Page 1
State Bar for Second Time Reverses Itself on References to ‘UC Hastings’ Law School
By a MetNews Staff Writer
The State Bar of California, which changed references in attorneys’ online profiles to their having graduated from “UC Hastings COL” to “UC College of the Law, San Francisco”—the institution’s new name—then changed the references back to the name of the school at the time of graduation, has again flipflopped.
Rick Coca, the State Bar’s senior program analyst in the Office of Strategic Communications & Stakeholder Engagement, advised the METNEWS by email late Wednesday:
“The State Bar regrets confusion over how the UC Hastings Law School/UC College of the Law, San Francisco name change has been handled. In trying to accurately respond to media inquiries, the need for a formal written policy regarding how to handle law school name changes has been glaringly highlighted; to that end, staff will prepare a proposed policy for the Board of Trustees’ consideration later this year.
“In the past, we have had two distinct practices in this regard, and that caused a mix up. First, when one school purchased or consolidated with another school, graduates from both schools prior to the change, were listed by the State Bar under their graduating school. Anyone who graduates from the law school after it was purchased or consolidated would be listed as having graduated from the purchasing/consolidated school’s name.
“With respect to name changes unrelated to school consolidations or purchases, we typically change the name for all graduates to the new name, irrespective of their graduation date. In this case, we originally changed the name of UC Hastings Law School to UC College of the Law, San Francisco in licensee records. Subsequently, staff management erroneously thought the first practice (date of graduation standard) should be used and changed it back to UC Hastings Law School.
“It turns out that we originally properly executed our past practice. Effective today, we are reverting all applicable licensee records back to UC College of the Law, San Francisco.”
The name change was effected by the Legislature, at the school’s request, based on the theory that the founder, S.C. Hastings, had commissioned the slaying of native Americans in the 1850s.
Copyright 2023, Metropolitan News Company