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In the United States, a law school is an institution where students obtain a professional education in law. A law student must hold an undergraduate degree in any field. In most cases the degree awarded by U.S. law schools is the Juris Doctor, or J.D., degree. Other, higher, degrees that are awarded include the Master of Laws degree (LL.M.) and the Doctor of Juridical Science degree (J.S.D. or S.J.D.). Though most law schools are hosted by a larger post-secondary institution, the school itself is largely autonomous from the hosting institution. This arrangement is very different from that in many other parts of the world: see legal education. // A law school is an institution where future lawyers obtain legal degrees. ...
A professional degree is an academic degree designed to prepare the holder for a particular career or profession, fields where scholarly research and academic activity are not the work, but rather a profession such as law, medicine, engineering, religious ministry, or education. ...
Legal education in the United States generally refers to the education of lawyers, and that is the focus of this article. ...
Doctor of Law, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Juris Doctor (abbreviated J.D. or JD, from the Latin, Doctor of Law) is a professional degree in law offered by universities in a number of countries. ...
The Master of Laws is an advanced law degree, commonly abbreviated LL.M. (also LLM or LL.M) from its Latin name, Legum Magister. ...
The Master of Laws is an advanced law degree that allows someone to specialize in a particular area of law. ...
Legal education is the education of individuals who intend to become legal professionals (attorneys and judges) or those who simply intend to use their law degree to some end, either related to law (such as politics or academic) or unrelated (such as business entrepreneurship). ...
Admission
In the United States, most law schools require a bachelor's degree, a satisfactory undergraduate grade point average, and a satisfactory score on the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) in order to be considered for admission. Some states that have non-ABA-approved schools or state-accredited schools have equivalency requirements that usually equal 90 credits toward a bachelor's degree. Additional personal factors are evaluated through essays, short-answer questions, letters of recommendation, and other application materials. The standards for grades and LSAT scores vary from school to school. For actual admissions statistics, visit http://officialguide.lsac.org/search/cgi-bin/results.asp A bachelors degree (Artium Baccalaureus, A.B. or B.A.) is usually an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course or major that generally lasts for three, four, or in some cases and countries, five or six years. ...
A grade in education can mean either a teachers evaluation of a students work or a students level of educational progress, usually one grade per year (often denoted by an ordinal number, such as the 3rd Grade or the 12th Grade). This article is about evaluation of...
The Law School Admission Test (LSAT) is an examination administered by the Law School Admission Council (LSAC), intended to provide law schools in the United States and Canada with (to quote LSAC) a standard measure of acquired reading and verbal reasoning skills that law schools can use as one of...
To see which law schools would be likely to accept candidates based on Undergraduate GPA and LSAT score, see http://officialguide.lsac.org/UGPASearch/Search3.aspx
Individual factors are also very important, although applicants are generally not asked to interview as part of the application process. Many law schools actively seek applicants from outside the traditional pool to boost racial, economic, and experiential diversity on campus. Most law schools now factor in extracurricular activities, work experience, and unique courses of study in their evaluation of applicants. A growing number of law school applicants have several years of work experience, and correspondingly fewer law students enter immediately after completing their undergraduate education. Diversity is the presence of a wide range of variation in the qualities or attributes under discussion. ...
Students considering law school should note that although law school tuition is high, it is not uncommon for law students to receive grants and scholarships, or, more rarely, complete tuition waivers, from their schools. While each school's financial aid system operates differently, there is a rule of thumb relating to GPA and LSAT scores: a student whose grades and LSAT are higher than those of most students admitted to a given school--in other words, a student who could go to a "better" school--has a good chance of being offered some kind of scholarship by the lower-ranked school. Likewise, some law students choose lower ranked schools due to their inability to get into higher ranked schools because of low LSAT scores and GPA, and then transfer to the better schools after their first year of study, provided that they received good grades in the first year of law school. Many highly ranked schools do not accept many transfer applicants due to lack of space in the class, and transferring may make it more difficult for a student to participate in on-campus recruiting from potential employers. Note: The term scholarship can mean either the methods employed by scholars (see scholarly method) or an award of access to an institution and/or money for an individual for the purposes of furthering their education. ...
Tuition means instruction, teaching or a fee charged for educational instruction especially at a formal institution of learning. ...
Financial aid refers to funding intended to help students pay tuition or other costs, such as room and board, for education at a college, university, or private school. ...
Accreditation In order to sit for the bar exam, the vast majority of state bar associations requires that an applicant's law school be accredited by the American Bar Association. The ABA has promulgated detailed requirements covering every aspect of a law school, down to the precise contents of the law library and the minimum number of minutes of instruction required to receive a law degree. A bar examination is a lengthy examination (two or more days) conducted at regular intervals to determine whether a candidate is qualified to practice law in a given jurisdiction. ...
American Bar Associations Washington, DC office The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. ...
California is the most famous exception to the rule. The State Bar of California's Committee of Bar Examiners approves many schools which may not qualify for or request ABA accreditation. Graduates of such schools can sit for the bar exam in California, and once they have passed that exam, a large number of states allow those students to sit for their bars (after practicing for a certain number of years in California). California is also the first state to allow graduates of online law schools to take its bar exam. Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area Ranked 3rd - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²) - Width 250 miles (400 km) - Length 770 miles (1,240 km) - % water 4. ...
The State Bars main office in San Francisco is housed on several floors of this office building The State Bar of California is Californias official bar association. ...
Curriculum Law students are referred to as 1Ls, 2Ls, and 3Ls based on their year of study. However, some law schools, such as the Penn State Dickinson School of Law, still follow the tradition of referring to students as Juniors, Middlers and Seniors. In the United States, the American Bar Association does not mandate a particular curriculum for 1Ls. ABA Standard 302(a)(1) requires only the study of "substantive law" that will lead to "effective and responsible participation in the legal profession." However, most law schools have their own mandatory curriculum which typically includes: The Pennsylvania State University (commonly known as Penn State) is a state-related, land-grant university. ...
The Dickinson School of Law is located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and is the law school of The Pennsylvania State University. ...
American Bar Associations Washington, DC office The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. ...
Civil procedure is the body of law that sets out the process that courts will follow when hearing cases of a civil nature (a civil action, as opposed to a criminal action). ...
Constitutional law is the study of foundational or basic laws of nation states and other political organizations. ...
A contract is a legally binding exchange of promises or agreement between parties that the law will enforce. ...
Criminal law (also known as penal law) is the body of statutory and common law that deals with crime and the legal punishment of criminal offenses. ...
Property designates those things that are commonly recognized as being the possessions of a person or group. ...
Tort is a legal term that means a civil wrong, as opposed to a criminal wrong, that is recognized by law as grounds for a lawsuit. ...
This article or section seems not to be written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia entry. ...
Legal writing is a type of technical writing used in the field of law by legislators, lawyers, judges, legislative drafters, law-textbook authors, and others in the legal field to express legal analysis and legal rights and duties. ...
These basic courses are intended to provide an overview of the broad study of law. Not all ABA-approved law schools offer all of these courses in the 1L year: many schools do not require constitutional law and/or criminal law in the first year (both courses are required at some point in the 3 years of attendance, however). Some schools roll legal research and legal writing into a single year-long "lawyering skills" course, which may also include a small oral argument component.
After the first year, law students are generally free to pursue different fields of legal study, such as administrative law, corporate law, international law, admiralty law, intellectual property law, and tax law. Administrative law in the United States often relates to, or arises from, so-called independent agencies- such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Here is FTCs headquarters in Washington D.C. Administrative law (or regulatory law) is the body of law that arises from the activities of administrative agencies...
Corporations law or corporate law is the law concerning the creation and regulation of corporations. ...
This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...
Admiralty law (also referred to as maritime law) is a distinct body of law which governs maritime questions and offenses. ...
In law, particularly in common law jurisdictions, intellectual property is a form of legal entitlement which allows its holder to control the use of certain intangible ideas and expressions. ...
Tax law is the codified system of laws that describes government levies on economic transactions, commonly called taxes. ...
The ABA also requires that all students at ABA-approved schools take an ethics course in professional responsibility. Typically, this is an upper-level course; most students take it in the 2L year. This requirement was added after the Watergate scandal, which seriously damaged the public image of the profession because President Richard Nixon and most of his alleged cohorts were lawyers. The ABA desired to demonstrate that the legal profession could regulate itself and hoped to prevent direct federal regulation of the profession. Professional responsibility is the area of legal practice that encompasses the duties of attorneys to act in a professional manner, obey the law, avoid conflicts of interest, and put the interests of clients ahead of their own interests. ...
The Watergate building. ...
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. ...
As of 2004, to ensure that students' research and writing skills do not deteriorate, the ABA has added an upper division writing requirement. Law students must take at least one course, or complete an independent study project, as a 2L or 3L that requires the writing of a paper for credit. Most law courses are less about doctrine and more about learning how to analyze legal problems, read cases, distill facts and apply law to facts. Legal education focuses on skill-learning, not law-learning.
Many of the top schools in the United States are much more interested in teaching students legal theory and analysis than they are in the specific doctrines or "black letter law." Top schools emphasize theory over practice for several reasons. First, these schools often train legal academics, who will be teaching future lawyers. Second, professors at these schools are often interested in questions of legal theory and legal reform, as they themselves are, and were, often not practitioners. Third, these schools often have the most prestigious journals, and students are encouraged to engage in scholarship in order to publish in these journals.
However, clinical education is very important, and many schools differentiate themselves with excellent clinical programs. Moreover, students often seek out clinical programs because doctrinal courses offer little in the way of practical training.
In 1968, the Ford Foundation began disbursing $12 million to persuade law schools to make "law school clinics" part of their curriculum. Clinics were intended to give practical experience in law practice while providing pro bono representation to the poor. However, conservative critics charge that the clinics have been used instead as an avenue for the professors to engage in left-wing political activism. Critics cite the financial involvement of the Ford Foundation as the turning point when such clinics began to change from giving practical experience to engaging in advocacy.[1] // A law school is an institution where future lawyers obtain legal degrees. ...
Pro bono is a phrase derived from Latin meaning for the good. The complete phrase is pro bono publico, for the public good. It is used to designate legal or other professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment, as a public service. ...
American conservatism is a constellation of political ideologies within the United States under the blanket heading of conservative. ...
“Leftism†redirects here. ...
As well, many law students participate in internship programs during their course of study. For information about a medical intern, see the article on Medical residency. ...
Finally, it should be noted that the emphasis in law schools is almost never on the law of the particular state in which the law school sits, but on the state of the law generally throughout the country (contract law at the University of North Carolina, then, will focus not on contracts in North Carolina, but on the law of contracts generally). Although this makes studying for the bar more difficult since one must learn state-specific law, the emphasis on legal skills over legal knowledge seems to serve lawyers well in the long run, particularly those not intending to practice in the same state they attend law school.
Grades Grades in law school are very competitive. Most schools grade on a curve. For example, at most law schools in a typical class about 25% of students receive and A or A-, about 50% of students receive a B+, B, or B-, and about 25% receive a C+, C, C-, D, or F.
Many schools use a "median" grading system, typically a "B median" or a "B-minus median". Under that system, a professor is obliged to determine which exam or paper was the exact median in terms of quality (e.g, the 35th best out of of 70), give that paper a B (or B-minus, depending on the system used), and then grade the other exams based on how much better or worse they are than the median. Some schools, such as New York's Fordham Law School, use a much more demanding grading system, in which precise percentages of students are to receive certain grades. For instance, (and with numbers picked at random), such a system may oblige professors to award 3.5% A's, 7% A-minuses, 20 percent B+'s, 30 percent B's, 25 percent B-minuses, 10 percent D's, and 4.5% F's. In addition, a few schools such as Yale Law School and Boalt Hall School of Law (University of California, Berkeley) have alternate grading systems that put less emphasis on rank. Many professors chafe against the lack of discretion provided by such systems, especially the required failing of a certain number of students whose performance may have been sub-par but not, in the professor's estimation, worthy of a failing grade. The "median" system seeks to provide some parity among teachers' grading scales while giving the teacher discretion to award a grade below the median only when deserved. Fordham Law atrium from Lowenstein Plaza Fordham University School of Law, commonly known as Fordham Law, is a part of Fordham University and is one of eight ABA approved law schools in New York City. ...
The Sterling Law Building Sculptural ornamentation on the Sterling Law Building Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. ...
Boalt Halls law library was expanded in 1996 with the North Addition, pictured above. ...
Sather tower (the Campanile) looking out over the San Francisco Bay and Mount Tamalpais. ...
All of these systems are milder forms of the colloquial perception of earlier law schools' unforgiving practices. A commonly-described situation is that of an imposing professor greeting first-day students by saying: "Look to the left of you and look to the right of you. At the end of the year, only one of you will remain." This phrase has been so widely claimed that it is most likely apocryphal, but is considered to be roughly accurate of previous law school attrition practices. In Judeo-Christian theologies, apocrypha refers to religious Sacred text that have questionable authenticity or are otherwise disputed. ...
One school which has deviated from the system of competitive grading common to most American law schools is Northeastern University School of Law. Northeastern does not have any system of grade point averages or class rank, Instead, the school uses a system of narrative evaluations to measure student performance. The original mission of the school – to provide Boston’s first evening law school program for students who could not attend full-time day classes – seems reasonable today, but it was a revolutionary moment when Professor Robert Gray Dodge delivered the school’s first lecture in...
A grade in education can mean either a teachers evaluation of a students work or a students level of educational progress, usually one grade per year (often denoted by an ordinal number, such as the 3rd Grade or the 12th Grade). This article is about evaluation of...
In education, narrative evaluation is a form of performance measurement and feedback which can be used as an alternative or supplement to grading. ...
Pedagogical methods - Further information: Casebook method
Most law school education in the United States is based on standards developed by Christopher Columbus Langdell and James Barr Ames at Harvard Law School during the mid-1800s. Professors generally lead in-class debates over the issues in selected court cases, compiled into "casebooks" for each course. Traditionally, law professors chose not to lecture extensively, and instead used the Socratic method to force students to teach each other based on their individual understanding of legal theory and the facts of the case at hand. The casebook method, also known as the case method, is the primary method of teaching law in law schools in the United States. ...
Christopher Columbus Langdell (May 22, 1826 _ July 6, 1906), American jurist, was born in New Boston, Hillsborough county, New Hampshire, of English and Scotch-Irish ancestry. ...
James Barr Ames (1846 - 1910) was a U.S. law educator, who popularized the case-study method of teaching law. ...
Harvard Law School, often referred to in shorthand as Harvard Law or HLS, is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. ...
Beginning of the Napoleonic Wars (1805 - 1815). ...
A casebook is a type of textbook used primarily by students in law schools. ...
Socratic Method (or Method of Elenchus or Socratic Debate) is a dialectic method of inquiry, largely applied to the examination of key moral concepts and first described by Plato in the Socratic Dialogues. ...
Despite (or more likely, because of) many law schools continue to use the Socratic method--consisting of calling on a student at random, asking him or her about an argument made in an assigned case, asking the student whether he or she agrees with the argument, and then using a series of questions designed to expose logical flaws in the student's argument. Examinations usually entail interpreting the facts of a hypothetical case, determining how legal theories apply to the case, and then writing an essay. This process is intended to train students in the reasoning methods necessary to interpret theories, statutes, and precedents correctly, and argue their validity, both orally and in writing. In contrast, most civil law countries base their legal education on professorial lectures and oral examinations, which are more suited for the mastery of complicated civil codes. Socratic Method (or Method of Elenchus or Socratic Debate) is a dialectic method of inquiry, largely applied to the examination of key moral concepts and first described by Plato in the Socratic Dialogues. ...
The Statute of Grand Duchy of Lithuania A statute is a formal, written law of a country or state, written and enacted by its legislative authority, perhaps to then be ratified by the highest executive in the government, and finally published. ...
In law, a precedent or authority is a legal case establishing a principle or rule that a court may need to adopt when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. ...
Civil law or continental law is the predominant system of law in the world. ...
A civil code is a systematic compilation of laws designed to comprehensively deal with the core areas of private law. ...
This style of teaching is often discomfiting to first-year law students who are more accustomed to taking notes from professors' lectures. Most casebooks do not clearly outline the law; instead, they force the student to interpret the cases and draw the basic legal concepts from the cases themselves. As a result, many publishers market law school outlines that concisely summarize the basic concepts of each area of law, and good outlines are highly sought after by many students, although some professors discourage their use. A casebook is a type of textbook used primarily by students in law schools. ...
Law school outlines are study aids created by law school students. ...
Legal pedagogy has also been criticized by scholars like Alan Watson in his book, The Shame of Legal Education. Alan Watson is a Senior Windows System Engineer at an aircraft electronics manufacturer in North Little Rock, Arkansas. ...
For purposes of passing state bar examinations, some law school graduates find law school instruction inadequate, and resort to specialized bar review courses from private course providers. These bar reviews typically consist of lectures, often videorecorded.
Credentials obtainable while in law school Within each U.S. law school, key credentials include: - Law review/Law journal membership or editorial position (based either on grades or write-on competition or both). This is important for at least three reasons. First, because it is determined by either grades or writing ability, membership is an indicator of strong academic performance. This leads to the second reason, which is that potential employers sometimes use law review membership in their hiring criteria. Third, work on law review exposes a student to legal scholarship and editing, and often allows the student to publish a significant piece of legal scholarship on his or her own. Most law schools have a "flagship" journal called "School name Law Review" (for example, the Harvard Law Review) that publishes articles on all areas of law, and one or more other specialty law journals that publish articles concerning only a particular area of the law (for example, the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology).
- Moot court membership or award (based on oral and written argument). Success in moot court can distinguish one as an outstanding oral advocate and provides a degree of practical legal training that is often absent from law review membership. Moot court and related activities, such as Trial Advocacy and Dispute Resolution, may appeal especially to employers hiring for litigation positions, such as a district attorney's office.
- Order of the Coif membership (based on grade point average). This is often coupled with Latin honors (summa and magna cum laude, though often not cum laude). However, not all law schools in the U.S. have Order of the Coif chapters.
A law review is a scholarly journal focusing on legal issues, normally published by an organization of students at a law school or through a bar association. ...
The Harvard Law Review is a journal of legal scholarship published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School. ...
Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, also known by the acronym JOLT, is a semi-annual student publication of Harvard Law School. ...
Moot court is an extracurricular activity at many law schools in which participants take part in simulated court proceedings, usually to include drafting briefs and participating in oral argument. ...
A district attorney is, in some U.S. jurisdictions, the title of the local public official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminals. ...
The Order of the Coif is an honorary society for law students. ...
A grade in education can mean either a teachers evaluation of a students work or a students level of educational progress, usually one grade per year (often denoted by an ordinal number, such as the 3rd Grade or the 12th Grade). This article is about evaluation of...
State and federal court clerkship - Further information: Law clerk
On the basis of a student's credentials, as well as favorable faculty recommendations, some students obtain a one or two-year clerkship with a judge after graduation. Clerkships may be with state or federal judges. In the United States and Canada, a law clerk is a person who provides assistance to a judge in researching issues before the court and in writing opinions. ...
Clerkships are meant to provide the recent law school graduate (note: it is getting more common for some clerks to begin their clerkship after a few years of work in private practice) with experience working for a judge. Often, clerks engage in significant legal research and writing for the judge, writing memos to assist a judge in coming to a legal conclusion in some cases, and writing drafts of opinions based on the judge's decisions. Appellate court clerkships, although generally more prestigious, do not necessarily give one a great deal of practical experience in the day-to-day life of a lawyer in private practice. The average litigator might get much more out of a clerkship at the trial court level, where he or she will be learning about motions practices, dealing with lawyers, and generally learning how a trial court works on the inside. What a lawyer might lose in prestige he or she might gain in experience.
By and large, though, clerkships provide other valuable assets to a young lawyer. Judges often become mentors to young clerks, providing the young attorney with an experienced individual to whom he or she can go for advice. Fellow clerks can also become lifelong friends and/or professional connections. Those contemplating academia do well to obtain an appellate court clerkship at the federal level, since those clerkships provide a great opportunity to think at a very high level about the law.
Clerkships are great experiences for the new lawyers, and law schools encourage graduates to engage in a clerkship to broaden their professional experiences. However, there simply are not enough clerkships to accommodate all the academically eligible graduates.
United States Supreme Court clerkship Some law school graduates are able to clerk for one of the Justices on the Supreme Court (each Justice takes two to four clerks per year). Often, these clerks are graduates of elite law schools, with Harvard, Yale, the University of Chicago, Columbia, and Stanford being among the most highly represented schools[2]. Most Supreme Court clerks have clerked in a lower court, often for a year with a highly selective federal circuit court judge (such as Judges Alex Kozinski, Michael Luttig, Harvey Wilkinson, David Tatel, Richard Posner, to name a few). It is perhaps the most highly selective and prestigious position a recently-graduated lawyer can have, and Supreme Court clerks are often highly sought after by law firms, the government, and law schools. Law firms give Supreme Court clerks as much as a $200,000 bonus for signing with their firm. The vast majority of Supreme Court clerks either become academics at elite law schools, enter private practice as appellate attorneys, or take highly selective government positions. Harvard Law School, often referred to in shorthand as Harvard Law or HLS, is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. ...
The Sterling Law Building Sculptural ornamentation on the Sterling Law Building Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. ...
The University of Chicago Law School, having recently celebrated its centennial in the 2002-2003 school year, has established itself as a high profile part of the University of Chicago. ...
Stanford Law School is a graduate school at Stanford University located near Palo Alto, California in Silicon Valley. ...
Judge Alex Kozinski Judge Alex Kozinski (born July 23, 1950) is a judge in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and a popular essayist. ...
J. Michael Luttig (born in Tyler, Texas, June 13, 1954) is a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, having been appointed to a newly created seat by President George H. W. Bush on April 23, 1991, and confirmed by the United States Senate on...
David S. Tatel is a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. ...
Richard A. Posner Richard Allen Posner (born January 11, 1939 in New York City) is currently a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. ...
Criticism of American law schools Critics charge that the Socratic Method has fallen into disuse, and little debate occurs in law school classrooms, which are mostly lectures. The faculty at American law schools do not have to answer to the needs of students since their career advancement rests solely on publishing and peer review. Rare is the school where the ability to teach students, and the students' input into the professor's classroom experience, is given enough consideration as to determine the tenure status of a professor. Image File history File links Lady_justice_standing. ...
Image File history File links Lady_justice_standing. ...
Socratic Method (or Method of Elenchus or Socratic Debate) is a dialectic method of inquiry, largely applied to the examination of key moral concepts and first described by Plato in the Socratic Dialogues. ...
- "In fact, law students learn their subjects on their own. With few exceptions, students avoid faculty as faculty avoid students. The wonderful opportunity to use the classroom as a laboratory to debate and review in an atmosphere that encourages critical thinking is lost." William I. Weston, Law Schools, Heal Thyself, 15 ABA Prof. Law. 24
Critics note the cost of legal education in the United States has made it out of reach for many poor or indebted people, and that applying for enough grants and loans to cover the cost is burdensome enough to discourage many qualified applicants from applying. For these people who enter school regardless, the financial struggle can often take a toll on a student's grades. It also limits the choice of employment for graduates, with many needing to work for large firms to pay their loan and credit card debt. The crushing burden of debt can also encourage unethical behavior.
Critics further charge that law schools are run as businesses with eyes on expansion and reputation, and not enough focus on the students and community they are meant to serve. Because of higher tuition, steady or declining grants and state aid, and a greater dependency on loans, the average student's debt has increased by more than 50 percent over the last decade, after accounting for inflation, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Chicago Tribune, In Debt, Forever, March 5, 2006
A further criticism is that the third year of a juris doctor program is unnecessary, and would be better served in full legal employment.
A rather telling indictment of law schools is that at least one state, Washington, has recently enacted a requirement of further (albeit limited) study after law school before a graduate is permitted to practice law.[citation needed] Official language(s) English Capital Olympia Largest city Seattle Area Ranked 18th - Total 71,342 sq mi (184,827 km²) - Width 240 miles (385 km) - Length 360 miles (580 km) - % water 6. ...
Law school rankings Many different organizations rank law schools. The U.S. News and World Report's "Top 100 Law Schools," "The Leiter Reports," and the like generate rankings from quantitative factors, e.g. faculty publishing statistics, entering student LSAT scores, percentage of alumni contributing money. In general, these rankings are controversial, not universally accepted as authoritative, and frequently used for a variety of purposes, e.g. alumni contribution appeals. U.S. News & World Report is a weekly newsmagazine. ...
The Philosophical Gourmet Report (also known as the Leiter Report) attempts to score and rank the university philosophy departments in the English-speaking world, based on a survey of philosophers who are nominated as evaluators by the Advisory Board of the Report. ...
Top tier law schools This article's section called "Top Tier Law Schools" does not cite any references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. (help, get involved!)
Any material not supported by sources may be challenged and removed at any time. This article has been tagged since December 2006. In contrast, a utilitarian approach to law school ranking looks at the relative employment prospects of graduates of the various tiers. Typically, the most prestigious opportunities in the country (e.g., U.S. Supreme Court clerkships) are filled by graduates of elite law schools.[3] In addition, graduates of these schools typically find promising and geographically diverse employment opportunities upon graduation. Such schools may be considered top tier. The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C., (large image) The Supreme Court of the United States, located in Washington, D.C., is the highest court (see supreme court) in the United States; that is, it has ultimate judicial authority within the United States...
As one moves down the “ranking” of the law schools, a higher class rank is typically required to achieve top jobs.
Regional tiers and lower-tier national schools Most law schools outside the top tier are more regional in scope and often have very strong regional connections to these post-graduation opportunities. For example, a student graduating from a lower-tier law school may find opportunities in that school’s “home market”: the legal market containing many of that school’s alumni, where most of the school’s networking and career development energies are focused. In contrast, an upper-tier law school may be limited in terms of employment opportunities to the broad geographic region that the law school feeds.
A handful of law schools outside the top tiers are national in scope, mainly those that cater to a unique student niche—such as law schools operated by historically black colleges and universities, or schools with a strong conservative Christian orientation, among them Ave Maria School of Law (Catholic) and the law school at Regent University (Protestant). For example, the class that entered Ave Maria Law in fall 2006 had students from 37 states[4] and the class that entered Regent Law at the same time had students from 39 states.[5] Also, only 21% of the students who entered Regent Law in 2006 were residents of the school's home state of Virginia.[5] In the United States, Historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) are colleges or universities that were established before 1964 with the intention of serving the African American community. ...
Ave Maria School of Law, a Roman Catholic law school, is located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. ...
Regent University is a fully accredited institution of higher education founded upon and guided by Christian principles. ...
Official language(s) English Capital Richmond Largest city Virginia Beach Area Ranked 35th - Total 42,793 sq mi (110,862 km²) - Width 200 miles (320 km) - Length 430 miles (690 km) - % water 7. ...
State-authorized schools Many schools are authorized or accredited by a state and some have been in continuous operation for over 95 years. Most are located in the states of Alabama, Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Puerto Rico. Some state authorized law schools are maintained to offer a non-ABA option eliminating costly ABA requirements seen as unnecessary by many of these states.
Unaccredited schools Many schools are not accredited by a state or the American Bar Association. Most are located in California. Many jurisdictions do not allow graduates of unaccredited law schools to sit for the bar examination.
Oldest law schools Law schools are listed from the dates from when they were first established. - Marshall-Wythe School of Law (College of William and Mary) established 1779
- Harvard Law School established 1817
- University of Virginia School of Law established 1826
- University of Cincinnati College of Law established 1833
- Dickinson School of Law (Pennsylvania State University) established 1834
- New York University School of Law established 1835
- Indiana University School of Law - Bloomington established 1842
- Yale Law School established 1843
- Saint Louis University School of Law established in 1843 (closed in 1843 and reopened in 1908)
- University of North Carolina School of Law established in 1845
- Louis D. Brandeis School of Law (University of Louisville) established 1846
- Tulane University School of Law established in 1847
- Cumberland School of Law established in 1847
- Washington and Lee School of Law established 1849
- University of Pennsylvania Law School established 1850
- Albany Law School established 1851
- Columbia Law School established 1858
- University of Georgia School of Law established 1859
- University of Michigan Law School established 1859
- The George Washington University Law School established 1865
- Washington University School of Law established 1867
- University of South Carolina School of Law established 1867
- University of Wisconsin Law School established 1868
- University of Notre Dame Law School established 1869
- University of Maryland School of Law established 1870
- University of Richmond School of Law established 1870
- University of Alabama School of Law established 1872
- University of Missouri, Columbia established 1872
- West Virginia University College of Law established 1878
- University of California, Hastings College of the Law established 1878
- Valparaiso University School of Law established 1879
- Willamette University College of Law established 1883
- University of Texas School of Law established 1883
- University of Oregon School of Law established 1884
- Boston University School of Law established 1872
- Mercer University School of Law established 1873
- Chicago-Kent College of the Law established 1888
- University of Washington School of Law established 1889
- New York Law School established 1891
- University of Colorado School of Law established 1892
- Stanford Law School established 1893
- University of California, Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law established 1894
- Indiana University School of Law established 1895
- DePaul University College of Law established 1897
- Northeastern University School of Law established 1898
- John Marshall Law School established 1899
- Stetson University College of Law established 1900
- Brooklyn Law School established 1901
- Duke University School of Law established 1904
- Louisiana State University School of Law established 1906
- Loyola University College of Law established 1908
- New England School of Law established 1908
- Southwestern Law School established 1911
- Nashville School of Law established 1911
- Lewis & Clark Law School established 1915
- Birmingham School of Law established 1915
- Emory University School of Law established 1916
- Western New England College School of Law established 1919
- University of Connecticut School of Law established 1921
- South Texas College of Law established 1923
- Rutgers School of Law - Camden established 1926
- Wayne State University Law School established 1927
- Villanova University School of Law established 1953
The Marshall-Wythe School of Law, more commonly known as William & Mary Law School (W&M Law), located in Williamsburg, Virginia, is a top-tier law school in the United States. ...
The College of William and Mary (also known as William & Mary, W&M or The College) is a small, selective, coeducational public university located in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. ...
Harvard Law School, often referred to in shorthand as Harvard Law or HLS, is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. ...
The University of Virginia School of Law was founded in Charlottesville in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson as one of the original subjects taught at his academical village, the University of Virginia. ...
The University of Cincinnati College of Law is the fourth oldest continually running law school in the United States and a founding member of the Association of American Law Schools. ...
The Dickinson School of Law is located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and is the law school of The Pennsylvania State University. ...
The Pennsylvania State University (commonly known as Penn State) is a state-related, land-grant university. ...
Vanderbilt Courtyard The New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University. ...
The Indiana University School of Law — Bloomington is a law school located in Bloomington, Indiana. ...
The Sterling Law Building Sculptural ornamentation on the Sterling Law Building Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. ...
Saint Louis University School of Law is one of the professional graduate schools of Saint Louis University. ...
University of North Carolina School of Law is a school within the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. ...
The Louis D. Brandeis School of Law is the law school of the University of Louisville. ...
The University of Louisville (also known as U of L) is a public, state-supported university located in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. ...
Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana. ...
It has been suggested that Cumberland Law Schools Center for Biotechnology, Law and Ethics be merged into this article or section. ...
The Washington and Lee University School of Law is a private law school located in Lexington, Virginia. ...
Silverman Hall of the University of Pennsylvania Law School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania Law School is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania. ...
Albany Law School is an ABA accredited law school based in Albany, New York. ...
Columbia Law School, located in the New York City borough of Manhattan, is one of the professional schools of Columbia University, a member of the Ivy League, and one of the leading law schools in the United States. ...
The University of Georgia School of Law is an American Bar Association-accredited law school located in Athens, Georgia on the campus of the University of Georgia. ...
An aerial view of the Law Quadrangle at the University of Michigan. ...
The George Washington University Law School, commonly referred to as GW Law, was founded in 1865 and is the oldest law school in the District of Columbia. ...
Anheuser-Busch Hall the main Law school building Washington University School of Law, is a private American law school located in Clayton, Missouri. ...
Founded in 1867, the University of South Carolina School of Law remains in downtown Columbia. ...
The University of Wisconsin Law School is the professional school for the study of law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Madison, Wisconsin. ...
University of Maryland School of Law is a law school located in downtown Baltimore, Maryland. ...
View of Richmond law The University of Richmond School of Law (T.C. Williams School of Law) is located in Richmond, Virginia. ...
This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...
The University of Missouri-Columbia (abbreviated UMC and nicknamed Mizzou) is an institution of higher learning located in Columbia, Missouri and is the main campus in the University of Missouri system. ...
University of California, Hastings College of the Law is a law school located in downtown San Francisco, California. ...
The Valparaiso University School of Law (known colloquially as Valpo Law) is located on the campus of Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana. ...
Willamette University College of Law is a private law school located in Salem, Oregon. ...
The University of Texas School of Law is an ABA-certified American law school located on The University of Texas at Austin campus. ...
The University of Oregon School of Law is Oregons state funded law school. ...
Boston University School of Law (BU Law) is the law school affiliated with Boston University. ...
The University of Washington, School of Law is the law school of the University of Washington. ...
New York Law School is a private law school in Lower Manhattan in New York City. ...
The University of Colorado School of Law is one of the professional graduate schools within the University of Colorado System. ...
Stanford Law School is a graduate school at Stanford University located near Palo Alto, California in Silicon Valley. ...
Sather tower (the Campanile) looking out over the San Francisco Bay and Mount Tamalpais. ...
Boalt Halls law library was expanded in 1996 with the North Addition, pictured above. ...
Indiana University School of Law is referring to either Indiana University School of Law - Bloomington, or Indiana University School of Law - Indianapolis Category: ...
DePaul University College of Law DePaul University College of Law is a law school located in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Founded in 1912, the school is one of the academic entities of DePaul University and is part of its Chicago Loop Campus. ...
The original mission of the school – to provide Boston’s first evening law school program for students who could not attend full-time day classes – seems reasonable today, but it was a revolutionary moment when Professor Robert Gray Dodge delivered the school’s first lecture in...
The John Marshall Law School is the name of two unrelated law schools, both named in honor of John Marshall. ...
Stetson Law Schools Logo // History Stetson University College of Law, founded in 1900, is Floridas first law school. ...
Brooklyn Law School Brooklyn Law School (BLS) is a law school located in downtown Brooklyn, New York. ...
The Duke University School of Law is the law school and a constituent academic unit of Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, United States. ...
The New England School of Law (NESL) is located in Boston, Massachusetts in the theater district. ...
The Bullocks Wilshire Building on the campus of the Southwestern University School of Law The Southwestern University School of Law (also known as Southwestern Law School) is a private ABA-accredited law school located in Los Angeles, California, with about 1000 students at a campus that includes the Bullocks Wilshire...
The Nashville School of Law is a freestanding and independent law school located in Nashville, Tennessee. ...
Lewis and Clark Law School offers trditional J.D. and J.D.s within the following specialty areas: Business and Commercial Law, Criminal Law, Intellectual Property Law, Environmental and Natural Resources Law, Tax Law. ...
The Birmingham School of Law is a law school in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. ...
Emory University School of Law is a top-tier U.S. law school, part of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. ...
Western New England College School of Law is a private, American Bar Association-accredited law school in Springfield, Massachusetts, the only ABA-accredited law school in Massachusetts outside the greater Boston area. ...
The University of Connecticut School of Law is a public law school located in Hartford, Connecticut and is the only public law school in Connecticut and among only two in New England. ...
South Texas College of Law is a private American Bar Association (ABA) accredited law school and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). ...
Rutgers School of Law-Camden is one of two law schools of Rutgers University. ...
Wayne State University Law School is located in the City of Detroit’s Cultural Center, and is a schools of Wayne State University. ...
Villanova University is a private, Catholic university located in Radnor Township, a suburb northwest of Philadelphia on the Pennsylvania Main Line. ...
See also // This is a list of law schools in the United States. ...
Law schools in the United States grade on a curve. ...
This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
This article or section seems not to be written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia entry. ...
// The United States Reports, the official reporter of the Supreme Court of the United States Case citation is the system used in common law countries such as the United States, England and Wales, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Australia and India to uniquely identify the location of past court...
The Law School Admissions Council is a nonprofit organization whose members are 202 law schools throughout the United States and Canada. ...
Faculty of law is another name for a law school or school of law, the terms commonly used in the United States. ...
References - ^ Heather Mac Donald. "Clinical, Cynical." The Wall Street Journal. January 11, 2006; Page A14.
- ^ Brian Leiter, Supreme Court Clerkship Placement, 1991 Through 2005 Terms, Leiter's Law School Rankings, Accessed April 26, 2006
- ^ http://www.leiterrankings.com/jobs/1996_06_scotus_clerks.shtml
- ^ Entering Class Profile. Ave Maria School of Law. Retrieved on November 21, 2006.
- ^ a b Regent Law Admissions home page. Regent University School of Law. Retrieved on November 21, 2006.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is an influential international daily newspaper published in New York City, New York with a worldwide average daily circulation of more than 2. ...
January 11 is the 11th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ...
Brian Leiter (born 1963) is an American professor of law and philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, where he has been teaching since 1995. ...
November 21 is the 325th day of the year (326th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ...
November 21 is the 325th day of the year (326th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ...
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