| Case Western Reserve University School of Law | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Established | 1892 |
| School type | Private |
| Dean | Paul Rose |
| Location | Cleveland,Ohio, U.S. |
| Enrollment | 422 |
| Faculty | 68 full-time |
| USNWR ranking | 107th (tie) (2025)[1] |
| Bar pass rate | 86.73% (2022 first time takers)[2] |
| Website | www |
Case Western Reserve University School of Law is thelaw school ofCase Western Reserve University inCleveland, Ohio. It was one of the first schools accredited by theAmerican Bar Association.[3] It is a member of theAssociation of American Law Schools (AALS).[4] It was initially named forFranklin Thomas Backus, a justice of theOhio Supreme Court, whose widow donated $50,000 to found the school in 1892.[5]
According to Case Western Reserve's official 2018 ABA-required disclosures, 65.9% of the Class of 2018 obtained full-time, long-term, bar passage-required employment nine months after graduation, excluding solo-practitioners, ranking 114th out of 200 ABA-approved law schools.[6][7]
The student-faculty ratio is 6.8:1.[8] In August 2013, by a near-unanimous vote, the faculty adopted a new curriculum to reflect changes in the legal profession. The model is designed to blend practice, theory, and professionalism in all three years of law school. Students begin working with clients in the first year of law school. Writing and skills-oriented courses track course content to the school's substantive-law courses to blend theory and practice. Students also learn transactional drafting, financial literacy, and statutory and regulatory analysis during their first year.
During the second year of law school, students specialize and continue to build on the skills they learned during their first year. The law school's concentrations include health care law, international law, national security law, and law, technology, and the arts.
Beginning in 2016, a capstone semester became a hallmark of the third year. All students practice law full-time by working on cases through the Milton A. Kramer Law Clinic Center at the law school or through an externship. Students may do externships in the U.S. or abroad. A select number of students may competitively apply to spend their third year in Europe, completing a foreign LLM degree in addition to their Case JD, at no additional cost.
Students learn leadership through courses developed by faculty at Case Western's Weatherhead School of Management, and students graduate with e-portfolios of their work to share with employers.
For the class entering in 2022, the school accepted 39.18% of applicants and, from those accepted, 29.08% enrolled, with enrolled students having an average 160LSAT score and 3.66 average undergraduateGPA.[9]
The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at Case Western Reserve for the 2022-2023 academic year was $85,792.[10] Case Western Reserve's tuition and fees on average increase 3.03% annually.[11] The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $320,718, while 47.8% of students received an annual discount greater than or equal to $40,000.[11]
According to Case Western Reserve's official 2018 ABA-required disclosures, 65.9% of the Class of 2018 obtained full-time, long-term, bar passage-required employment nine months after graduation, excluding solo-practitioners.[6] The school ranked 114th out of 200 ABA-approved law schools in terms of the percentage of 2018 graduates with non-school-funded, full-time, long-term, bar passage required jobs nine months after graduation.[7]
For 2021, Case Western Reserve'sLaw School Transparency under-employment score was 15%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2021 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job nine months after graduation.[12] 93.4% of the Class of 2021 was employed in some capacity including non-professional, part-time, and short-term employment, while 0.7% were pursuing graduate degrees, and 5.9% were unemployed nine months after graduation.[6] The most graduates, 23.5%, were employed in public service.[11]
Ohio was the primary employment destination for 2021 Case Western Reserve graduates, with 46.1% of employed graduates working in the state.[6] The next two most popular locations for Case Western graduates to accept employment were nine graduates in Washington, D.C., and nine in New York. In addition, two graduates from the class of 2021 accepted positions abroad.[6]
The school was ranked tied for No.107 out of 197 schools byU.S. News & World Report in its 2025 law school rankings.[1] In addition to its JD curriculum, the law school offers LLM and SJD degrees to foreign-trained lawyers. It also offers an Executive Master of Arts in Financial Integrity and a Masters in Patent Practice.[citation needed]
Among Case Western alumni are prominentelected officials, particularly from theState of Ohio. Examples of such include formerOhio State TreasurerJosh Mandel, formerOhio Attorneys GeneralMarc Dann,Lee Fisher, andJim Petro, and formerU.S. RepresentativesStephanie Tubbs Jones andRon Klein.
Members of the bench who are Case Western alumni includeKathleen M. O'Malley a former member of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, andJohn J. McConnell, Jr. of theUnited States District Court for the District of Rhode Island. Both were appointed byPresidentBarack Obama. Associate JusticeJohn Hessin Clarke of theUnited States Supreme Court (1916–1922) was educated when the school was known as Western Reserve College. Associate JusticeJeffrey Hjelm of theMaine Supreme Judicial Court is also an alumnus.
Another prominent alumnus isWilliam Daroff – chief executive officer at theConference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and former member of theU.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad.
Other Case alumni are involved in the fields of government, business, academia, and the judiciary.
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