San Joaquin College of Law

SJCL was founded in Fresno in 1969 by Fresno County Municipal Court Judge Dan Eymann, U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger , and attorney John Loomis. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] The school began instruction in 1970 on the campus of Fresno Pacific College (now Fresno Pacific University ). It remained there until 1980, when the campus moved to Shields Avenue. In 1996, SJCL relocated to the original Clovis High School building. The structure was built in 1920. [ 3 ] The renovation, including a new courtroom, lecture hall, and enlarged library, allowed the Law School to expand, while still maintaining the historic character of the building. [ 4 ]

SJCL is approved by the Committee of Bar Examiners of the State Bar of California . [ 5 ] It is not accredited by the American Bar Association . As a result, SJCL graduates may not qualify to take the bar or practice outside of California. [ 6 ]

For the July, 2025 California bar exam, the school's pass rate for first-time takers was 62% vs. the statewide average of 70%. Among the twenty-two California law schools with thirty or more first-time takers, SJCL ranked seventeenth. [ 7 ] In order to evaluate the "qualitative soundness of a law school's program of legal education," the State Bar of California requires all California-Approved Law schools to provide cumulative bar passage rates for the previous five years. For 2018–2022, SJCL's cumulative five-year bar pass rate was 76.3%. [ 8 ]

The San Joaquin Agricultural Law Review has been published by SJCL students since 1990, making it the oldest of the three law reviews in the United States focusing on agriculture law . [ 9 ] [ 10 ] [ 11 ] [ 12 ]