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Stanford Law School is a graduate school at Stanford University located near Palo Alto, California, United States, in Silicon Valley. The Law School was established in 1893 when former President Benjamin Harrison joined the faculty as the first professor of law. It employs about 50 faculty and hosts over 500 students who are working towards their Juris Doctor.

Stanford Law School is one of the most prestigious and elite law schools in the United States, typically ranking in the top three in the US News & World Report annual rankings of law schools and currently ranked second.

The late Chief Justice of the United States William Rehnquist and former Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor are both Stanford alumni, as is Chief Justice of California Ronald M. George.

Contents 1 Academics and admissions 2 Programs and centers 3 Notable alumni 4 Notable faculty 5 Popular culture 6 References 7 External links

Stanford Law School has a small student body, and a very low student to faculty ratio. Class sizes are among the smallest of any top law school, with first-year classes of 30 to 60 students. [1]

The academic program is flexible and includes a diverse array of courses and clinics. As first years, students take courses in criminal law, civil procedure, constitutional law, contracts, torts, property, and legal research and writing. Upper level courses range from business law to international law and include a growing clinical program. The Supreme Court Clinic has successfully brought over twenty cases before the Court, making it one of the most active Supreme Court practices of any kind. [2] Because of its proximity to other top academic programs on campus, there has been a growing focus on joint degree programs and classes with other professional schools, such as business, medicine, and education.

Students run about thirty student organizations and publish seven legal journals. The most influential journal is the Stanford Law Review. Advocacy skills are tested in the Kirkwood Moot Court competition.

The law library at Stanford holds 500,000 books, 360,000 microform and audiovisual items, and more than 8,000 current serial subscriptions.

Between 4,000 and 5,000 students apply for admission each year. Selection is intense: the median undergraduate grade point average of students is 3.9 and the median LSAT 169. Beyond numbers, Stanford places considerable emphasis on factors such as extracurricular activities, work experience, and prior graduate study. About three quarters of the members of each entering class have one year or more of prior work experience - often in politics, nonprofits, teaching, banking, or consulting - and over a quarter have completed another graduate degree. In 2006, Stanford Law School's acceptance rate was 8.7%, one of the lowest in the nation. [3] The Law School also accepts a small number of transfers each year.

• Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy Program (ENRLP)
• Rule of Law Program
• Stanford Program in International Law
• Stanford Program in Law, Economics & Business
• John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics
• Stanford Program in Law, Science & Technology (LST)
• Martin Daniel Gould Center for Conflict Resolution Programs

• Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance
• Center for E-Commerce
• Center for Internet and Society (CIS)
• Center for Law and the Biosciences
• Gould Negotiation and Mediation Teaching Program
• Stanford Center on International Conflict and Negotiation (SCICN)
• Stanford Criminal Justice Center
• Stanford Center for Computers and the Law (CodeX)
• Stanford Law Review

The Law School has a distinguished history of producing leaders in the judiciary, academia, corporate law, finance, government, and the public interest. Upon graduation, most students join law firms or clerk for a judge. Between 25 and 35% of each graduating class clerks, typically about 95% with federal judges. [4] Stanford alumni practice in 50 countries and 49 states, and are partners at 94 of the 100 largest law firms in the United States. [5] Despite its small size, recently, Stanford has produced the third most professors of law in the country [6] and the fourth most clerks to the Supreme Court. [7]

• Max Baucus (1967), U.S. Senator (1979–present)
• Carlos Bea (1958), Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
• Xavier Becerra (1984), U.S. Congressman (1984–present)
• Riley Bechtel (1977), billionaire, Chairman and CEO, Bechtel Group
• Jeff Bingaman (1968), U.S. Senator (1983–present)
• Joshua B. Bolten (1980), White House Chief of Staff (2006–present)
• Raymond Bonner (1967), investigative reporter for the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune
• Brooksley Born, first woman named to the ABA Standing Committee on Federal Judiciary
• Warren Christopher (1949), U.S. Secretary of State (1993–1997)
• Frank Church (1950), U.S. Senator (1957–1981)
• Robert Cochran (1974), creator of the television shows 24 and La Femme Nikita
• William Donlon Edwards (1939), U.S. Congressman (1963–1995)
• John Ehrlichman (1951), infamous figure in the Watergate scandal
• Scott Fedewa (1995), dot-com entrepreneur and author
• Raymond C. Fisher (1966), Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
• Ronald M. George (1964), Chief Justice of California (1996–present)
• Matt Gonzalez (1990), first Green Party candidate elected to local office, garnered 47% of votes for mayor of San Francisco
• Shirley Hufstedler (1949), first United States Secretary of Education (1979–1981), Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (1968–1979)
• Dahlia Lithwick (1995), Senior Editor at Slate
• Carlos R, Moreno (1975), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California (2001–present)
• William Neukom (1967), first General Counsel at Microsoft, current president of the American Bar Association
• Ronald Kenneth Noble, Secretary General of Interpol and law professor
• Sandra Day O'Connor (1952), first female U.S. Supreme Court Justice (1981–2006; retired)
• Mark Oldman, co-founder of Vault.com and wine critic
• Penny Pritzker (1984), billionaire, CEO of Pritzker Realty
• William Rehnquist (1952), Chief Justice of the United States (1986–2005)
• Jeffrey Reuben III, Under Secretary for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State, and former Chairman of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission
• Anthony Romero (1990), Executive Director of the ACLU (2001–present)
• Sian Seerpoohi Elias, chief justice of New Zealand
• Peter Thiel (1992), founder of Paypal
• John Van de Kamp (1959), Attorney General of California (1982–1991)
• Carlos Watson (1995), television host

When assessed by academic peers, the law faculty is ranked one of three or four most accomplished in the country.^[1] In 2006, the National Law Journal included six Stanford faculty - professors Jeffrey Fisher, Joseph Grundfest, Mark Lemley, Lawrence Lessig, Kathleen Sullivan, and lecturer Thomas Goldstein - on its list of the 100 most influential lawyers in the country.^[2]

• Barbara Babcock -- civil procedure
• Joe Bankman -- reformer of California tax law
• Gerhard Casper -- former president of Stanford University
• Joshua Cohen -- political philosophy
• Jeffrey Fisher -- appellate litigation
• Marc Franklin -- media law
• Lawrence Friedman -- legal history
• Paul Goldstein -- international intellectual property; copyright; trademark; author of best selling novel
• Jennifer Granick -- intellectual property and First Amendment scholar and practitioner
• Henry T. "Hank" Greely -- leading bioethicist.
• Joseph Grundfest -- former chair of the SEC
• Pamela S. Karlan -- anti-discrimination; voting rights; appellate litigation
• Larry Kramer -- current dean; constitutional law; conflict of laws
• William Lerach-- guest lecturer on securities and corporate law
• Lawrence Lessig -- constitutional law; cyberlaw
• Mark Lemley -- patent law
• Larry Marshall -- public interest advocate instrumental in convincing the governor of Illinois to place a moratorium on executions
• Jennifer Martínez -- represented Jose Padilla before the Supreme Court
• Robert Rabin -- torts
• Deborah Rhode -- legal ethics
• Kathleen Sullivan -- former dean; constitutional law
• Alan Sykes -- international law & economics
• Allen Weiner -- international law
• Robert Weisberg -- criminal law

• The creator of the television show 24 is a Stanford Law graduate.
• Although the movie Legally Blonde was filmed as though it were about Harvard Law School, it was based on the writings of a former student about her experiences at Stanford Law.
• Arnold Vinick, the fictional Republican candidate for President on the last season of the West Wing was a Stanford Law graduate.
• The school has been mentioned in several movies, such as The Devil Wears Prada and to rather comic effect in Ace Ventura. Additionally, the eponymous character Greg of Dharma & Greg was an alumnus of Stanford Law School.
• In the movie Beaches, the character of Hillary goes on to study law at Stanford Law School as is her family's tradition and becomes a human rights lawyer.
• The national grassroots organization Building a Better Legal Profession was founded by Stanford Law students in January 2007.

• Stanford Law School Official website
• US News & World Report Stanford Law School profile
• Stanford Law Review

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