If elected to serve as president, Kamala Harris could make history in several ways. Not only would she be the first woman to serve as president, but she’d also be the first multiracial woman to hold the office. Professionally speaking, Harris would be the second president with a law degree from a school outside the top 14, known as T-14, law schools.
Harris is a 1989 graduate of the University of California Hastings College of the Law, which has been recently renamed the University of California College of Law, San Francisco. According to comments provided by Dean David Faigman of UC Law SF to Law.com, legal education has been “a hallmark of American presidents.” In fact, 27 out of the 46 past presidents held law degrees, but only six of those graduated from what are currently recognized as T-14 schools. The rest either did not hold a law degree or became practicing lawyers through apprenticeships.
Currently ranked No. 82 by U.S. News & World Report in 2024, UC Law SF boasts a competitive program with a 30.9% acceptance rate and an enrollment of 1,125 students last year. Welcoming the incoming 1L class on August 13, Faigman noted that 50% of the 401 new students were women and 54% were people of color, reflecting the diversity that Harris herself represents.
The last president with a non-T-14 law degree is the incumbent President Joe Biden, who graduated from Syracuse University College of Law in 1968. Should Harris succeed in her campaign for the White House, she would follow in Biden’s footsteps, adding a unique dimension to presidential history in terms of academic pedigree.
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