by Marisa S. Cianciarulo

Western State College of Law, the oldest law school in Orange County, will be celebrating its Diamond Anniversary in 2026—sixty years of providing high-quality legal education, launching successful legal careers, and serving communities throughout Southern California and beyond. Our 12,000-strong alumni network, our students, our staff, and faculty are proud to be part of a legacy that demonstrates that access and excellence are not mutually exclusive concepts.

Western State has seen numerous transformations over the years, but one thing has remained constant: We are a school that provides both traditional and non-traditional students with an opportunity for a career in the law. Many law schools are inaccessible to most students, either because of cost or entrance exam requirements or both. Western State looks beyond the numbers to the person at the heart of the application. Many of our students have overcome significant challenges—financial hardship, physical or emotional disability, family members in need of care—to succeed in college and prepare for law school. Good grades and high LSAT scores are important indicators for law school success, and we require them, but we also prioritize resilience and hard work.

As the dean, I attend all of our alumni gatherings. What I hear from alumni—whether they graduated fifty years ago or a few months ago—is that they are grateful for the opportunity Western State gave them. Many of our alums didn’t necessarily “see themselves” as lawyers growing up. A career in the law seemed out of reach, both academically and financially. Most didn’t attend Ivy League schools or have family members who could help with tuition and bills. But after getting to know Western State, they saw an opportunity and they took it. Upon graduating and passing the bar, they went on to become deputy district attorneys and public defenders, junior associates in law firms and nonprofit organizations, and sole practitioners. From there, they became leaders in the community, heading up bar association committees and serving on boards. Many—upwards of 150—have been elevated to the bench. Many have gone on to extremely prestigious leadership positions, such as president of the California Bar Association and national president of the American Board of Trial Advocates. The awards our alums have earned in recognition of their legal expertise and talent are too numerous to count. Without exception, all of these highly respected, extremely successful lawyers make it a point to tell me how grateful they are to Western State for giving them the chance to pursue a career that has given them a life they never expected for themselves.

Sixty years can’t happen without excellent faculty. Over the years, Western State faculty have provided the structure and rigor that propels our students to success. We are proud to have faculty from a wide range of academic backgrounds, practice expertise, and teaching experience. Most of our faculty have been with us for at least ten years, some as far back as the 1980s. We also have an excellent cohort of junior faculty, including four brand new professors who joined us this year. Three of our fulltime professors and many of our adjuncts are Western State alums whose passion for Western State and dedication to our mission of access and excellence have come full circle.

If our faculty are the structure, our staff are the glue that holds it all together. The Western State staff is exceptional—in their talent, their dedication, and their resilience. When Western State’s former parent university nearly closed our doors due to their own financial issues, it was our staff, led by the incomparable Dean Allen Easley, who continued to serve our students and keep the lights on. The calmness and professionalism they projected, while privately dealing with the excruciating stress and uncertainty of that time, kept the community from fracturing. In the last six years, a period of growth and rebuilding, they have continued to go far above and beyond expectations, providing our students with the care and individualized attention that makes Western State such a special place to study law.

Today, Western State is proud to be entering our Diamond Era. We had the state’s highest pass rate on the February 2025 bar exam, despite the egregious errors in the administration of that exam and the inordinate amount of stress it caused thousands of law grads. Our parent university, Westcliff, purchased a beautiful building in Tustin that will become our new home in just a few months. We have grown our clinical program exponentially in just two years, going from one clinic in 2023 to four today: Immigration and Deportation Defense, Entrepreneurship, Probate, and Criminal Defense. Our alums are reaching new heights earlier in their careers than ever, securing record-breaking settlements and verdicts for severely injured people, being elevated to law firm partners, and joining our adjunct faculty.

As we look back on sixty years, Western State is proud to be a pillar and servant of the Orange County legal community. In all that we do, we reflect Orange County’s entrepreneurial spirit, resilience, work ethic, and diversity. Our long legacy in the community has made countless lives better, from those who may never have seen themselves as lawyers to the clients for whom those lawyers secured justice. We are grateful to be standing strong sixty years after we first opened our doors, and we are looking forward to another sixty years of access and excellence.

Marisa S. Cianciarulo is the Dean of Western State College of Law at Westcliff University. She practiced immigration law from 1998 to 2012, first as a private attorney and then as a clinical professor of law. She can be reached at mcianciarulo@wsulaw.edu.