Antonin Scalia Law School

Antonin Scalia Law School (previously George Mason University School of Law[2]) is the law school of George Mason University, a state university in Virginia, United States. The law school sits in Arlington, roughly 15 miles east-northeast of the university's main campus in Fairfax.

Antonin Scalia Law School
Hazel Hall, Antonin Scalia Law School
Parent schoolGeorge Mason University
Established1979
School typePublic
DeanHenry N. Butler
LocationArlington, Virginia, USA
38°53′06″N 77°06′01″W
Enrollment496
USNWR ranking42nd (2021)[1]
Websitewww.law.gmu.edu
ABA profileABA Profile

U.S. News & World Report ranks the school 45th among American law schools, and it is the 3rd-highest-ranked law school in the Washington metropolitan area, behind Georgetown University Law Center and George Washington University Law School.[3] In 2017, the school had 525 students in its J.D., LL.M., JD/MBA, and JD/MPP programs. The median LSAT score among incoming J.D. students in 2018 was 163 and the median GPA was 3.76.[4] The passage rate for first-time takers of the Virginia bar exam in July 2017 was 80.33%, fifth among Virginia's eight law schools.[5]

Rankings

History

George Mason University School of Law was authorized by the Virginia General Assembly in March 1979 and was founded on July 1, 1979. The school had started as the "International School of Law" (ISL), which opened in 1972 in a classroom at the Federal Bar Building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC.[11][12] In 1973, it moved into the home of former United States Chief Justice Edward Douglass White on Rhode Island Avenue, and in 1975 purchased the old Kann's Department Store in Arlington. Despite growth, ISL could never obtain accreditation. In 1976, it discussed a merger with George Mason University, which was interested in setting up a law school.[13] In 1978, the Virginia State Council of Education denied GMU's proposal to start a law school and encouraged a merger with ISL instead.[14] Later that year, the Council advised against allowing that merger, but the Virginia state legislature nonetheless approved the merger in early March 1979.[15][16]

The school became fully accredited by the American Bar Association in 1986, but was still not widely known during the late 1980s.[17] Since then, however, its rankings have risen rapidly.[18]

In 2016, the school was offered $30 million to rename itself for Antonin Scalia, the late United States Supreme Court justice: $10 million from the Charles Koch Foundation and $20 million from an anonymous donor[19]. On March 31, its Board of Visitors approved the deal. School officials soon announced that the new name would be "The Antonin Scalia School of Law", but changed their minds after observers noted that this could be abbreviated "ASSLaw". Several days later, school officials announced a new new name: Antonin Scalia Law School[20], a decision ratified by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia on May 17.[21][22]

Conservatism

The law school has a reputation for conservative teaching which increased with the renaming in 2016 for Scalia, who was a conservative.[23] The Washington Post editorial board wrote that "university officials aren’t fooling anyone if they contend that naming the school after such a polarizing figure doesn’t give it an ideological brand."[24] In 2019, the law school received a gift of $50 million, the largest ever received by the university, from the estate of Allison and Dorothy Rouse to "fund a chair or chairs that will promote the conservative principles of governance, statesmanship, high morals, civil and religious freedom and the study of the United States Constitution".[23] The university has accepted donations from conservative donors in exchange for allowing the donors to have a say in hiring and firing for the Mercatus Center, the university's think tank,[23] and to be notified of any change in the law school's leadership.[24]

The Washington Post editorial board called the law school's students and faculty "fairly...libertarian- and conservative-leaning"[24] David Bernstein, a professor at the law school, wrote that in his experience "the average George Mason law school student — unlike the average faculty member — leans a bit to the moderate left."[25]

Tuition

The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) for the 2017-18 academic year at Mason Law was $49,219 for in-state students attending full-time; the total cost of attendance for non-resident students attending full-time is $64,605.[26] The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $179,567 for residents, and $234,586 for non-residents.[27] To combat the high cost of law school, George Mason's Board of Visitors voted in 2013 to freeze tuition through the 2016-2017 academic year.[28]

Curriculum

Mason Law is somewhat distinctive in offering a wide variety of intense law tracks, each of which requires that about one-third of the credits for graduation be completed in the track, and law concentrations, which are elective specializations and have a less restrictive credit requirement as compared to the track program.[29] The law tracks include Litigation Law, Patent Law, and Regulatory Law.[30]

The law concentrations include Antitrust Law, Communications Law, Corporate and Securities Law, Criminal Law, Homeland & National Security Law, Immigration Law, Intellectual Property Law, International Business Law, Legal and Economic Theory, Litigation Law, Personal Law, Regulatory Law, Tax Law, and Technology Law.[31]

Also, the school has a Legal Research, Writing and Analysis (LRWA) curriculum. Mason Law requires its students to complete four semesters (two years) of LRWA coursework. Students acquire the necessary skills for trial and appellate practice. The first-year LRWA curriculum is taught by third-year (and fourth-year evening) law students under the guidance of full-time faculty. During the first semester, students learn how to conduct legal research and write a predictive memorandum, while during the second semester, students compete in intramural oral arguments while producing both predictive and persuasive memoranda. The second year of LRWA is taught by legal practitioners, and consists of Appellate Writing and Legal Drafting. Student transcripts bear a separate grade-point average (GPA) for LRWA and writing-intensive coursework in addition to the overall GPA. Students must successfully complete 89 credits to graduate.

First-year curriculum

In addition to two semesters (5 credits total) of LRWA, the first-year curriculum is filled with foundation courses. First-year day students cover the following legal foundation courses: Torts (4 credits), Contracts (5 credits), Property (4 credits), Civil Procedure (4 credits), Legislation and Statutory Interpretation (2 credits), and Criminal Law (3 credits). In addition, every student is required to complete one semester of "Economic Foundations of Legal Studies," a basic economics course taught by distinguished economists. First-year students may not take any electives.

The first-year students are graded according to a mandatory 3.25 curve.

Second-year curriculum

In their second year of study, day students must complete a 4-credit Constitutional Law course and complete an additional 4 credits of LRWA. Students may select from a variety of upper-level electives in addition to these requirements.

Employment

According to George Mason's official ABA-required disclosures, 56% of the Class of 2014 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation. Ten months after graduation, 84% of the Class of 2014 was employed in or about to begin full-time jobs requiring bar passage or jobs for which a J.D. provides an advantage.[32] George Mason's Law School Transparency under-employment score is 16.8%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2014 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job nine months after graduation.[33]

Law library

The George Mason Law Library has a collection of electronic and print materials providing access to legal treatises, journals, and databases. Non-legal materials are available through the GMU University Libraries. It is a selective depository for U.S. Government documents, and it provides interlibrary lending services with other academic libraries,[34] which enables students and faculty to borrow materials from major academic libraries. The library occupies four levels of the law school building. It has 14 study rooms, 70 carrel seats, and 196 table seats wired with electrical and network connections, and a wireless network is available. The library also operates 2 computer labs with a variety of software.[35] The library employs 16 full-time staff members, including 6 librarians with degrees in law and library science and 3 technology specialists.[36] Access is limited to university faculty, students, staff, alumni and members of the bar.[37]

Notable people

Alumni
  • David Jolly, member of the United States House of Representative
  • Ken Cuccinelli, Acting United States Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, 46th Attorney General of Virginia, former Member of the Virginia Senate from the 37th district
  • Liam O'Grady, United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
  • Richard L. Young, United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana
  • Anna Escobedo Cabral, Treasurer of the United States under President George W. Bush
  • Kathleen L. Casey, Commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
  • Kendrick Moxon, lead counsel for the Church of Scientology

Faculty
  • Ginsburg, Douglas H., Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
  • Joshua D. Wright, Executive Director of the Global Antitrust Institute, former member of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

Advocacy

Professors from the Antonin Scalia Law School advocate with the federal government to expand copyright and reduce what the government asks from private corporations in return for public funding. In particular, they opposed a federal open-access mandate in 2020.[38]

Other Antonin Scalia Law School professors were criticised by lawmakers for their conflict of interest within the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as they advocated for policies favorable to financial corporations which were also their paying clients.[39]

The Antonin Scalia Law School partially overlapped at times with the George Mason Environmental Law Clinic or Free Market Environmental Law Clinic, which merged with the Energy & Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal) (formerly the American Tradition Institute (ATI)), known[40] for its climate science denialism[41] and funded by the coal industry.[42] Antonin Scalia Law School leadership in one occasion «admonished the professors for engaging in "irresponsible advocacy"» which had the goal to receive corporate donations in return for attacks on climate science.[19]

Journals

Student-edited
  • George Mason Law Review [43](ISSN 1088-5625)
  • George Mason Civil Rights Law Journal[44] (ISSN 1049-4766)
  • Journal of International Commercial Law [45]
  • National Security Law Journal [46] (ISSN 2373-8464)
  • The Journal of Law, Economics & Policy[47] (ISSN 1553-4367)

Other

Clinics and externships
  • Arts & Entertainment Advocacy Clinic
  • Mason Veterans and Servicemembers Legal Clinic (MVETS)[49]
  • Domestic Relations Supervised Externship & Legal Clinic
  • Law and Mental Illness Legal Clinic
  • Practical Preparation of Patent Applications
  • Supreme Court Clinic
  • Supervised Externship - Fall, Spring, Summer
  • Capitol Hill Supervised Externship
  • Virginia Practice Supervised Externship
  • Regulatory Comments Legal Practicum

Student organizations
  • Alternative Dispute Resolution Society
  • American Constitution Society
  • American Inn of Court
  • Black Law Students Association
  • Business Law Society
  • Christian Legal Society
  • Communications Law Association
  • Environmental Law Society
  • Federalist Society
  • Honor Committee
  • Immigration Law Society
  • Intellectual Property Law Society
  • International Law Society
  • J. Reuben Clark Law Society
  • Jewish Law Students Association
  • Latino/a Law Student Association
  • Law Students for Reproductive Justice
  • Mason Law Democrats
  • Mason Law Sports and Entertainment Association
  • Military Law Society
  • Moot Court Board
  • Muslim Law Student Association
  • Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity International
  • Phi Delta Phi (Lewis F. Powell Inn)
  • Running Along the Potomac
  • Student Bar Association
  • The Docket[50]
  • Thomas More Society
  • Trial Advocacy Association
  • VBA Pro Bono Society
  • Women's Law Association
gollark: I do want to get gitkab.com just to see how many typoed requests I get.
gollark: https://gogle.cloud/
gollark: This is technically a URL shortener.
gollark: Twitter has `t.co`, for instance.
gollark: Because `[some emoji].[TLD]` isn't very impressive.

References
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  2. Name change to Antonin Scalia School of Law: Name change to Antonin Scalia Law School:
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