Residential Juris Doctor (J.D.) Program

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:

* Passing Grade is C-

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 4 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

Evidence

Administrative Law Elective from the following courses: Administrative Law, Antitrust: Trade Practices, Bankruptcy, Community Development Clinic, Employment Law, Environmental Law, Financial Crimes and Topics in Financial Market Regulation, Health Law Clinic, Immigration Law & Policy, Immigration Law Clinic, Labor Law, Land Use Planning, Public Health Law, Public Health Policy: Law, Finance & Ethics, Securities Regulation, State and Local Environmental Law, State and Local Government, State and Local Taxation, U.S. Refugee & Asylum Law.

International Law Elective from the following courses:  Comparative Constitutional Law, Conflict of Laws, Indigenous & Aboriginal Law Seminar, International Business Transactions, International Child’s Rights, International Human Rights Law, International Law of War & Crimes, International Organizations, Law of Climate Change, National Security Law, Public International Law, U.S. Refugee & Asylum 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.