Charleston School of Law opened its doors this week for fall 2026, welcoming 275 new students, the largest incoming class in the school’s 23-year history.
The incoming class includes 275 students representing 116 colleges and universities. Thirty-two percent are from South Carolina, while the remaining students come from 34 other states, Washington, D.C., and Canada. The class has a median age of 23 and an average age of 24, with students ranging in age from 20 to 48.
The record incoming class comes as Charleston School of Law continues to expand its experiential learning programs. Since 2023, the law school has added three institutes focused on trial advocacy, public policy and business and transactional law, while also expanding opportunities for students to gain practical legal experience through clinics, internships and externships.
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.
That same commitment to hands-on training extends to the school’s clinics, where its mission is put into practice. They include the Parole Clinic, Mediation Clinic, Family Law Clinic, Housing Clinic through Charleston Pro Bono Legal Services, Domestic Violence Clinic through Charleston Legal Services, Street Law Clinic and Criminal Prosecution Clinic, which is run in partnership with the Ninth Circuit Solicitor’s Office.
In three years, the law school has added three new centers to six active clinics and its existing advocacy programs.
The enrollment growth has also coincided with strong bar exam performance. In February 2026, Charleston School of Law led South Carolina in both first-time and overall pass rates on the Uniform Bar Examination. Of 22 first-time test-takers, 21 passed.
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.
“These results are a powerful testament to the grit of our graduates and the unwavering dedication of our faculty and staff,” said Jonathan Marcantel, dean of Charleston Law.
