About GGU Law

Founded in 1901, Golden Gate University School of Law offers a variety of programs for beginning law students and practicing lawyers.

Please view a timeline of the history of the School of Law - GGU School of Law - 110 Years of Expanding Possibilities in Legal Education. The timeline is taken from the Summer, 2011, issue of GGU Magazine.

JD Program
A student with an undergraduate degree may earn the basic Doctor of Jurisprudence (JD) degree by enrolling in a full-time day program (3 years) or part-time evening program (4 years). Certificates of specialization are available in Business Law, Criminal Law, Environmental Law, Intellectual Property Law, International Law, Labor and Employment Law, Litigation, Public Interest Law, Real Estate Law, and Taxation Law. Click here for more information about the JD Program.

Golden Gate University School of Law also offers two combined degree programs: JD/MBA with GGU's Ageno School of Business and JD/PhD with Palo Alto University.

View the JD Prospectus. Note: This is a PDF file. Acrobat Reader is required.

Graduate Law Degrees
Open to students who have already earned a JD or equivalent.

• LLM in Environmental Law
  
• LLM in Intellectual Property Law
  
• LLM in International Legal Studies
  
• LLM in Taxation Law
  
• LLM in United States Legal Studies
  
• SJD in International Legal Studies

Golden Gate University School of Law is fully accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA) and the Committee of Bar Examiners of the State of California and is a member in good standing of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). Golden Gate University is fully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). raduates qualify to take the bar exam in all 50 states and in the District of Columbia.

The primary mission of Golden Gate University School of Law is to provide our students with the intellectual and moral foundation which will enable them to become ethical, competent, and socially responsible professionals in a complex and interrelated legal world. The ethic we share is that lawyering is an honorable and valuable profession worthy of the public trust.

We believe that we must prepare our students to practice law, not merely to be ready to learn to practice law. To that end, we devote a substantial portion of our resources to skills training. This includes not only traditional skills courses, clinical programs, simulation courses, and skills components in our traditional courses, but also our apprenticeship-based Honors Lawyering Program.

Moreover, because of the increasing complexity and globalization of the law, we have instituted five programs leading to an LLM degree and one program leading to an SJD degree, specifically in the area of international legal studies.

Our first priority in all of our programs is to produce graduates with the skill, judgment, and ethical and moral compass to assume their responsibilities as outstanding members of the legal profession.

(Approved by Faculty at May 1, 2005 Faculty Retreat)

The ethic we share at Golden Gate University School of Law is that lawyering is an honorable profession, worthy of the public trust. Toward that end, we provide students with a solid foundation in legal theory and the skills necessary to be a successful practitioner.

Professional Skills Development
JD students develop professional skills through a variety of programs including: clinics, certificates of specialization, the Honors Lawyering Program, joint degrees, and more.

Faculty
You will be taught by an accomplished, diverse faculty who practiced law before teaching. They are experts in a wide range of legal areas--from litigation to labor law, corporate law to criminal law, property development to public interest law, environmental law to entertainment law, international law to intellectual property law--and much more.

Our student-to-teacher ratio is 19:1, and our professors are committed to being accessible to students.

Public Interest Law
Golden Gate has a special commitment to public interest law. In addition to a strong public interest law curriculum, the School of Law offers financial assistance to students who pursue careers in public interest law, and our in-house clinics provide legal assistance to underrepresented populations.

Diversity
You will practice law in a complex world. Golden Gate students reflect a wide variety of ages; work experience; and cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds. Our more than 20 student organizations address the many interests of our diverse student population.

Golden Gate's 1,000 law students include working professionals and recent college graduates from more than 100 undergraduate and graduate institutions. They come from across the United States and from a number of foreign nations and represent a wide spectrum of ethnic, economic, and cultural backgrounds.

Personalized Career Services
Our Law Career Services Office provides you with ongoing support from the time you enter law school through graduation.