Dear Friends,

Please join me in warmly welcoming our exceptional incoming class of more than 250 talented and diverse new 1Ls, including the largest cohorts in the history of our renowned innovative programs: 55 Flex JD students, 46 Tech Edge JD students, and 11 Public Interest JD students. True to its mission, our new acclaimed Flex JD program has brought to our law school community working professionals from all walks of life, all parts of the country, and every stage of their careers, who would not otherwise have been able to pursue a law degree. In fact, we have been able to triple the number of our part-time J.D. students in just our second year of our new program. 

We are also blessed that our incoming class includes an extraordinary number of first generation students (27%) and a terrific group of international students who have joined us under the auspices of our renowned Center for Global Law and Policy. 

During our annual Law School Convocation ceremony, our wonderful alumna, Margarita Chavez Tatro, J.D. '97 shared her remarkable journey to her current position as managing director at AbbVie Ventures, a Fortune 100 biopharma company, and offered words of advice and inspiration to our new students. We are grateful to Margarita for her example of professional excellence, and we also extend great thanks to our new University Executive Vice President and Provost Jim Glaser, for welcoming our students to the university; to Judge Shelyna Brown J.D. '96, for administering the Oath of Professionalism; to our dedicated Student Bar Association co-presidents, Simone Wolberg and Ajit Bhullar, for embracing our incoming students with support; and to Father John McGarry, S.J., and Father Matthew Carnes, S.J., for beautifully blessing our gathering in the school’s Jesuit, Catholic tradition. 

In reciting the Oath of Professionalism, our students not only pledged to complete every professional undertaking in an honest, ethical, competent, prompt, and diligent manner, they also committed themselves to answer our higher Santa Clara Law calling to honor the equal dignity and infinite worth of every human being, treat every person with respect, pursue justice, practice peace, and reach for reconciliation. Our outstanding students also embraced their obligation to uphold the rule of law and our democratic values.

In her profound and powerful address, which I commend to you, Mary Smith, the President of the American Bar Association and a former student of mine, recently reminded all of us that "we are oath-bound custodians of the Constitution, restoring public trust in our justice system and diligently upholding the rule of law and democratic values in these challenging times."

Our Oath of Professionalism and Convocation were the culmination of a powerful week of orientation and professional identity formation programs. We are all incredibly grateful to Howard Charney MBA '73, J.D. '77, who flew to campus just to greet our incoming students and offered them beautiful words of encouragement and inspiration as they begin their challenging but rewarding professional careers. Tremendous thanks also go to all of our educators–faculty and staff–for surrounding our new students (days, nights, and weekends) with Bronco spirit and support. 

I know that behind every successful program is a team that has worked tirelessly, often behind the scenes, to make sure that everything runs smoothly. We could not have welcomed our incoming students so well without the incredible hard work and enthusiasm of our CLS student mentors and our amazing teams from Administrative Services, OABS, Law Student Services, External Relations and Development, Law Technology, Facilities, Admissions, ExPro, our centers and clinics, and our SCU campus partners. On behalf of our entire Santa Clara Law community, I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

I also want to recognize the tremendous efforts of our faculty, who are both exceptional educators and impactful scholars. In Sisk et al.’s 2024 study, Scholarly Impact of Law School Faculties in 2024: Updating the Leiter Score Ranking for the Top Third, we learned that Santa Clara Law’s faculty scholarship ranks in the top third of ABA-accredited law schools for the mean and median of total law journal citation over the past five years. This is consistent with the high reputational ranking that we continue to receive year after year among our peers and legal professionals.

As our newest students have quickly realized, we are not just a law school. We are a transformative learning community built on an ethic of loving kindness. In our community, we understand that loving kindness is not weakness; it is fortitude. We have tremendous faith that our new students will join with our continuing students and our loyal and engaged alumni in using their Santa Clara Law education to serve their clients and their communities with loving kindness. They will use their formidable talents to overcome the serious ongoing challenges to democracy and the rule of law that we are facing, and build a more just, humane, and sustainable world for us all.   

As a blessed and beloved law school community, we have so much to be grateful for, and so much to look forward to in the year ahead.

With warm regards and immense gratitude,

Michael J. Kaufman (He/Him/His)
Dean and Professor of Law
Santa Clara University School of Law
mjkaufman@scu.edu