To be eligible for the Juris Doctor degree, a student must complete a total of 87 credits with a minimum GPA of 2.25 and must pass all required courses. Required courses are as follows:

First Year Required Courses (33 credits):

* Passing Grade is C-

Fall semester:

• Contracts I
• Civil Procedure
• 1L Seminar (students choose from several seminar courses)
• Torts
• Lawyering I

Spring semester:

• Contracts II
• Constitutional Law I
  
• Criminal Law
• Property
• Lawyering II

*Legal Methods May be required based on Fall GPA

Rising 2Ls will complete a Diagnostic Assessment prior to the start of their second year.

Second Year Required Courses:

* Passing Grade is C-

Fall semester:

• Constitutional Law II: First Amendment

Other Upper-Level Courses Required to Graduate:

Required for students whose GPA places them in the bottom quarter of the class at the end of the second semester:
Advanced Legal Analysis II (taken as a 3L), and 5 from the following list: Business Organizations; Conflict of Laws; Criminal Procedure: Investigation OR Criminal Procedure: Adjudication; Family Law OR Family Law Practicum OR Matrimonial Law; Sales, Secured Transactions; Commercial Law Survey; Trusts & Estates.

Legal Profession or Professional Responsibility Seminar

* Passing Grade is C-

Administrative Law Elective from the following courses Administrative Law, Antitrust in the Health Care Industry, Antitrust: Market Structure, Antitrust: Trade Practices, Community Development Clinic, Election Law, Employment Discrimination, Employment Law, Environmental Law, Environmental Practice and Procedure, Evidence, Financial Crimes and Topics in Financial Market Regulation, Health Care Compliance, Healthcare Org & Finance, Health Law Clinic, Immigration Law & Policy, Immigration Law Clinic, Introduction to Government, Labor Law, Labor Law in the Public Sector, Labor Arbitration Seminar, Land Use Planning, New York Administrative Law & Policy, Privacy & Security of Health Care Information, Public Access to Government Information, Public Health Law, Public Health Policy: Law, Finance & Ethics, Securities Regulation, State and Local Environmental Law, State and Local Government, State and Local Gov’t Finance, State and Local Taxation, U.S. Refugee & Asylum Law.

International Law Elective from the following courses: Comparative Constitutional Law, Conflict of Laws, Federal Indian Law, International & Comparative Intellectual Property, International Business Transactions, International Child’s Rights, International Environmental Law, International Human Rights Law, International Labor Law, International Trade Law, International Law of War & Crimes, International Organizations, Law of Climate Change, National Security Law, Public International Law.

Experiential Requirement: Two courses (for a total of at least 6 credits) offering substantial skill instruction, with at least one course taken within the Clinic from the following list:

Upper Level Writing Requirement:

As a requirement for graduation, and by the end of his or her penultimate semester of law school, a student must produce a substantial legal research paper. A student may satisfy this requirement in one of the following ways:

1. By successfully completing a legal research paper under the supervision of a full-time faculty member;
2. By producing a publishable work as a member of one of the Law School’s eligible student-edited journals;
3. By successfully completing a course taught by a full-time faculty member and designated as requiring for its completion production of a paper that satisfies the writing requirement;
4. By producing a research paper in connection with any course taught by a full-time faculty member, if the faculty member determines that the paper is sufficient to satisfy the requirement.
5. By producing a work product resulting from such substantial research and writing in a clinical course taught by a full-time faculty member that the product is the equivalent of a legal research paper. (Pursuant to ABA Standard 303, students cannot use the same course to satisfy both the experiential requirement and the upper level writing requirement)
6. By producing a research report resulting from such substantial research and writing as a Sandman Fellow that the report is the equivalent of a legal research paper.