The curriculum emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of law.

USC Law publishes three academic journals: Southern California Law Review, Interdisciplinary Law Journal, and Southern California Review of Law and Social Justice (formerly the Review of Law and Women's Studies).

Notable faculty

Current faculty

• Jody Armour - specializes in race issues; author of Negrophobia and Reasonable Racism
• Alexander Capron - specializes in law and medicine
• Susan Estrich - Professor of Law and Political Science
• Elizabeth Garrett - appointed to President Bush's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform; Professor of Public Interest Law, Legal Ethics, Political Science, and Policy, Planning and Development
• Edward McCaffery - Robert C. Packard Trustee Chair in Law and Political Science and visiting professor of Law and Economics at the California Institute of Technology
• Charles Whitebread - gives lectures for BarBri; author of The Eight Secrets of Top Exam Performance in Law School

Former faculty

• Erwin Chemerinsky - used to be the Sydney M. Irmas Professor of Public Interest Law, Legal Ethics, and Political Science 1983-2004
• Richard Epstein - well-known for his arguments against anti-discrimination laws; currently the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School
• James Brown Scott - authority on international law, former dean of USC Law School

Notable alumni

Business

• Larry Flax, 1971 - co-founder of California Pizza Kitchen
• Stanley Gold, 1967 - President and CEO of Shamrock Holdings
• Alan Hoffman - Vice President of Timmons and Co.
• Bruce Karatz - CEO of KB Home
• Felipe Prestamo - Vice President of Goldman Sachs
• Sol Price - founder of Fed Mart and Price Club
• Charles Prince - CEO of Citigroup
• James Rogers - CEO & owner, Sunbelt Communications
• Frank Rothman - former chairman and CEO of MGM studios and noted trial attorney
• Jeff Smulyan, 1972 - founder and CEO of Emmis Communications
• Walt Zifkin - CEO Emeritus, William Morris Agency
• Richard Ziman - CEO, Arden Realty

Law

• Scott Bice, 1968 - USC Law School Dean from 1980 - 2000
• Litta Belle Hibbens Campbell, 1913 - first female deputy district attorney in the United States
• Mary Ann Cohen, 1967 - Judge of the United States Tax Court
• Stephen Cooley, 1973 - prosecutor for Los Angeles County's 36th District Attorney
• David Eagleson, 1950 - former California Supreme Court justice
• William P. Hogoboom, 1949 - former California Superior Court judge
• You Chung Hong, 1924 - first Chinese American admitted to practice in California
• Edwin Jefferson, 1931 - first African American judge west of Chicago
• Joyce L. Kennard - first female Asian American to serve as an associate justice on the California Supreme Court
• Nora Manella - U.S. District Court Judge for the Central District of California
• Margaret Radin - influential law professor at Stanford Law School; former USC Law School professor
• Dorothy Nelson - former USC Law Dean; Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
• Stephen Reinhardt - Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
• Matthew Spitzer - Dean of USC Law from 2000-2006

Politics

• Fletcher Bowron - former mayor of Los Angeles
• Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, 1956 - Los Angeles County supervisor, former member of the United States House of Representatives
• Robert H. Finch - attorney, former Lieutenant Governor of California, former United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare
• Craig Hosmer, 1940 - former United States Representative
• Thomas Kuchel - former United States Senator

Sports and Media

• Terry Baker, 1968 - played quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams and the CFL's Edmonton Eskimos while earning a J.D. at USC
• Carey McWilliams - journalist, editor of The Nation for twenty years
• Amy Trask, 1985 - CEO of the Oakland Raiders
• Joseph Wapner, 1948 - Judge of The People's Court, former Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge