Lincoln Law School of San Jose

Not to be confused with Lincoln Law School of Sacramento.

Lincoln Law School of San Jose is a small private law school located in San Jose, California. Founded in 1919, the law school was absorbed by Lincoln University in 1926, prior to separating in 1993. The school is approved by the California Committee of Bar Examiners, but is not accredited by the American Bar Association so graduates may not be able to take the bar examination of other states after graduation.

Lincoln Law School of San Jose
Established	1919, 106 years ago
School type	Private law school
Dean	J. Jason Amezcua
Location	San Jose, California, US 37°19′52″N 121°53′06″W
Enrollment	27 (2024)[1]
Faculty	1 (full-time), 27 (part-time)[1]
USNWR ranking	Not ranked
Bar pass rate	45.9% (passage rate over a five year period)[1]
Website	lincolnlawschool.edu

History

The school traces its roots to 1919 when Benjamin Lickey and his wife Susan Lickey founded a law study program in San Francisco as a way to provide veterans and working-class students a part-time night school for law studies.^[2]

The school was incorporated in 1926 as a part of Lincoln University and located in San Francisco. In 1961, a second law school campus was opened in San Jose, graduating its first class in 1965. By 1987, Lincoln University's entire law school program was concentrated in San Jose. In 1993, the San Jose campus formally separated from Lincoln University becoming independent changing its name to Lincoln Law School of San Jose. The school moved to downtown San Jose in 1999. In 2000, the 25-year-old Peninsula University School of Law merged into Lincoln Law School of San Jose.^{[citation needed]}

From 1965 to 2013 Lincoln published a student-produced law review.^[3]

In February 2025, California state senator and Lincoln alum David Cortese introduced legislation that would allow the school to be absorbed by San Jose State University, becoming its law school.^[4]

The Lincoln Law School in 1919

Academics

Lincoln is exclusively an evening-study program that lasts 4 or 4.5 years, depending upon the starting date of the student. 84 units of study are required for graduation with each unit equal to 15 hours of in-class instruction.^[5] Students usually attend classes 3 or 4 nights a week, with a few options for elective or seminar classes scheduled during the daytime on Saturdays.^[2]

Approval

From 1993 to 2022, the school was approved by the Committee of Bar Examiners^[6] of the State Bar of California. On July 1, 2022, the school reported that due to difficulties stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic it did not meet the State Bar of California five-year bar passage rate of 40 percent for state-approved law schools. As a result, the school's approval was terminated on December 31, 2022. The law school became a registered, unapproved, fixed-facility law school effective January 1, 2023.^[7]

On March 14th, 2025, Lincoln became re-approved by the State Bar of California, allowing it to again issue JD degrees.

Admissions and attrition

As reported by the school in January 2025, the school accepted 12 of 45 applicants (26.6%), with 4 (33.3%) of those accepted enrolling. The median enrollee had a 2.9 undergraduate GPA.^[1] More than 77% of the student body identifies as Black, Indigenous, or Persons of Color (BIPOC).^[8] The school does not utilize the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) for admissions.^[1] From 2021 through September 2024, 15 students transferred out of the school and 72 other students did not remain enrolled.^[1]

Tuition and fees

The total estimated tuition for attendance at the school through graduation was $84,000 plus estimated fees of $4,500 for a total of $88,500.^[1]

Notable people

Alumni

• David D. Cortese (JD 1995), current California state senator and former member Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors^[9]
• Linda J. LeZotte (JD 1980), former San Jose city council member^[9]
• Vartkes Yeghiayan (JD 1965), former lawyer and legal activist for the victims of the Armenian genocide charged with misappropriating money intended for genocide survivors

Dean, instructors, and board members

• Maya Harris, former dean of the law school, sister of Kamala Harris, and former chair of the Kamala Harris 2020 presidential campaign
• James S. Ware, retired reprimanded judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (chief judge 2010-12); also teaches at Santa Clara University School of Law
• Rod Diridon Sr., the law school’s chairman of the board, not a professor; former chair of the California High-Speed Rail Authority
• Desiree Reed-Francois, taught sports law courses at the law school (2002-2003); current athletic director of the University of Arizona
• Ash Kalra, professor and current California State Assembly member and former San Jose City Council member