11 Best California Law Schools

There are 18 ABA-accredited law schools in California, and 11 schools were ranked in top 100 U.S. law school ranking with academic excellence.

21 state accredited law schools (non-ABA) are excluded from the best law school selection. You can compare all law schools including state accredited law schools at California law school comparison page.

The below list compares important statistics between the 11 best law schools and all law schools in California.

The average LSAT Score of the best law schools is 165.5, which is 4.5 points higher than average score of all California law schools.
The average GPA of the best law schools is 3.80, which is 0.16 points higher than average GPA of all California law schools.
The average acceptance rate is 24.18%, which is 9.81% lower than average rate of all California law schools.
The average yield is 27.11%, while all California law schools's yield is 26.12%
In average, 956 students enrolled in ech best law school, which is larger than California' average (827).
The students to faculty ratio of the best law schools is 5.0 to 1, which means that a faculty can focus on smaller number of students than other California law schools (5.3 to 1).
The average bar exam pass rate of the best law schools is 83.52%, which is higher than California' average (75.63%).

California Best Law Schools Comparison

The following table compares the 11 best California law schools with important statistics.

California Best Law Schools Overview
School	U.S. Law School Ranking	Founded	Tuition & Fees	LSAT	GPA	Population	Students to Faculty
Stanford Law SchoolPrivateStanford, CA	3	1893	$76,608	173	3.92	666	3 to 1
Berkeley School of LawPublicBerkeley, CA	11	1894	$78,881	170	3.87	1,306	4 to 1
Los Angeles School of LawPublicLos Angeles, CA	14	1949	$71,377	170	3.95	1,335	5 to 1
Gould School of LawPrivateLos Angeles, CA	20	1896	$81,940	169	3.91	1,421	7 to 1
Irvine School of LawPublicIrvine, CA	33	2009	$70,823	167	3.81	508	4 to 1
Davis School of Law PublicDavis, CA	45	1965	$69,654	163	3.68	673	6 to 1
Loyola Law SchoolPrivateLos Angeles, CA	59	1920	$68,512	162	3.72	1,097	5 to 1
University of San Diego School of LawPrivateSan Diego, CA	71	1954	$65,191	161	3.80	942	6 to 1
Pepperdine University School of LawPrivateMalibu, CA	72	1971	$70,556	164	3.85	997	7 to 1
University of California College of the Law, San FranciscoPublicSan Francisco, CA	76	1878	$58,113	160	3.63	1,170	4 to 1
Chapman University School of LawPrivateOrange, CA	91	1995	$63,201	162	3.67	404	4 to 1

California Best Law Schools Statistics over the Past 5 Years

The tables below compare tuition, admission statistics, bar exam pass over the past 5 years. The data used is from 2021 to 2025, except bar exam pass rate from 2020 to 2024.

Tuition Comparison over Past 5 Years
School	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Stanford Law School	$76,608	$76,608	$76,608	$76,608	$76,608
Berkeley School of Law	$78,881	$78,881	$78,881	$78,881	$78,881
Los Angeles School of Law	$71,377	$71,377	$71,377	$71,377	$71,377
Gould School of Law	$81,940	$81,940	$81,940	$81,940	$81,940
Irvine School of Law	$70,823	$70,823	$70,823	$70,823	$70,823
Davis School of Law	$69,654	$69,654	$69,654	$69,654	$69,654
Loyola Law School	$68,512	$68,512	$68,512	$68,512	$68,512
University of San Diego School of Law	$65,191	$65,191	$65,191	$65,191	$65,191
Pepperdine University School of Law	$70,556	$70,556	$70,556	$70,556	$70,556
University of California College of the Law, San Francisco	$58,113	$58,113	$58,113	$58,113	$58,113
Chapman University School of Law	$63,201	$63,201	$63,201	$63,201	$63,201

LSAT Score Comparison over Past 5 Years
School	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Stanford Law School	171	172	173	173	173
Berkeley School of Law	168	169	170	170	170
Los Angeles School of Law	169	170	171	170	170
Gould School of Law	167	168	168	169	169
Irvine School of Law	166	167	167	167	167
Davis School of Law	163	165	165	165	163
Loyola Law School	160	161	161	161	162
University of San Diego School of Law	159	161	161	161	161
Pepperdine University School of Law	162	164	164	164	164
University of California College of the Law, San Francisco	158	160	160	160	160
Chapman University School of Law	159	160	161	161	162

Undergraduate GPA Comparison over Past 5 Years
School	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Stanford Law School	3.89	3.91	3.92	3.95	3.92
Berkeley School of Law	3.81	3.83	3.83	3.87	3.87
Los Angeles School of Law	3.79	3.82	3.9	3.92	3.95
Gould School of Law	3.83	3.82	3.87	3.88	3.91
Irvine School of Law	3.61	3.69	3.72	3.72	3.81
Davis School of Law	3.72	3.7	3.7	3.69	3.68
Loyola Law School	3.59	3.64	3.69	3.71	3.72
University of San Diego School of Law	3.65	3.7	3.74	3.8	3.8
Pepperdine University School of Law	3.68	3.8	3.85	3.86	3.85
University of California College of the Law, San Francisco	3.42	3.52	3.59	3.59	3.63
Chapman University School of Law	3.52	3.6	3.63	3.67	3.67

Undergraduate Bar Exam Pass Rate Comparison over Past 5 Years
School	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Stanford Law School	95.32%	98.22%	97.08%	94.41%	96.7%
Berkeley School of Law	90.37%	96.67%	94.95%	93.35%	88.24%
Los Angeles School of Law	89.46%	96.55%	93.84%	92.47%	88.82%
Gould School of Law	87.73%	92.13%	95.16%	89%	82.42%
Irvine School of Law	81.49%	86.36%	88.72%	84.4%	86.86%
Davis School of Law	84.46%	88.15%	79.79%	81.78%	82.66%
Loyola Law School	77.74%	88.16%	87.94%	79.94%	78.76%
University of San Diego School of Law	76.31%	85.97%	81.78%	76.33%	78.76%
Pepperdine University School of Law	82.42%	78.57%	86.87%	79.5%	83.33%
University of California College of the Law, San Francisco	79.74%	85.02%	81.72%	70.92%	72.14%
Chapman University School of Law	59.26%	80.69%	78.32%	74.29%	80%