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| PCU Makes Case for Law School's Night Program By Ofelia Saenz, Signal Tribune staff writer
"This program was created as an alternative nighttime program primarily for working people who had the stamina and the intellect to do both: work during the day and pursue an education for a new career in law at night," said Dean William Lewis. In addition to being a PCU alumnus and a practicing attorney, Lewis teaches various classes at the university. PCU has been dedicated to helping students fulfill their dream of becoming attorneys by helping them overcome two of the major obstacles: time and money. Their programs are still exclusively night programs and their tuition is a comparatively modest $3500 a year. After nearly 50 years of renting classrooms at Wilson High School, the university moved into their own facility in 2001. The school's unassuming appearance, however, belies the extensive resources their students have at their disposal; PCU has the largest private law library in Long Beach, with more than 3,500 volumes covering all state subjects. PCU may not have all the frills that most of the other law schools have, like a large administrative staff or placement counselors, but by keeping the school's overhead small and focused, they've been able to keep tuition accessible. "The cost of the larger law schools is, in some cases, becoming prohibitive," said Lewis. "We have probably the best [law school] tuition package on the North American continent." By limiting class size to no more than 50, students are given ample opportunity to brief cases. "When you start getting 100 students [in a class] like you see in some major law schools, you may, as a student, brief once a year, if at all," said Chuck Hicks, vice dean and a professor at PCU. "We think it's important that students get that interaction, that opportunity to discuss case law." The school has graduates in just about every area of law, such as personal injury, family law, immigration law and wills and estate law. For many students, the area to which they're drawn often reflects their prior professional experience. According to Hicks, because PCU is a night school tailored to the limitations of the working professional, PCU students tend to bring experience and background to the table that they can use as a basis for starting their legal practice. "We get quite a cross section [of students]," said Lewis. "This school is great in that it encourages people to attend that couldn't [otherwise] afford to." Although the school is now seeing more students who have recently completed their undergraduate degrees and are opting for PCU as an affordable alternative to the larger schools, the university, in accordance with State Bar Regulations, can accept anyone with at least 60 college credits and is eligible to be accepted to the third year of a four-year institution. "We generally will look at those with an associates degree or higher," Hicks said, but they will also consider students who have scored high enough on the College Level Equivalency Program Tests (CLEPT). "We're more concerned about the ability and the desire," Lewis said. "If we have seats available and we're comfortable that [students] can do the work, we give them an opportunity." PCU is hosting an open house for prospective students on Saturday, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. The school is located at 1650 Ximeno Avenue, Suite 310, in Long Beach. For more information or to RSVP, call (562) 961-8200 or visit their website at www.pculaw.com |
Eighty years ago, when Pacific Coast University Law School (PCU) first opened its doors, students who wanted to study law had no choice but to do so during the day. Founded in 1927, months before even the California State Bar itself was formed, PCU was the first night school for law students.