I graduated from Golden Gate and, generally, I recommend it. But it's not for everybody. It has big pulses and big minuses. Please forgive the first person pronouns below, but I also teach at Golden Gate and feel, in a way, that I speak for the school as well as about it.

The Facilities

First, the big negative -- the physical plant is terrible. Many potential students are put off by the ugly and poorly equipped building. Help is on the way, though. The school is planning a $15 million upgrade to the facilities. We still won't have a campus to rival Stanford, but we should have state of the art classrooms within the next couple of years.

The Programs

Now the big positive -- if you are at all interested in either clinical work or skills training, Golden Gate is the place for you. Golden Gate has made a substantial commitment to clinical programs (our environmental clinical program, for example, was recently rated third best in the country in one publication). Golden Gate also works hard to develop practicing lawyers who are ready to hit the ground running after law school. If you are interested in highly refined discussions of legal theory go to Boalt or Stanford. If you want to learn the nuts and bolts of lawyering, try Golden Gate.

For those who are just beginning their law school search, you should be aware that there is quite a well developed pecking order among schools, especially in California. At the bottom are non-accredited schools. A level above are those schools that are California state approved. At the top of the pyramid are those schools that are approved by the American Bar Association. Within the ABA approved schools, there is also a hierarchy, with 4 or 5 tiers of preference. Golden Gate has full ABA approval, but ranks on one of the lower tiers of ABA schools. I'd put us a notch ahead of Whittier and Chapman (though I love Chapman's facilities) and about on a par with Cal Western. So, if the prestige of the school is important to you (and it should be if you want to work in one of the top law firms, but may not be otherwise) you should aim for the top schools in the area like Boalt or Stanford.

However, if you are more interested in trying cases and doing good, consider Golden Gate. It has a top-flight faculty, excellent skills training (as a student I fought my way through regional competitions to national competitions in both mock trial and negotiation, thanks to a couple of wonderful professors) and several very successful clinics which are doing important work.

Golden Gate has very successful programs in several areas:

Litigation - The litigation program has been headed by the same wonderful professor (Bernie Segal) for 30 years and just gets stronger. Go into any courtroom in Northern California and you can pick out the Golden Gate graduates within minutes. Bernie teaches a very strong professional style and his graduates come out of the program ready to try cases. In 2001, one of his students won Best Oralist at a Moot Court Competition in Lisbon, Portugal.

Environmental Law - Golden Gate is rapidly becoming one of the strongest environmental law schools in the country. The program features excellent opportunities for clinical experience under talented instructors. Golden Gate also hosted the California Environmental Negotiations Competition the last two years, a competition that combines environmental law and alternative dispute resolution in a novel and constructive way. In 2001, two Golden Gate negotiation teams made the final four (out of 20+ teams from around the state).

Intellectual Property - Golden Gate has made a recent commitment to developing a first-class intellectual property program. Expect this program to rival the environmental program in a very short time.

International - Golden Gate's international program is long-standing and well respected. Golden Gate offers not one, but two, LLM degrees in international law. The first is primarily for attorneys from other countries who want to study international law in the United States. The second focuses on actually preparing attorneys from other countries to take an American bar exam. The school also participates actively in the Jessup International Moot Court Competition. In 2001, a Golden Gate student won Best Oralist in the Pacific Region of this competition.

ADR - Golden Gate has strong offering in ADR, including classes on ADR and negotiations and participation in a variety of competitions. This include the Environmental Negotiations Competition (see above), the ABA Negotiation Competition and the ABA Mediation Competition (our team in 2001 went undefeated in the Pacific Regional).

Location, Location, Location

Golden Gate is located in the heart of San Francisco. This has many social and cultural advantages and, of course, the weather is great. It also places you close to many major and smaller law firms and courts at every level (up to and including the California Supreme Court, and the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals). On the down side, this area has one of the highest cost of living in the country.

Diversity

I just want to add a word about diversity. In some ways, Golden Gate is very diverse, but it really depends on what kind of diversity you are looking for:

* Gender - The student body is well over 50% female. Women regularly take leadership roles in organizations like the law review and student bar association. Golden Gate was rated a few years ago as one of the top 20 law schools in the nations for women. The one weakness is a lack of women on the tenured faculty.

*Sexual Orientation - Golden Gate is one of the most accepting law schools anywhere for gays and lesbians. We're in San Francisco; what would you expect?

* Race - The Golden Gate student body is racially diverse, but much of the diversity is Asian-American. We still have a way to go, though we are improving, in finding and admitting African-American students. We do have a successful and growing international law program, which adds wonderfully diverse racial and national viewpoints.

* Political Viewpoint - Here there is practically no diversity at all. The school is VERY liberal. The staff's politics range from unapologetic leftist radical to traditional liberal. I doubt there are more than 5 people on the entire faculty who voted for Bush and I'll bet no more than two of those would admit to it. The student body is not much more diverse. But, as I noted above, this is San Francisco, where the DA is a former public defender who just refuses to enforce laws he doesn't personally like and Mayor Brown is the best liberal machine politician since Daly the Original ran Chicago. Conservatives or libertarians from the heartland would be a welcome addition to the faculty and student body. I think they'd be welcomed, too.

Cost

Golden Gate is expensive to attend. Public schools like Boalt and Hastings will be cheaper, as will unaccredited schools. Fortunately, Golden Gate does have an extensive scholarship program, to attract better students. The school is worth the cost, especially when compared to unaccredited schools, but you'd be foolish to turn down Boalt or Hastings if you get accepted there. The education won't be any better (okay, I'm not objective about this, but I believe it, anyway), but the prestige will be greater and the cost lower. It's no contest.

Bottom Line

In conclusion, Golden Gate is a lower tier, but fully ABA approved, law school. Generally speaking, you will want to attend the highest rated school you can get into. However, if you are interested in practicing law in one of Golden Gate's areas of strength, you should give this school a look.

Please feel free to e-mail with any questions or leave a comment to this review and I'll answer as best I can.

P.S. This is a rather extensive rewrite of one of my earlier epinions that got archived when the epinions software was updated. So if it looks like you've seen it before, you may have. But I'm not plagiarizing myself.

Recommended: Yes