The University of Chicago Law School

What distinguishes UChicago faculty is their devotion to both teaching and scholarship. This might seem a contradiction at first, but at UChicago, teaching and scholarship complement each other. UChicago professors blaze trails in legal thought, and their revolutionary ideas infuse classroom discussion with immediacy and excitement. Our professors write the books, draft the statutes, and decide the cases that students read at law schools across America. In any given academic year, our faculty  teach more than 200 courses and seminars at the Law School.

UChicago Law is on the Quarter System. The Quarter System allows students to take more courses than under a traditional semester system. In the first year, you will take the core law school courses:  contracts, torts, property, criminal law, civil procedure, and a yearlong course on research and writing. In addition, the Quarter System allows for additional courses :a unique interdisciplinary course called Elements of the Law; a transactional lawyering course, a legislative and statutory course, a constitutional law course, and an elective.. This curriculum provides a general foundation of legal knowledge, cultivates your legal reasoning, develops your writing ability, and introduces you to interdisciplinary approaches to the law.

In the second and third years, you can choose courses from the full range of UChicago’s more than 200 classes. Generally, classes are small; more than 80 percent have fewer than 25 students in them. Additionally, in an average year, about one-third of the second- and third-year students take classes in other divisions of the university. We do not ask our students to choose a concentration, but rather let them put together a personalized education based on their individual interests.

Housed in the Arthur Kane Center, our clinics involve more than 225 students each year in representing clients with real-world problems. The Mandel Legal Aid Clinic handles matters involving appellate advocacy, criminal and juvenile justice, employment discrimination, environmental law, civil rights, housing, immigration, and federal criminal law. The Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship assists aspiring entry-level entrepreneurs from low-and moderate-income neighborhoods. The Kirkland & Ellis Corporate Lab provides students real-world legal and business experience working on cutting-edge projects with multinational companies. Other clinical projects include the Exoneration Project, which provides representation to clients who are asserting their actual innocence in state and federal court; the Prosecution and Defense Clinic, where students combine in-class intensive criminal law study with a clinical placement in a prosecutor’s or public defender’s office; the Global Human Rights Clinic, where students advocate for clients before government and nongovernmental organizations around the world on human rights issues; and the Innovation Clinic, which offers entrepreneurs in the University of Chicago’s Chicago Innovation Exchange Business Incubator Program assistance with legal issues common to start-ups. Our Jenner & Block Supreme Court and Appellate Clinic allows students to gain experience in Supreme Court and other appellate cases.

Students may also apply to an accelerated three-year joint JD/MBA program or to one of four formal dual-degree programs either at the same time they apply to the Law School or during their first year. Formal dual-degree programs are with the Booth School of Business (MBA, PhD), the Harris School of Public Policy (MPP), and the Divinity School (MDiv). Students may also work with law school and university staff to arrange concurrent degrees in other areas.

The Law School encourages interdisciplinary work. Students are allowed and encouraged to take 12 hours of coursework anywhere in the university and count it toward their JD degrees.

All entering students participate in the Kapnick Leadership Development Initiative, which immerses students in leadership training from their first days at the Law School and prepares students to take important leadership roles in whatever professional fields they choose.

The Doctoroff Business Leadership Program provides 15 students in each class the opportunity to get a substantial business education within the Law School without adding extra time to their degrees. This certificate program includes coursework, mentoring, internships, and other special opportunities. The courses from the Doctoroff Program are open to all students wishing to get a strong grounding in business. Students interested in applying must apply through the main JD application on LSAC. 

UChicago Law offers the Graduate Program in Health Administration and Policy (GPHAP) in coordination with the Booth School of Business, Harris School of Public Policy, and Crown School of Social Work. Law students can earn a Certificate in Health Administration and Policy while simultaneously obtaining a JD. The GPHAP is a certificate program designed to train and prepare future leaders in health care, and it draws together students and faculty from various fields for the purpose of providing students with deep interdisciplinary training in policy, management, finance, and social service delivery.  Health lawyers play an important role in many aspects of the health care field, including: health law practices in firms, serving as in-house lawyers in health care organizations, addressing issues related to health care reform in all settings, pharmaceutical policy and administration, medical device policy and administration, medical innovation, public health, health care regulation and accreditation, and much more.  GPHAP also has a global health track for students interested in international law and health. Any law student interested in the program is encouraged to apply before the beginning of their second year of law school. 

About 40 percent of upper-class students serve on one of the four student-edited journals, which include the University of Chicago Law Review, the University of Chicago Legal Forum,  the Chicago Journal of International Law, and the University of Chicago Business Law Review. The Hinton Moot Court Board conducts a program in appellate advocacy for upper-class students, and first-year students participate in a moot court as part of the Bigelow Legal Research and Writing Program.