UC Davis School of Law

The University of California, Davis School of Law (Martin Luther King Jr. Hall), referred to as UC Davis School of Law and commonly known as King Hall and UC Davis Law, is an American Bar Association approved law school located in Davis, California on the campus of the University of California, Davis. The school received ABA approval in 1968. It joined the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) in 1968.
UC Davis School of Law is the smallest of the five law schools in the University of California system, with a total enrollment of under 600 students. The school is located in a building named for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and commonly referred to as King Hall.
Rankings and academics.
In 2016, "US News & World Report" ranked UC Davis 30th among all law schools in the United States.
For diversity among the five law schools in the UC system, UC Davis was named the second-most diverse after UC Hastings by US News & World Report. Princeton Review placed UC Davis Law tenth in the nation for faculty diversity in the 2009 version of its annual law ranking. It is listed as an "A-" in the March 2011 "Diversity Honor Roll" by "The National Jurist: The Magazine for Law Students".
It is listed as an "A" (#16) in the January 2011 "Best Public Interest Law Schools" ratings by "The National Jurist: The Magazine for Law Students".
UC Davis Law has the smallest student body of the UC law schools. It has a slightly higher student/faculty ratio than UCLA or Berkeley.
UC Davis has been ranked as the fifth most-expensive public law school in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. It is also ranked first for providing the most financial aid.
UC Davis grants the second-most in financial aid in the country. UC Davis Law's King Hall Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP), founded in 1990 to help alumni working in relatively low-income public-service law careers to repay student loans, was the first loan repayment assistance program established at any UC law school.
According to Brian Leiter's Law School rankings, Davis ranks 23rd in the nation for scholarly impact as measured by total academic citations of tenure-stream faculty.
Bar passage rates.
Based on a 2001-2007 6 year average, 79.4% of UC Davis Law graduates passed the California State Bar exam. In 2009, 89% of first-time test takers passed the California bar.
For July 2012, 78.9% of first-time test takers passed the California bar exam. For July 2013, 85.0% of first-time test takers passed the California Bar Exam.
For July 2014, 86% of first-time test takers passed the California bar exam.
Employment.
According to King Hall's official 2019 ABA-required disclosures, 85% of the Class of 2019 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation. King Hall's Law School Transparency under-employment score is 6.5%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2019 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job nine months after graduation.
Costs.
The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at King Hall for the 2013-2014 academic year is $68,346 for California residents and $80,591 for non-residents. The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $265,806 for residents.
Expansion.
The law school completed a $30 million expansion project in 2011. The project has added an additional wing to the law school's current building, increasing assignable space by nearly 30 percent to provide for additional classrooms, offices, and a new courtroom, named the Paul and Lydia Kalmanovitz Appellate Courtroom in honor of a $1 million gift to the project from the Kalmanovitz Charitable Foundation. The courtroom is used by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, California Supreme Court, and California Court of Appeal.