Chancellor & Dean David Faigman's Message: Hope, Community, and Success in the New Year - �鶹��Ƶ Law San Francisco (Formerly �鶹��Ƶ Hastings)

Chancellor & Dean David Faigman affirms �鶹��Ƶ Law San Francisco’s commitment to student success in his New Year’s message to the campus community.

Dear �鶹��Ƶ Law SF Community,

Welcome back for the spring semester, and to 2025!

I know that with the many uncertainties that lie ahead—locally, nationally, and internationally—it is, perhaps, unpopular to be upbeat and thankful at this moment in our shared history. Whether you take your politics from the left, the right, or the broad middle, the onslaught of bad news coming at you from other directions—sometimes feeling like every direction—can be numbing. And as a student of history, I am neither naïve nor insensitive to the challenges we face as a community, as a state, and as a nation.

Yet, I remain thankful, and even hopeful, at the start of 2025. My reasons for gratitude and hopefulness stem from the spirit behind Elvis Presley’s song, “Home is Where the Heart Is.”

With the onset of the New Year, I am in my thirty-eighth year as a member of the �鶹��Ƶ Law San Francisco community (formerly �鶹��Ƶ Hastings) and begin my ninth year as dean. Along with my exceptional wife Lisa, our three talented children and five remarkable grandchildren, the �鶹��Ƶ Law family is my family.

It is that sense of family, bound by love and devotion for one another, that I have always felt at �鶹��Ƶ Law. As a community, we wish everyone success. To be sure, the law is not for the faint of heart. It is a competitive and hierarchical profession. Indeed, the trial system is described as “adversarial.” And at �鶹��Ƶ Law, we need to, and we do, prepare our graduates for the rough and tumble of that profession. But like a good family home, the law school should be a secure base from which to travel forth. We must always do our best to ensure that this continues to be so.

Take for instance our bar performance this past year. Our extraordinary class of 2024 had an 84% pass rate. Very impressive, and I am incredibly proud of our graduates and our staff and faculty who supported them in this achievement. But we endeavor always to embrace and support 100% of our graduates, and we will continue to work with every individual to ensure their success as they themselves define it. The bar exam is merely a means to an end, albeit a necessary means for anyone who wants to practice law. Ultimately, we are here to empower the means, but we measure our victories by the ends, however every person defines those ends for themselves.

Preparing our students to succeed from a secure foundation has been, and should always be, the �鶹��Ƶ Law way. As those who know me know, I am thoroughly “old school.” I still text with my index finger. What this means more generally, however, is that I have high expectations for every member of our community, including myself. I don’t believe in participation trophies. But I also believe that every individual at �鶹��Ƶ Law has the potential to excel and it is our responsibility to do whatever we can to make that possible. This means giving our students the training that will serve them well in their careers, as our classes, centers, clinics, and extra-curricular activities—such as moot court and law journals—do. It also means providing the physical space and resources of a great urban campus, as our new buildings do. We are in the empowerment business. This means, first of all, having high expectations of everyone; but it also means being there to give each individual the support they need to thrive.

Make no mistake about it. I aspire to make �鶹��Ƶ Law one of the premier law schools in the nation. We have the students, the staff, the faculty, and the alumni to justify this level of recognition. With our location in the heart of San Francisco—surrounded by virtually every level of state and federal court, local, state and federal agency, and the offices of many of the most successful law firms and corporations in the world—we are in position to fully succeed in this aspiration.

I am so proud of what we are accomplishing together, year after year. But what truly gives me hope – and joy – are the qualities that make �鶹��Ƶ Law feel like home: the respect, compassion and love for one another that I see demonstrated among the people of �鶹��Ƶ Law every day.

I wish you and yours a healthy and fruitful New Year. I look forward to seeing you all—students, staff, faculty and alumni—on campus in 2025.

Warmly,

David

David L. Faigman
Chancellor & Dean
William B. Lockhart Professor of Law
John F. Digardi Distinguished Professor of Law
University of California College of the Law, San Francisco