Charleston School of Law opened its doors this week for Fall 2026, welcoming 275 new students, the largest incoming class in the school’s modest 23-year history.
The incoming class at the Law School profile includes 275 new students (the largest in the school’s history), representing 116 colleges and universities across the country (32% from South Carolina + 34 other states + DC, and Canada) with a median age of 23 and an average age of 24 (ranging from 20 to 48 years old).
The Law School attributes its recent growth and success to its burgeoning experiential learning programs, faculty excellence in and out of the classroom, and location.
Charleston Law’s mission — Pro Bono Populi (“for the good of the people “) — is the foundation of Charleston Law’s recent success. Over the last three years, the Law School has created a learning experience that goes far beyond aspirational. — not just in the classroom, but in the hands-on work students do before they graduate.
Since 2023, the school has added three new institutes to its academic offerings:
Each experiential learning opportunity complements existing programming—the school’s Moot Court program, trial advocacy program, along with internships and externships that place students in legal work across the Charleston community, statewide, and nationally. Together, they give students hands-on exposure to litigation, policy work, and transactional practice before they ever sit for the bar.
“The externship model is a well-designed training program,” said Charleston Law student and Ackerman Fellow, Norberto Ortiz Colon, who served as an extern at Charleston Pro Bono Legal Services. “It’s built to take a law student, teach them as much as possible over six weeks, and learn from that experience. I am a better person for having been there and, hopefully, a better lawyer.”
That same commitment to hands-on training runs through the school’s clinics, which is where the mission gets tested most directly and include the: Parole Clinic, Mediation Clinic, Family Law Clinic, Housing Clinic (through Charleston Pro Bono Legal Services), a Domestic Violence Clinic (through Charleston Legal Services), a Street Law Clinic, and a Criminal Prosecution Clinic run in partnership with the Ninth Circuit Solicitor’s Office.
“I really love seeing the difference in people’s lives,” said Julia Ricci, who served as an extern for Equal Justice Works. “You have no idea what other people are going through. My externship experience changed my perspective. It’s hard to imagine doing anything else.”
Three new centers built inside a three-year window, layered onto six active clinics and an already-existing advocacy infrastructure, is what institutional investment in a mission statement looks like when it’s more than marketing language.
The student and faculty experience are worth taking seriously as evidence.
“The community here in Charleston has exceeded my expectations. I didn’t feel like it was me versus the world, if that makes sense,” said Rachel Casem (’26). “We have really cool student organizations. I’ve had many good experiences with being close to people. If you’re struggling with a class, you can lean on them, and outside of classes in your personal life, you can lean on them. We are a family here.”
“When I first came to law school, they advertised the school as being one of the premier areas for faculty engagement,” said Sam Lipman, a May 2026 graduate. “I thought that was lip service, but that really has been the case. The quality of education has been amazing.”
Princeton Review named Charleston Law among its Best Law Schools for 2025, a list built from more than 60 data points. Within that list, Charleston Law ranked No. 4 in the country for Greatest Resources for Women. Its faculty posted an accessibility score of 98.
Those numbers point to something specific: an institution where the relationship between faculty and students functions less like a hierarchy and more like a collaboration. Charleston Law has cultivated an open-door culture—faculty who are not just present but genuinely reachable, willing to engage with students individually rather than from a professional remove.
“Having access to your professors is a big plus,” said Quinn Shelt, a 3L at Charleston School of Law. “I feel like that’s something that the Law School does really well.”
“We look for faculty who are student-centric,” said Dean Jon Marcantel. “Charleston Law prides itself on its open door policies, participating in academic advising, and supporting student organizations.”
“This is a unique environment,” noted Allyson Haynes Stuart, a member of Charleston Law’s original faculty. “There’s something amazing about having a group of students who are really interested in learning the law. What they do for me, my knowledge of the law, and bringing in different backgrounds is exciting.”
But enrollment growth alone leaves an obvious question unanswered: growth toward what? A law school that expands its class size while its outcomes stagnate isn’t evolving to serve a need — it’s just getting bigger.
In February 2026, the South Carolina Supreme Court released the Uniform Bar Examination results. Charleston School of Law topped both rankings the state produces — First-Time Pass Rate and Overall Pass Rate. Of 22 first-time takers, 21 passed: a 95.4 percent success rate. Numbers like that don’t happen by accident, and they rarely happen all at once.
The students who sat for that exam were, in large part, educated under the school’s new institutional identity — admitted, taught, and mentored during the period following the nonprofit conversion. A #1 ranking in South Carolina, across both first-time and overall pass rates, is not a marketing claim. It is the single hardest metric available for evaluating whether a law school is doing its job.
“These results are a powerful testament to the grit of our graduates and the unwavering dedication of our faculty and staff,” said Dean Marcantel. “You have proven you belong at the highest levels of this vocation.”
That is not defensive language. It is not the vocabulary of an institution explaining away a difficult past. It is the vocabulary of an institution asserting, plainly, what it has become — spoken by the person now most responsible for the school’s identity.
Students who have already practiced law under supervision — appearing in housing court, sitting in on trial preparation, advising real clients — also arrive at the bar exam with a form of preparation that classroom instruction alone does not provide, which gives the school a direct mechanism for producing strong outcomes down the line.
It’s also likely no coincidence that Charleston explicitly positions itself as the place in South Carolina to “live, work, play — and receive a great legal education.”
That framing does something subtle but important: it argues that the school isn’t just competing on academic metrics but on identity — a place where legal education and the surrounding life are part of the same pitch. Combined with a genuinely operational mission statement, that’s a harder thing for competitor schools to replicate than a curriculum change.
What makes Charleston Law’s story worth telling isn’t any single data point — it’s the order in which they arrived.
The structural change came first. The mission-building — new centers, new advocacy infrastructure, a faculty culture built on accessibility, clinics that put students directly into legal work, and a national military pipeline built on a two-decade-old pro bono commitment — came next, followed by academic outcomes: the evidence that the investment was producing results rather than just activity.
That ordering matters.
It suggests something more durable than a marketing-driven rebound: students appear to be choosing Charleston Law because of what the school has already demonstrated, not on the promise of what it might become.
Professor Bill Janssen, who is beginning his 20th year at Charleston Law, summed up the difference:
“There are three things that separate us from other law schools. The location: no other law school is in Charleston, the jewel of the South. Second, our faculty has an open-door commitment to the student body and to their success. Third, we focus on the classroom experience. Law school should be rigorous; it should be demanding, but our culture is open and welcoming without stepping back from the rigor and demands of a legal education that prepares students for practice.”
Students describe the institutional culture behind these opportunities in strikingly consistent terms. Graduates who came through the school’s pro bono and community-service tracks point to a sense of shared purpose that extends beyond individual coursework — an environment where classmates’ successes are treated as collective wins, and where the school’s mission functions less as a slogan and more as a lived expectation shared across students, faculty, and staff.
What has happened at Charleston Law in recent years is not just a good news story. It’s a case study.
Charleston School of Law Externship Program provides students with opportunities to learn and develop skills in the legal field of their interest, including public interest law, corporate law, criminal law, judicial clerkships, general litigation, family law, environmental law, intellectual property, and more. Learn more here: charlestonlaw.edu/externships/
@Charleston_Law is nationally recognized by Princeton Law Review for its open-door policy. Faculty accessibility helps the next generation of legal professionals learn and grow in the classroom, one-on-one settings, and through experiential learning. Meet our faculty and explore their passion for teaching the law at charlestonlaw.edu.
