LAW SCHOOL PROFILE
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Seattle University School of Law, Seattle, WA [By Barbara Chalsma] Seattle University School of Law is the largest law school in the Pacific Northwest and draws from the top third of national law school applicants. This 35-year-old law school, a component of the larger Jesuit institution founded in 1891 in the heart of Seattle, reflects the core values of the Jesuits as well as those of the larger Seattle community.
In the words of Dean Kellye Testy, an Indiana
study rooms, the library, and the courts.
community at large, collaborates
University Law School graduate who just
(Remember, Seattle is the home of Bill
with hundreds of attorneys, judges,
finished her second year as dean at SU, “The
Gates’ 65,000-square-foot house and
and advocates from every field,
university mission tells us that learning for
Microsoft; nothing is old-generation.)
and draws more than 300 student volunteers each year.
its own sake, while important, is not enough. Here we come to understand that the value of
Students can specialize in one of 14 legal
learning lies in the ways it equips us to make
areas, including business, civil advocacy,
a difference in this world. The link between
commercial law, criminal practice,
Planning and Probate, which
academics/theory/study and practice/action/
environmental law, estate planning, family
provides free or reduced-cost
social activism […] permeates all we do-from
law, health law, intellectual property,
estate-planning services to tribes
the way we teach classes to the co-curricular
international law, labor and employment,
under the auspices of the Indian
activities we sponsor, from the students we
poverty law, real estate, and tax law.
Land Tenure Trust.
admit to the faculty we hire.” The 10,000
Programs and organizations of particular
graduates of Seattle University School of Law
note include:
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The Indian Institute for Estate
Rights of Alaskan Natives and Environmental Law, a collaborative
can be found in all 50 states and sectors. Legal Research and Writing, a
effort with the University of Alaska-
The law school’s student-to-faculty ratio is
program the ABA has singled out as
Anchorage.
15.6:1. The faculty (comprised of 70 full-
the best in the nation, and a clinical
time and 102 adjunct professors) is one of
program that the ABA awarded with
distinction, ranking among the top 50 in
the E. Smythe Gambrell Award for
scholarly publications. The student population
Professionalism.
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of 1,000 is diverse, coming from all educational
Seattle, once known as a low-key city with cheap electricity and the Space Needle built for the 1962 World’s Fair, has become infamous as the originator of grunge and
The Center on Corporations,
the site of World Bank riots, as well as
and 12 other countries. Moreover, many
Law, and Society, whose mission
the original Starbucks, which still exists
law students are first-generation college
is “enhanced scholarly inquiry
in the legendary Pike Place Market. The
graduates (as is the dean, herself).
and sustained discussion among
Pacific Northwest’s legal and business
academics, legal practitioners,
center, Seattle has metamorphosed into the
The law school is housed in an award-
business leaders, activists, policy
sophisticated urban nexus of a sprawling,
winning building, Sullivan Hall, whose light-
makers, and community members
3.2-million-person metropolitan area.
filled spaces make the most of Seattle’s
on the complex and important
often-gray days. The building includes a
relationships between business
Unfortunately, along with the city’s popularity
cutting-edge courtroom for moot court
enterprises and their many
comes relatively expensive housing.
competitions and classroom demonstrations,
stakeholders.”
According to one study, Seattle’s housing
backgrounds and careers, some 40 U.S. states,
as well as a street-front legal clinic right in the facility. The school’s state-of-theart technology fills the classrooms and
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costs rank above those of all other U.S. cities •
The Access to Justice Institute,
except for the obvious cities at the very top
which connects the law school to the
(New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles,
continued on back
LAW SCHOOL PROFILE
San Francisco, San Diego, and Honolulu). Nevertheless, Seattle continues to focus on ways to preserve a humane environment of parks, bike paths, and walking trails-and
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Seattle University School of Law is fully accredited by the American Bar Association and holds full membership in the Association of American Law Schools.
the scenery and roses in January more than make up for its often-cloudy weather.
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Additionally, Seattle’s many art museums
Seattle University School of Law
and galleries, orchestras, Pacific Science
www.law.seattleu.edu/?mode=flash
Museum, range of restaurants and coffee shops, ferry boats, and 1,000 wi-fi sites make
Microsoft
it practically perfect. Located on Puget
www.microsoft.com/en/us/default.aspx
Sound, with a view of Mount Rainier (on clear days) and three lakes within its borders
Space Needle
on which sailboats run rampant, Seattle is
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manifestly the archetypical livable city.
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