WSU Law School Student Experience
Western State University, Orange County’s oldest law school, has been a part of the legal community for over 42 years. Our curriculum emphasizes strong academics as well as the skills required for the ethical, skillful, and professional practice of law. We pride ourselves in providing a supportive and productive law school experience.
The good thing about Western State is that when you are going to become a 1L student you have an introductory course called Introduction to Legal Methods. That gets you accustomed to law school in general. It’s a two week program. You’re in the class with all of the students who are 1Ls. It’s split up. But at that point you’re not just being thrown into law school. Basically, it’s an introduction. It’s allowing you to understand the law, understand what you’ll be learning throughout the year. I think that Western State is one of the schools that does that. I’m not sure that any other schools do that. I think that was good. We came in, we were able to meet our classmates, and speak with other students who were in the same situation as us. So it was comforting knowing, okay, I can start school now in a week, you know what I mean? So I think that the intro program is really helpful for students.
Well, first off, you’re about 35 minutes away from the beach. That’s always an added incentive. Secondly, at Western State it seems like everyone is willing to help. Like I said, the students are willing to help, the faculty are willing to help and it seems like the school is trying to see you succeed in all endeavors. Like scholarship opportunities, internship opportunities and all around good law school experience.
Currently, I am employed under an alumnus in Newport Beach. I work at the Sports Syndicate down there and he’s also the alumnus who was willing to hire me during the summer
Well, it’s a sports and entertainment firm. They represent action sport athletes and ultimately, that’s what I would like to do (boxers and football players). He’s a supervising attorney and I’m working under him. I’m looking over contracts figuring out ways to add clarity and protection to the representation agreements and different things of that nature. Just being in that environment, the agency experience is very helpful to me so I know what to look forward to when I do graduate from Western State.
Yes that is one thing that I really do like about Western State I do talk to other law students at other law schools and they don’t have the cohesiveness that our student body does everybody helps each other. There is some level of competitiveness but it’s almost friendly competition it’s like hey look at what I’m doing and you can do it too, I’ll help you, I’ll show you how to do it and that’s how it is among the upper classmen as well as the lower classman you see it throughout and I have upperclassman who come to me and ask me how I’m doing knowing that I’m in my first year and they try to help me along and give me some pointers.
I would honestly say it has to be the professors and just the student body as a whole I didn’t think that the students would be that friendly. Law school is a very competitive place but here at Western State everybody is friends, you don’t really get the animosity that you would get between say who is ranked highest and the person who might be a couple spaces below them. Everybody really works together, they really want to do well and the professors really want to see you do well and they are so helpful and so open and I didn’t think I would find that here ‘cause usually the professors are big and scary and you don’t really want to approach them but here that that’s not the case.
All the student organizations have a faculty advisor so that faculty advisor is available as a resource, a mentor, it can be guidance to the students. Some student organizations really pull in a number of faculty. For example, we’ve got the business students and they have not only their advisor, but all of the professors who are involved in the business-related courses to work with. They’ll put on seminars, presentations, both with the in-house faculty and outside speakers. Similarly, the criminal law society has several professors who are interested in how that works. We’ve had those professors present things, but we also have terrific contacts in the criminal law community. So we had our local District Attorney Tony Rackauckas come to our campus and delivery a great talk, in which he talked about some of the advantages that Western State has in placing its students in some of those positions. So there is an advisor for every student organization, but many student organizations work closely with ore than one faculty member to help their programs along.
I did my undergrad here in Orange County so it’s really nice for me to stay in Orange County. I feel like I home here and the environment here at Western State really made me feel more at home. I don’t feel like I’m coming to school. I don’t dread coming to school in the mornings actually I’m excited to see my friends and to learn. I think that comes with loving the law and learning the law you have to want to come here and Western State makes that easier.
Orange County is great. Especially Western State having the big alumni base. It’s a good place to work because people around the county know Western State and they know that Western State puts out good workers and hard workers. And Orange County is a lot of fun especially here in Fullerton. We are right in the hear of downtown Fullerton and there’s San Diego and LA and the rest of Orange County all around it so there is never a lack of anything to do.
I would tell any student that was thinking about coming here that they ought to pick a law school where the students are comfortable with the administration, with the student body, and especially with the faculty. I always encourage students when they’re thinking of going to law school to actually go to a school, see if the admissions staff is going to be able to arrange for them to sit in with classes. Maybe to meet a professor beforehand. When students come to my class, for instance, as visitors I give them materials that we’re going to be covering that day and I have them sit in the class so that they ca follow along. Choosing the right school is really important. You should pick a school that you think is going to help you be successful. Because you can go to a terrific law school, but if the school is not going to help you succeed, you’re not going to be successful.