Relocating to Clovis
If you are not familiar with the Fresno Metropolitan Area, it is a great place to live and work. Apartments and housing are reasonably priced and the job market is strong. If you are considering relocating to our area, we've provided the map to the right as a starting point for you to find an apartment near San Joaquin College of Law or you can use the links below.
Apartment Listings
About the Area
- SJCL Student Population: 181
- Population of Clovis: 102,188
- Population of Fresno: 520,052
- Average Days of Sunshine in the year: 274
- This is Fresno Video
Choosing a law school in a region where the job market is promising is a primary reason to attend SJCL. San Joaquin College of Law has produced talented graduates who hold prestigious and influential positions both locally and throughout the State. Located midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, San Joaquin College of Law is the only law school in a 100 mile radius. The population in the San Joaquin Valley area is one of the fastest growing in the United States.
Employment opportunities continue to expand to meet the region’s needs. Unlike in Northern and Southern California where numerous law schools are clustered in each area and the job market is saturated, legal jobs here are readily available.
A legal education is a professional education. You will use the substantive legal knowledge and practice skills you develop in law school every day of your life as a lawyer and community leader. Your law school experience is the opportunity of your lifetime to build the foundation of your future successful legal career. Accordingly, you must choose the environment in which you personally will learn the most and grow the most.
At SJCL, your personal growth as a legal practitioner is our foremost objective. This is apparent from the small sections and individualized attention students receive in first-year writing courses to the myriad practice skills courses embodied in SJCL’s curriculum. Class sizes are small, averaging 25 people per section, providing you an unparalleled opportunity to interact with your professors and classmates. Faculty have an open-door policy, enabling you regularly to obtain assistance or compare ideas. As grading is not on a curve, faculty and students are all motivated to work as a team for everyone’s success.
Opportunities for real-life experience abound in the San Joaquin Valley area. Internship and clinical placements in federal and state courts, district attorney’s offices, administrative agencies, legal aid, and private firms are readily available. Moreover, employment opportunities in the area have always been available even when scarce in other markets.
The San Joaquin Valley is the growth area for California’s future. Outstanding legal practitioners will be needed. San Joaquin College of Law offers you the opportunity to be a part of that future or any future you choose.
Sincerely,
Janice Pearson
Dean
San Joaquin College of Law
Collaborative Learning Environment
San Joaquin College of Law (SJCL) encourages a collaborative learning environment where students are graded to a standard and not a curve. Students will typically form small study groups in order to process the information more efficiently together. These small groups lead to more opportunities for personal feedback. Because there are more exchanges among students in small groups, each student receives more personal feedback about their ideas and responses. This feedback is often not possible in a competitive environment where fellow students are seen as the competition.
Thus, faculty and students are all motivated to work as a team towards everyone’s success. Class sizes are small, averaging 25 people per section, providing SJCL students an unparalleled opportunity to interact with and learn from extraordinary professors on a first-name basis.
This collaborative learning environment is unknown at most law schools and is frequently the reason students select SJCL when deciding between law schools. We attribute our high bar passage rate to this unique combination of student effort, small classes and faculty investment in student success.
This team effort has led SJCL student students to consistently place in the top.
Roger J. Traynor California Appellate Moot Court Competition
2014 Winners
CEB Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Oral Argument
Sally Vecchiarelli, San Joaquin College of Law
Daniel Shimmel, UC Davis School of Law
Aaron Blumenthal, UC Berkeley School of Law
Leah Herras, Golden Gate University
Eurik O'Bryant, McGeorge School of Law
2013 Winners
Best Oral Argument: The Roger J. Traynor Award
First Place – San Joaquin College of Law
Second Place – Loyola Law School
Third Place – U.C. Davis, School of Law
2012 Winners
Best Brief: The California Academy of Appellate Lawyers Award
First Place – San Joaquin College of Law
Second Place – Golden Gate University School of Law
Third Place (tie) – Trinity Law School
Third Place (tie) – U. C. Berkeley School of Law
Affordability
San Joaquin College of Law is one of the most affordable law schools in California. Not only does the low cost of tuition and access to federal loans make SJCL very affordable but also the cost of living in this region is much lower than in larger cities.
Along with the low cost of living, the annual cost of tuition to complete a law degree is very affordable. Please visit the Tuition Page for more information.
SJCL students enjoy the comforts of a small town feel in the middle of a metropolitan area. Located in downtown Clovis, and nestled in a park-like setting in close proximity to the Clovis City Hall and Police Department, SJCL is surrounded by shopping, restaurants, and housing within walking distance.
Another benefit to attending law school in this community is there is plenty of free student parking and minimal traffic. Unlike Los Angeles or San Francisco, students use the time that would have been spent on the road in traffic, in the library studying instead. Come and enjoy the comforts of attending law school at SJCL where affordability in tuition and cost of living is more desirable than other areas of California.
SJCL makes it possible to achieve a law degree without staggering debt. When deciding between law schools many students choose San Joaquin College of law to achieve their goals affordably.