barnes PLC is a Malibu-based law firm that focuses on providing top quality representation to the Malibu community and has won millions of dollars for its clients. For a consultation or to learn more about Harrison Barnes PLC, call (310) 598-1719 or visit https://www.harrisonbarnes.com.

The post Erwin Chemerinsky, the Most Influential First Amendment Scholar in the United States, Submits Amicus Brief in Support of Harrison Barnes first appeared on JDJournal Blog.

The Recorder reports nearly 30 students have jobs with nonprofits and 17 students will be employed by judges, including 11 at the federal level. The remainder will join law firms and prosecutors’ offices.

School officials note in the story that they are using the school’s “honeymoon” period to forge relationships with potential future employers. They also note there is much at stake as they must prove to donors their money is being used properly.

“The people who’ve invested in us are receiving some return on their investment,” said Charles Cannon, the law school’s assistant dean of development and external affairs. He goes on to acknowledge the school’s early success at placing students in public interest positions is at least partially the result of the students attending tuition free.

“There’s no doubt that our complete tuition rebate for the first class has made the proportion of them going into unpaid public interest jobs much higher than other schools,” Cannon said. “We know that this won’t last forever.”

Summary:

If attending U.C. Irvine School of Law tuition free wasn’t enough, according to an announcement all 60 members of the school’s first class have earned summer jobs. While nearly 30 students of Irvine law school have jobs with nonprofits and 17 will be employed by judges, including 11 at the federal level. The remaining will join law firms and prosecutors’ offices.

The post Jobs for Everyone at UC Irvine Law School first appeared on JDJournal Blog.

UC Irvine, School of Law announced on Monday that next year’s incoming class will, for all three years, receive a scholarship worth fifty percent of their tuition. Funded by private donations, these scholarships will be given to students arriving in August 2010.

The offering of generous scholarships for the second class follows upon last year’s privately funded scholarships that granted the school’s Inaugural Class full-tuition for all three years. The Dean of the Law School, Erwin Chemerinsky, believes that these scholarships in combination with competitive admissions requirements will put the school in the top twenty as well as maintain a high caliber of student body. UC Irvine School of Law accepted only 4 percent of applicants for its Inaugural Class, which was the lowest acceptance rate in the country.

Tuition to the Law School for the second class is expected to be about $40,000 for in-state students and $50,000 for those out of state. While students are guaranteed on-campus housing, they will be responsible for their own housing and living expenses. Students who have difficulty paying the remainder of the tuition are able to receive other types of financial aid in the form of federal loans.

The post UC Irvine School of Law Announces Scholarships for Class of 2013 first appeared on JDJournal Blog.

The plan requires faculty and staff to take up to 26 unpaid furlough days during the 2009-10 school year. One hundred and eight thousand employees of the UC system will be affected.

At UCLA Law, 60 law faculty members and 100 law school staff members face furloughs, as do 35 faculty members and 75 staff members at UC Davis’ Law School. The UC Irvine School of Law, which opens this fall with its first incoming class, will see 17 faculty affected.

The UC Board of Regents is facing a 20% cut in money from the state’s general fund.

The post UC Law School Profs Hit By Pay Cut first appeared on JDJournal Blog.

Mario Barnes joins from the University of Miami School of Law. He teaches criminal law, constitutional law, national security law, and race and the law.

Alejandro Camacho, from the University of Notre Dame Law School, teaches environmental law.

Jennifer Chacon joins from the UC Davis School of Law, where she covered criminal procedure and immigration law.

Stephen Lee, previously of Stanford Law, is an expert in administrative law and immigration law.

Christopher Leslie teaches antitrust law and intellectual property; he comes to UCI from the Chicago-Kent College of Law.

Copyright law professor R. Anthony Reese joins from the University of Texas School of Law.

And Christopher Tomlins teaches American legal history.

When its first class enters in Fall 2009, The University of California, Irvine School of Law will be the fifth law school in the UC system, and the first public law school to open in California in 40 years.

The post UC Irvine Law Hires Seven New Faculty Members first appeared on JDJournal Blog.

The proposed $10.3 million cut would eliminate one-quarter of the school’s academic budget. The school says it cannot make any further faculty cuts, and could not accommodate more students.

Existing students would have to tolerate a tuition increase of $8,175 each to make up the shortfall.

Although Hastings is a state school, it is separate from other University of California law centers, and does not fall under the authority of the Board of Regents.

Some are asking why the state is opening a new law school at UC Irvine in August, but cutting the budget of a long-established and reputable school.

The post Governator May Eliminate State Funding for Hastings Law School first appeared on JDJournal Blog.

An anonymous foundation provided $2 million to create an Environmental Law Clinic to further the public interest in areas of environmental law, environmental health and environmental sustainability.

The clinic will give students an opportunity to do hands-on environmental legal and policy work. Students will work under the close supervision of trained lawyers and experienced professors. The legal clinic will be closely associated with the UCI Program in Public Health.

The University of California, Irvine School of Law is the law school at the University of California, Irvine. When its first class enters in Fall 2009, it will be the fifth law school in the UC system and the first public law school to open in California in 40 years.

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