Mention San Francisco, and vivid images flood people's minds – the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, colorful Victorians, long fingers of fog creeping over hilltops. But San Francisco is more than a pretty place. It is a gateway to the Pacific Rim. The Wall Street of the West. Ground Zero for the Internet revolution. And home to the University of San Francisco School of Law, one of the nation’s finest private law schools.

USF is a small law school, where teaching is revered and scholarly writing is nurtured. We are a law school where collegiality replaces hostility and competitiveness, and where learning results from collaboration and positive student-faculty interactions. Our class sizes are large enough to encompass different points of view, yet small enough for all voices to be heard, creating a sense of community at USF that is our signature statement.

We are a school that vigorously pursues our mission of pursuing excellence and educating for justice. We are a school where as much of the law student's education takes place outside the classroom as inside. There are many practical training opportunities at USF, including distinctive clinical offerings, specialized trial advocacy programs, a dispute resolution curriculum, and many service opportunities that reflect our tradition of training students to be skilled, ethical professionals concerned for others. Exceptional programming in intellectual property, cyberspace law, and related business law takes advantage of our location in the heart of the dot.com world and builds on the work of our highly respected intellectual property faculty.

Our unique international programming is truly global, involving students in classes, projects and internships in places as diverse as Budapest, Cambodia and El Salvador. It takes students to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, where they develop a first-hand understanding that insuring basic human rights is an important part of lawyering in the 21st century.

Few institutions can boast the values that underlie our law school's tradition – the Jesuit Mission's commitment to excellence and social justice – and students who take that commitment seriously. We are a law school that allows students the opportunity not only to prepare to do well, but to prepare to do good once they become lawyers.

I don’t know if USF is the right place for you, but I do know that we are a special place with a unique combination of offerings. I hope you will agree and look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Jeff Brand
Dean