San Francisco Law School is a private, for-profit law school in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest evening law school in the Western United States.
The school became non-profit in 1941 and moved to Haight Street in 1968, where it would remain for almost 50 years before relocating to its present campus on Beach Street, near Fisherman's Wharf. The law school offers a four-year, part-time evening program leading to a Juris Doctor degree. In July 2010, the law school completed a merger to become a for-profit, graduate school of Alliant International University.
SFLS not accredited by the American Bar Association.[3] San Francisco Law School was approved by the Committee of Bar Examiners from 1937 to 2023 when it became a registered unaccredited distance learning law school.[4] As a result, SFLS students must pass the California First Year Law Students Examination, known as the "Baby Bar", to move forward to the second year of law study and graduates are generally required to pass the California bar exam before they can take the bar exam or practice in states outside of California, although California bar passage is often not sufficient as many states require ABA school graduation as a prerequisite for bar admission. Through Alliant, San Francisco Law School is regionally accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.[5]
In 2014, San Diego Law School opened as a branch campus of San Francisco Law School and located in the Walter Library on Alliant's campus in San Diego at Scripps Ranch. The branch campus closed in 2023 upon the law school's reversion to registered unaccredited status.
An LSAT score of 147 is required for full admission to the school, although students with LSAT scores between 140 and 146 may be considered for conditional admission.[6]
Based on 2018-2019 amounts, for a complete course of study with passing grades tuition was $80,910.[7]
Bar Passage Rates
Of the 14 SFLS alumni who took the California Bar Exam for the first time in July 2022, one passed, for a 7% passage rate, vs. a 36% average for California-accredited law schools and 67% average overall.[1]
SFLS had a five-year cumulative bar pass rate of 36% from 2017 to 2021, below the 40% threshold established by the State Bar of California. As a result, the school was placed on probation until July 1, 2022. The State Bar extended the school's probation until July 1, 2023, after it posted a bar passage rate of 35.4% for period ending in 2022. The probation was further extended to August 31, 2023, at which time SFLS again failed to achieve the minimum 40% requirement with a bar passage rate of 36.7% . As a result, SFLS became a registered unaccredited law school.[8]
Geoffrey F. Brown, former five-term San Francisco Public Defender and commissioner of the California Public Utilities Commission
Wayne M. Collins, civil rights attorney and co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union, Northern California Chapter; argued Korematsu v. United States before the United States Supreme Court [9]
^Collins, Donald E. Native American Aliens: Disloyalty and the Renunciation of Citizenship by Japanese Americans during World War II. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1985
