Legal Scholars Program Welcomes New Director Dan Croxall
Written by: Maddie Tawa & Matthew Ford
As the new semester gets underway and students slowly return to in-person instruction, Pacific exists transitively as the world continues to move around it. This is perhaps felt most heavily in Pacific’s academic circles, particularly in the Legal Scholars program.
A highly-selective pre-law professional program that only accepts a maximum of 15 students per year, Legal Scholars was previously run by Dr. Cynthia Ostberg, a member of the Political Science department. Having left on her sabbatical, Dr. Ostberg left the program in the hands of Daniel Croxall, an associate professor at McGeorge School of Law.
Initially an English professor at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Professor Croxall didn’t always have law in his professional path. “I.. got the ‘law school bug,’” he says, reminiscing about his start in the legal world.
Balancing work and his family, Professor Croxall attended an evening program at McGeorge before transitioning into an associate position at DLA Piper LLP, the largest law firm in the world, where he practiced civil litigation and white-collar criminal defense for five years. He then established what he affectionately calls “the world’s smallest law firm,” Croxall Law, which provided legal representation for craft breweries throughout California. He later returned to McGeorge, this time as a professor, and now teaches courses ranging from international law to alcohol regulation.
As the Legal Scholars program’s new director, Professor Croxall plans on further building upon Dr. Ostberg’s model of rigorous preparation and scholarship. “Dr. Ostberg created a fantastic program with many outstanding features,” he says when discussing his plans for the program moving forward. “I have no intention of replacing those things in the program that work well. But I believe I have fresh ideas and the passion to implement them to make the program soar even higher.” While he’s still learning and planning for the coming semester, Professor Croxall has scheduled appearances from legal experts in multiple fields to provide guest lectures on topics such as diversity in law and the legality of the vaccine mandate. He hopes to establish cross-institutional collaborations with programs similar to Legal Scholars and summer law school boot camps for program graduates.
