Other meanings of Sandra Day O'Connor
Law & Education
The Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law is the law school of Arizona State University (ASU), located in Phoenix, Arizona. Named in 2006 after the first female U.S. Supreme Court Justice, it is known for its innovative curriculum, strong emphasis on experiential learning, and its rapid rise in national rankings. The college offers JD, LLM, and MLS degrees and hosts several specialized centers, including the Indian Legal Program and the Center for Law, Science & Innovation.
The college traces its roots to 1967, when ASU established a law school in Tempe. In 2006, it was renamed the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law in honor of Justice O'Connor, a 1950 graduate of Stanford Law School and the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. The renaming followed a $10 million gift from the Steele Foundation, and O'Connor herself participated in the dedication ceremony. The school moved to its current downtown Phoenix campus in 2016, a facility designed to integrate students with the legal and business communities.
The college offers a Juris Doctor (JD) with concentrations in areas such as criminal law, environmental law, and intellectual property. It also provides LLM programs for foreign-trained lawyers and a Master of Legal Studies (MLS) for non-lawyers. In the 2024 U.S. News & World Report rankings, the school was tied at 25th among all law schools, reflecting a steady climb from 56th in 2015. Its part-time program is ranked 4th, and its legal writing program has been consistently top-ranked.
Experiential learning is a cornerstone of the curriculum. The school operates more than a dozen in-house clinics, including the Civil Litigation Clinic, the Entrepreneurship Clinic, and the Post-Conviction Clinic, where students handle real cases under faculty supervision. The Indian Legal Program, established in 1988, is one of the oldest and most comprehensive in the nation, offering a certificate in Federal Indian Law and hosting the annual Indian Legal Conference.1 The Center for Law, Science & Innovation, founded in 2010, focuses on emerging issues in biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and space law.2
Beyond its mainstream reputation, the college has several distinctive features. It was one of the first law schools to adopt a "bench trial" simulation program in the 1970s, a precursor to modern moot court training. The school's library, the Ross-Blakley Law Library, houses a rare collection of Arizona territorial law documents. In 2019, the college launched the Lodestar Dispute Resolution Program, which has trained over 1,000 mediators. A notable alumna is Mary M. Schroeder, the first woman to serve as Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.3
This article focuses exclusively on the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, not on Justice O'Connor herself.
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