University of California, Irvine School of Law

The school was first eligible for and granted provisional accreditation by the American Bar Association in 2011 and was granted full accreditation in June 2014. == Admissions ==

Classes officially began on August 24, 2009. Approximately four percent of applicants were accepted to join the inaugural class of 60 students. The school's inaugural class was composed of 34 women and 26 men, with a median LSAT of 167 and a median undergraduate GPA of 3.61. == Tuition ==

For the first, second and third entering classes, tuition was paid for by private scholarships from Mark P. Robinson Jr. and others, at 100%, 50% and 33%, respectively. The tuition for the 2011-2012 academic year was approximately $40,000 for California residents and $52,000 for non-residents and the total cost of tuition (not including the cost of living) at the University of California-Irvine School of Law for the 2025–2026 academic year was $61,208 for California residents and $73,453 for non-residents. The estimated cost of living on campus is $25,786 per year. == Scholarships ==

The school raised funds for full scholarships for all members of its inaugural class. Despite offering reduced scholarships to its next two classes (one-half for 2013 and one-third for 2014) and applicant pools dropping to less than 1000 per year, GPA and LSAT numbers for these classes remained largely the same. During the 2019–2020 academic year, 39.1% of students received a scholarship covering more than 50% of the tuition cost, 55.1% of students received a scholarship covering less than 50% of the tuition cost, and 2.1% of students received no scholarship. == Rankings ==

UCI Law School was ranked #30 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report in March 2015. By then, the applicant median LSAT score was 164, and the median undergraduate GPA was 3.53. The publication ranked UC Irvine 11th for its clinical program, 23rd for its intellectual property law program, and in the top ten for the student diversity index..For 2025, U.S. News & World Report ranked the UCI Law School 38th nationally. The entering class had a median LSAT score of 167 and a median GPA of 3.81. == Federal clerkships ==

In December 2011, the percentage of the Class of 2012 students who had received Federal District Court or Circuit Court judge clerkships for the year following graduation was second to the highest-ranking Yale and ahead of Harvard Law. In May 2015, the ABA law school employment data ranked UCI third in the placement of federal clerkships, behind only Yale and Stanford. In 2023, there were 15 federal clerkships. Between 2020 and 2024, UCI reported on average 12 federal clerkships per year. == Employment ==

According to UC Irvine's official 2015 ABA-required disclosures, 93% of the Class of 2024 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation. UC Irvine's Law School Transparency under-employment score was 6%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2024 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job nine months after graduation. ==References==