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About USC Gould
USC Gould is a top-ranked law school with a 120-year history and reputation for academic excellence. We are located on the beautiful 228-acre USC University Park Campus, just south of downtown Los Angeles.
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Academics
Learn about our interdisciplinary curriculum, experiential learning opportunities and specialized areas.
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Admissions
USC Gould helps prepare you for a stellar legal career. You can pursue a JD degree, one of our numerous graduate and international offerings, or an online degree or certificate.
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Students
Participate in an unparalleled learning experience with diversity of people and thought. Get involved in the law school community and participate in activities that enhance your studies.
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Careers
We work closely with students, graduates and employers to support successful career goals and outcomes. Our overall placement rate is consistently strong, with 94 percent of our JD class employed within 10 months after graduation.
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Faculty
Our faculty is distinguished for its scholarship, as well as for its commitment to teaching. Our 12:1 student-to-faculty ratio creates an intimate and collegial learning environment.
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Cori Ferrentino
USC Gould School of Law
- FACULTY DIRECTORY
- LECTURERS IN LAW DIRECTORY
- EXPERTS DIRECTORY
- FACULTY IN THE NEWS
- SCHOLARSHIP AND PUBLICATIONS
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- + CENTERS AND INITIATIVES
- CENTER FOR DISPUTE RESOLUTION
- CENTER FOR LAW AND PHILOSOPHY (CLP)
- CENTER FOR LAW AND SOCIAL SCIENCE (CLASS)
- CENTER FOR LAW, HISTORY AND CULTURE (CLHC)
- CENTER FOR TRANSNATIONAL LAW AND BUSINESS (CTLB)
- INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM INSTITUTE (IRI)
- SAKS INSTITUTE FOR MENTAL HEALTH LAW, POLICY, AND ETHICS
- + WORKSHOPS AND CONFERENCES

Lecturer in Law
699 Exposition Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90089-0074 USA
Last Updated: August 31, 2022
Correen Ferrentino is the founding and managing attorney at Ferrentino & Associates, Inc., a boutique criminal defense firm. She is an experienced trial attorney with more than 28 years of experience in state and federal court. She has tried more than 55 jury trials and more than 500 court trials.
An accomplished trial attorney, Ferrentino has won most of the cases she has tried. Notably, she won a reversal in a homicide case at a habeas evidentiary hearing, then re-tried the case and the jury acquitted her client of murder. He was released after nine years in prison and this case is currently listed in the National Registry of Exonerations. She has also had hundreds of cases dismissed outright. Additionally, Ferrentino is an accomplished appellate and post-conviction attorney with three recent life case reversals. Ferrentino's practice currently focuses on white collar litigation, major criminal trials, and various forms of post-conviction relief. She is a certified criminal law specialist, certified by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization.
Prior to starting her own firm, Ferrentino worked as a deputy public defender in Orange County for 10 years from 1997-2006. She tried felony and misdemeanor cases, worked in various collaborative courts including drug court and spent three years in the mental health unit representing individuals diagnosed with serious mental illness.
Prior to her tenure as a deputy public defender, Ferrentino worked as an associate attorney at Stokke & Riddet and the Law Offices of William J. Kopeny. She handled felony and misdemeanor matters and provided litigation support to the partners.
Ferrentino earned a BS in Psychology from the University of California, Irvine in 1986 and went on to earn her JD from Loyola Law School in 1994. While at Loyola, Ferrentino clerked for the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office, the Loyola Center for Conflict Resolution and worked as an extern for the Hon. Sheila Sonenshine (Ret.) in the California Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division Three.
Ferrentino is an appointed member of the Criminal Justice Act Trial and Capital Habeas panel in the Federal District Court, Central District, representing indigent individuals charged with crimes in federal court and on death row in state prison. She is also a panel member for the California Appellate Project and Appellate Defenders, Inc., state organizations that handle appeals for indigent criminal defendants.
FACULTY IN THE NEWS
Annenberg Media
September 19, 2023
Re: Thomas Lenz
Thomas Lenz was quoted by Annenberg Media about the United Automobile Workers union ready to go on strike. "Strikes affect the livelihoods of those who choose to stop working. To the extent those persons aren’t earning money to spend that means stores, restaurants, and other businesses might not be as busy. If a strike lasts a long time bills might not get paid as easily, if at all," Lenz wrote.
RECENT SCHOLARSHIP
Mugambi Jouet
August, 2023
“Guns, Mass Incarceration, and Bipartisan Reform: Beyond Vicious Circle and Social Polarization,” 55 Arizona State Law Journal 239 (2023).
Edward McCaffery
August, 2023
"The Curiouser and Curiouser Case of Carried Interest" (with Darryll K. Jones), Arizona Law Review (Spring 2024).
Scott Altman
August, 2023
"Are Parents Fiduciaries," 42 Law and Philosophy 431 (2023).