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Western State College of Law at Argosy University
Established	1966
School type	Private, non-profit[1]
Dean	Allen Easley
Location	Irvine, California, U.S. Coordinates: 33°23′35″N 117°27′14″W / 33.39304°N 117.45394°W / 33.39304; -117.45394
Enrollment	198 (full-time) 110 (part-time)
Faculty	27
Bar pass rate	51% (July 2018 exam, first-time takers)[2]
Website	wsulaw.edu
ABA profile	Western State College of Law profile

Western State College of Law at Argosy University is a private, non-profit American law school in Irvine, California. It was established in 1966 and is the oldest existing law school in Orange County. Western State is fully approved by the American Bar Association. Prior to 2012, the school was known as Western State University College of Law. The school is operated by Dream Center Education Holdings, a subsidiary of the Dream Center megachurch.

Dream Center Education Holdings is now under federal receivership. According to USA Today, $9 million dollars that was supposed to be distributed to students are missing, and some students cannot pay their bills. ^[3][4][5]

The situation facing the students is filled with claims of "a lack of transparency from the school" as students feel they have been deceived by the administration. As of January 19th 2019, the school is telling students that they are working on getting their financial aid yet there has been nothing to come from it. Students are being forced to choose whether to buy food or pay rent and the school has requested that students "petition" for $50-$100 Visa gift cards to help with expenses, and they still haven't received those either.^[6]

View of the campus in Fullerton circa 2010. The school subsequently relocated to Irvine.

Overview

Western State College of Law at Argosy University is a non-profit law school owned by Dream Center Education Holdings, LLC.^[7] The school is located in Irvine, California and offers full and part-time programs.^[8][9] Since 2014, Allan Easley has served as the school's dean.^[10]

Western State is not a member of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS).^[11]

History

Western State College of Law was founded in 1966 in Orange County, California.^[8][9] It is the oldest existing law school in the county.^[12] In 1987, the school applied for accreditation with the American Bar Association (ABA). Although the school was unsuccessful in this attempt, it was at the time accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges^[13][14] and by the California State Committee of Bar Examiners (CBE).^[15] The accreditation by the CBE made graduates eligible to sit for the California Bar Examination.^[15]

By 1990, Western State had expanded to three campuses in California including locations in Fullerton, Irvine and San Diego. At that time, the school was the largest law school in California.^[14][16] In 1995, Western State again began pursuing accreditation with the ABA for all three of its campuses.^[17] In the latter half of the 1990s, the school underwent several changes as part of the accreditation process. In 1995, the school's San Diego campus became the independently owned Thomas Jefferson School of Law^[18][19] and the following year, the school closed its Irvine location and consolidated students to its Fullerton campus.^[13] In 1998, the school received provisional accreditation from the ABA^[8] and opened a new law library.^[20]

In 2000, the college's owners sold Western State to Argosy Education Group, which owned the school for a year before it was purchased by Education Management Corporation.^[8][21] Western State was granted full accreditation with the ABA in 2005, and became the third for-profit law school to receive ABA approval.^[8]

In April 2012, the school was incorporated as one of the colleges of Argosy University and officially changed its name to Western State College of Law at Argosy University.^[22] The same year, the school sold its property to California State University, Fullerton for roughly $18 million.^[23]

In January 2016, the campus moved to Irvine, California.

In October 2017, it was announced that the college of law was sold, along with the rest of Argosy University, to the Dream Center Foundation, a subsidiary of the Dream Center megachurch. The transaction was funded in part by the Najafi Companies, a private equity firm.^[24] Critics have claimed that the sale and shift to non-profit status was designed to evade consumer protection regulations focused on for-profit institutions.^[25]

Academics

Programs

Western State offers both full-time and part-time programs.^[8][26] The school offers two areas of focus through their Business Law Center and their Criminal Law Practice Center, which are aimed at preparing graduates for a career in criminal or business law through additional training, internships and networking with lawyers.^[27]. The law school also offers certificates in Immigration Law, Family Law, and Real Estate. Since 2011, the Western State College of Law Immigration Clinic has provided students with practical training in lawyering skills through pro bono representation of low-income noncitizens in a range of immigration matters.

As of August 2013^[update], the school had 321 full-time students and 149 part-time students, and 27 members of faculty.^[26] The school's bar pass rate was 41% for first-time takers in July 2016.^[28]

Accreditation and rankings

The American Bar Association provisionally accredited Western State in 1998^[29] and conferred full accreditation in 2005.^[8][30]

Western State was listed with a "B+" in the March 2011 "Diversity Honor Roll" by The National Jurist: The Magazine for Law Students.^[31]

Costs

The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at the Western State College of Law for the 2013-2014 academic year is $64,357 living at home and $59,493 for a full-time student that is self-supporting.^[32] The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $251,417.^[33]

Post-graduation employment

According to Western State's ABA-required disclosures, 32.9% of the Class of 2016 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation, excluding solo-practitioners.^[35] Western State's Law School Transparency under-employment score is 35.1%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2016 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job nine months after graduation.^[36]

Notable alumni

• 
  Anthony Adams, a former member of the California State Assembly^[37]
  


• 
  Leslie Alexander (businessman), owner of the Houston Rockets
  


• 
  Vito Barbieri, an Idaho state representative^[38]
  


• 
  Roger T. Benitez, a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California


• 
  Bob Chandler, a former American football player^[39]
  


• 
  Bonnie Dumanis, the District Attorney for San Diego County^[40]
  


• 
  Mike Garrett, a former American football player and former athletic director at the University of Southern California^[41]
  


• 
  George Gascón, the District Attorney and former police chief for San Francisco^[42]
  


• 
  Duncan Hunter, a former member of the United States House of Representatives and 2008 Presidential candidate^[43][44]
  


• 
  Michael O. Johnson, former CEO of Herbalife
  


• 
  Ross Johnson, a former long-time California state legislator^[41]
  


• 
  Mangala Moonesinghe, a member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka and Ambassador^[45]
  


• 
  Nguyen Cao Ky Duyen, a Vietnamese-American personality and co-host of Thuy Nga's Paris by Night shows^[46]
  


• 
  Ruth Parasol, the founder of PartyGaming^[47]
  


• 
  Dick Walsh, a former Major League Baseball executive^[48]
  


• 
  George O. Wood, the General Superintendent of Assemblies of God^[49]
  

References

External links

• Official website