Pepperdine Caruso School of Law

Pepperdine University Caruso School of Law began as the Orange University College of Law in Santa Ana, California, in 1964. The school was acquired by Pepperdine in 1969. By 1975, the Pepperdine Caruso School of Law had received its full ABA approval o School of Law had received its full ABA approval and full State Bar Accreditation. In 1978, the school moved to Pepperdine's 830-acre campus, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean in Malibu, California. In Good Faith, a newly published book on its history, tells the story of how the school grew from its humble origin to become one of the premier law schools in the United States (purchase here). MISSION As part of Pepperdine University, Caruso School of Law aspires to be a preeminent global Christian law school, integrating premier legal training with the highest standards of ethics and morality. This aspiration is built on a foundational commitment to both academic excellence and Christian values. VISION Pepperdine Caruso Law seeks to provide students with an outstanding and rigorous legal education through classroom instruction, advanced experiential learning, and hands-on clinical and externship placements. We not only seek to instill in our students a deep understanding of the law, but we also seek to engage with them holistically—to provide them with a transformative educational experience that strengthens them for lives of purpose, service, and leadership. Our abiding goal is to equip our students to lead with character and conviction—to serve the world as outstanding legal professionals imbued with the highest standards of ethics and morality. As a diverse community grounded in Christian values, our institution is guided by faith in Jesus Christ and intentionally seeks to reflect Him to the world. We therefore seek to build a community that is rooted in love, justice, truth, and grace—one that engenders a deep sense of belonging and connection with respect to every single member. We celebrate, embrace, and seek to broaden the diversity of personal backgrounds, lived experiences, and viewpoints within our community, as such diversity is essential to our community’s vitality. We welcome students from all faith backgrounds (or no faith background at all). This core commitment to diversity is grounded on our Christian values: we value each individual as a perfect creation of God (Col. 1:16-17), and we are called to be all things for all people so that we can best serve them (1 Cor. 9:21–22). Care for the whole person therefore guides our relationships and motivates our pursuit of holistic wellness from a mental, physical, and spiritual perspective. We strive to be a place where people make meaningful lifelong connections—not simply as students, professors, or staff, but as human beings. Furthermore, the pursuit of truth underlies our institutional commitment to academic excellence. We are therefore committed to nurturing respectful discourse and debate within an environment that values free speech principles—one that encourages a broad range of different arguments and perspectives and does not shy away from difficult conversations. This commitment to intellectual diversity is rooted not only in the academic imperative to pursue the truth fearlessly, but also in our pedagogical imperative to train future legal professionals that are equipped to confront and consider differing viewpoints and arguments. We seek to build an academic and scholarly community in which this sort of vibrant, wide-ranging discourse is conducted in a spirit of unity and love—one that respects the dignity and diverse viewpoints of each person. At Pepperdine Caruso Law, we love God, we love our students, and we love each other. We are called to better the world by strengthening our students for lives of purpose, service, and leadership through a rigorous and transformative legal education built on two foundational, symbiotic commitments: academic and research excellence, and Christian faith and values. Our commitment to academic and research excellence impels us to engage in the rigorous pursuit of legal knowledge and critical thinking, and to vigorously debate ideas for the betterment of society. Our commitment to Christian faith and values drives our fearless pursuit of truth, and anchors our scholarship, pedagogy, and community engagement upon transcendent values, such as integrity, respect, and belonging. Our fusion of these two pillars yields abundant benefits in legal scholarship, education, and training that transcend the sum of their individual parts. We appreciate that knowledge, faith, and community are gifts from Above, to be stewarded for the glory of God and for our flourishing. We thus elevate the aim of our work and discourse, which is to advance what is virtuous, through respectful dialogue in a community of belonging, for the betterment of each other, our nation, and our world. By embracing our diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives, we enhance our unity in this high purpose and promote a thriving community among us. ...view more