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PCL Admissions Booklet 2019-2020
PCL Admissions Booklet 2019-2020
TABLE OF
CONTENTS:
ABOUT
INTRODUCTION
HISTORY OF THE SCHOOL
SCHOOL GOVERNANCE
ABOUT THE STATE BAR
TUITION
ADMISSIONS
SCHEDULE
ALUMNI
The past always goes before us, but it need not be our future.
We can change it in the present. It was in this belief that the
People’s College of Law was conceived. There is no other law
school like it.
‒ Frederick Douglass
The People’s College of Law (PCL) was founded in 1974.
The school’s primary goal was and is the development of
lawyers dedicated to the struggle for social change both in
working class communities and in communities of color.
Communities historically denied access to the legal system
HISTORY OF THE
and disproportionately targeted for criminalization.
PEOPLE’S COLLEGE student activists. The law school itself was a manifestation of
movement work. Students collectively maintained the school
and built an ethos which would carry it through the next
OF LAW
decades, even when both the school, and society as a whole,
saw a decline in activism.
This article appears in The New York Times on October 16, 1975, on Daniel Sandino Navarro (PCL ‘13), Maria Elena Durazo (PCL ‘85)
Page 42 of the New York edition with the headline: A Radical Law
School Enters Its 2d Year.
SCHOOL
GOVERNANCE The school is governed by a board of directors which is
made up of community members and students. The board
of directors manages the school’s business, makes the major
decisions regarding operations, and delegates tasks to the
administration and standing committees. The committees are
the heart and soul of the school’s operations. Comprised of
students, board members, and other members of the PCL
community, there are currently seven committees:
Admissions and Recruitment; Building, Accountability,
and Library; Communications and Outreach; Development
and Fundraising; Executive; Faculty and Curricula; and Finance.
PCL alumnus Magda Madrigal and Carol Deu Pree with current
2L student Ada Rajkovic
ABOUT THE A student who does not pass the examination within three (3)
administrations of the examination after first becoming eligible
STATE BAR
to take it must be promptly disqualified from the law school’s
J.D. degree program. If the dismissed student subsequently
passes the examination, the student is eligible for re-enrollment
in this law school’s J.D. degree program, but will receive credit
for only one year of legal study.
Study at, or graduation from, this law school may not qualify
a student to take the bar examination or to satisfy the
requirements for admission to practice in jurisdictions other
PEOPLE’S COLLEGE OF LAW is a four year, than California. A student intending to seek admission to
unaccredited, degree granting institution. It should be practice law in a jurisdiction other than California should
understood that this unaccredited status is consistent with contact the admitting authority in that jurisdiction for
PCL’s philosophy of open access and non-competitive learning. information regarding the legal education requirements in
PCL graduates receive a Juris Doctor degree (J.D.) and are that jurisdiction for admission to the practice of law.
eligible to take the California General Bar Examination, and
upon passing, become a lawyer. The Committee of Bar Examiners currently asses a
registration fee of $624 when a student registers to
The method of instruction at this law school for the Juris take the FYLSE. Registration for the FYLSE must be
Doctor (J.D.) degree program is [principally in physical completed near the end of the second semester. If the
classroom facilities]/[principally by correspondence]/[principally application is late, there is a substantial penalty fee. There
by technological means including interactive classes]. is an additional fee assessed if the exam is typed instead of
handwritten.
Students enrolled in the J.D. degree program at this law school
who successfully complete the first year of law study must pass *Registration as a law student and registration for the examination
the First-Year Law Students’ Examination required by Business is made directly to the Committee of Bar Examiners along with
and Professions Code § 6060(h) and Rule VIII of the Rules the appropriate fees. Because the school is unaccredited every
Regulating Admission to Practice Law in California as part student is required to take the first year law students’ examination,
of the requirements to qualify to take the California Bar administered by the State Bar. The “Baby Bar” as it is also called, is
Examination. administered twice a year, in June and October. Students not passing
the “Baby Bar” cannot enter the second year of instruction.
A student who passes the First-Year Law Students’ Examination
within three (3) administrations of the examination after first The LSAT is not required to get into PCL.
becoming eligible to take it will receive credit for all legal
studies completed to the time the examination is passed.
TUITION
Because we exist outside the margins of the accreditation we
are able to charge low tuition (otherwise we would have to
include ABA annual fees in the tuition). Furthermore, our
dedicated professors are unpaid volunteers - many of whom
are PCLgraduates/lawyers, members of the National Lawyers
Guild, orradical lawyers with a passion for social justice - who
want to give back to the community by teaching at the school.
At this time, PCL has not yet determined the total cost of
attendance for the 2019-2020 academic year. However, it will
not exceed $5600 for the year. That will include tuition and a
$600 accountability fee that can be fulfilled by payment or by
volunteering hours at the school, known as accountability.
New students will be notified of any increase before
enrollment.
Contracts I
Sherri Nazarian, Esq.
Contracts II
Sherri Nazarian, Esq.
Contracts Ill
Sherri Nazarian, Esq.
FALL WINTER SPRING
Mondays Mondays Mondays
Immigration Law Remedies I Remedies II
Laura Urias, Esq. Rosa Hirji, Esq. Rosa Hirji, Esq.
Torts I Torts II Torts Ill
Tuesdays Wednesdays Wednesdays
Gloria Perez-Stewart, Esq. Gloria Perez-Stewart Esq. Gloria Perez-Stewart, Esq.
with John Duane, J.D. with John Duane, J.D. with John Duane, J.D.
Property I Property II Property II
Thursdays Thursdays Thursdays
Noah Grynberg, Esq. Noah Grynberg, Esq. Noah Grynberg, Esq.
Mondays Mondays Thursdays
Criminal Law Criminal Law
Nicholas Loncar Esq. Nicholas Loncar, Esq.
Advanced Essay Writing Legal Principles and Ele- Competency and
Wednesdays Wednesdays
Kyle Todd, Esq. ments Kyle Todd, Esq. and Performance Kyle Todd Esq.
Wednesdays Nathalie Contreras, Esq. and Nathalie Contreras, Esq.
2/3L (10 Week Quarters) Shake Nazarian Esq. (Sherri Nazarian) | Contracts | University of Michigan
Daniel Kapelvitz Esq. | Criminal Law | UCLA School of Law
FALL WINTER SPRING Kyle J. Todd Esq. | Advanced Essay Writing | UCLA School of Law
Kaimipono D. Wenger Esq. | Wills & Trusts | Columbia University School of Law
Constitutional Law I Constitutional Law II Constitutional Law Ill Rosa Karim Hirji Esq. | Remedies | UC Hastings College of Law
Karen Suri, Esq. Karen Suri, Esq. Karen Suri, Esq. Noah Lawrence Grynberg Esq. | Property | Harvard Law School
Mondays Mondays Mondays
Karen J. Suri Esq. | Constitutional Law| California Western School of Law
Legal Research Criminal Procedure Dan Criminal Procedure II Dan Gloria Perez-Stewart Esq. | Torts | People’s College of Law
Liam Moriarty, Esq. Kapelovitz, Esq. Kapelovitz, Esq.
Tuesdays Tuesdays John Duane JD | Torts | People’s College of Law
Tuesdays Robert D. Skeels JD | Contracts | People’s College of Law
Wills and Trusts I Wills and Trusts II Movement Lawyering
Magda Madrigal Esq. | Legal Writing | People’s College of Law
Kaimipono Wenger, Esq. Kaimipono Wenger, Esq. (Competency/Trial Advo-
Thursdays Thursdays cacy) Tristan Scremin JD | Legal Writing | People’s College of Law
Ken Montenegro, Nathalie Meza-Contreras Esq. | Competency and Performance | Southwestern School of Law
Wednesdays
Laura E. Urias Esq. | Immigration | UC Davis School of Law
Liam Moriarty Esq. | Legal Research | Columbia University School of Law
Ira Spiro Esq. | Dean of PCL | Boalt Hall
Schedule for 2019-2020 TBD
FEATURED ALUMNI Carlos R. Holguín (‘79), is a constitutional Rights Law-
yer who litigated the landmark Flores Settlement before the US
Supreme Court. The 1987 case set national standards regarding the
detention, release, and treatment of all undocumented children in
federal custody.