Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
The information on this page was provided by the law school.
Official Guide to ABA-Approved JD Programs
At this moment of change in our society and the legal profession, Northwestern Pritzker Law is building its next chapter of innovation that makes a difference. We are preparing our students to lead, creating novel interdisciplinary partnerships, advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion, and building new social justice collaborations.
Northwestern Pritzker Law leads in interdisciplinary and social justice research and teaching:
- Over 50% of our research faculty have PhD's who produce impactful scholarship
- Low student to faculty ratio
- Innovative joint degrees at the intersection of law, business, and technology
- Leading clinical program that changes law and advances justice and access to justice
- Mentoring programs for students from historically underrepresented groups
- Downtown Chicago location helps support innovative partnerships across Chicago, nation, and world
- Global alumni network of over 17,000 across more than 90 countries
The JD Program
In the rigorous first year of study, Northwestern Pritzker Law provides a foundation in legal reasoning, analysis, and writing, as well as a thorough understanding of the structures and policies of the law. Communication, teamwork, cross-training in business, and experiential learning are also hallmarks of the Northwestern Law curriculum. The Law School’s size enables students to build one-on-one relationships with faculty, with required first-year courses taught in sections of approximately 60 students.
The JD program requires 85 semester hours of credit. The broad and flexible curriculum gives upper-level students the opportunity to specialize in particular areas, to pursue advanced research in legal theory, or to pursue a range of hands-on simulation, externship, and live-client opportunities. The Owen L. Coon/James A. Rahl Senior Research Program enables third-year students to do individual research under the supervision of a professor, using library, field, and interdisciplinary research methods.
Clinical Programs
In Northwestern Pritzker Law’s comprehensive clinical program, students learn strong litigation and negotiation skills and gain direct experience representing clients and reforming laws. The innovative simulation-based curriculum gives students the skills they need to negotiate and communicate effectively, solve problems, prepare briefs, examine witnesses, present evidence, and argue cases.
Housing more than 20 clinics within 13 centers, the Bluhm Legal Clinic is widely recognized as one of the best legal clinics in the country. The clinic centers are nationally recognized for their direct involvement in legal reform. They include
- Appellate Advocacy Center
- Center for Criminal Defense
- Center for Externships
- Center for International Human Rights
- Center on Negotiation and Mediation
- Center on Wrongful Convictions
- Children and Family Justice Center
- Civil Litigation Center
- Environmental Advocacy Center
- Fred Bartlit Center for Trial Advocacy
- Investor Protection Center
- Roderick MacArthur Justice Center
Students represent underserved clients as well as challenge the fairness of our legal institutions and propose solutions for reform. Working in teams, they assist small business owners and prepare cases in juvenile justice, immigration and asylum, and criminal matters. In addition to fine-tuning their skills as advocates, they often effect change in the law and legal institutions.
Additionally, the Donald Pritzker Entrepreneurship Law Center (DPELC), originally founded as the Small Business Opportunity Center more than 15 years ago, created one of the first programs in the United States to provide intensive, hands-on training for students who want to be transactional lawyers or founders of start-up companies. Since that time the DPELC has served hundreds of entrepreneurs while educating future lawyers about entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial thinking through a variety of traditional, clinical, and simulation-based course offerings, a marquee annual conference, a speaker series, and workshops and outreach efforts in the entrepreneurship community.
Special Degree and International Programs
A combined program in law and business, jointly offered with Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, enables students to earn both a JD from the Law School and an MBA degree from Kellogg after only three years of study. Students may also enroll in a highly integrated six-year JD-PhD program with the Law School and one of the graduate school departments.
Students who wish to specialize in the study of tax law can earn an LLM in Taxation or pursue a JD and an LLM in Taxation at the same time. Students educated outside the United States can earn an LLM through a 9-month program of advanced study. Legal and business professionals abroad can earn an LLM degree from Northwestern through our Executive LLM Programs in Seoul, South Korea; Madrid, Spain; and Tel Aviv, Israel.
Northwestern Law offers a unique Master of Science in Law (MSL) degree designed specifically for professionals with backgrounds in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math) and medicine who wish to study intellectual property and patent design, business law and entrepreneurship, or regulatory analysis and strategy.
Student Life
Student Activities
Northwestern Pritzker Law students take an intense and energetic interest in their community and education. Six scholarly journals are available for research, writing, and editing. Students automatically belong to the Student Bar Association, which gives them a voice in curriculum and administration, and students have an opportunity to participate in more than 50 student organizations. Our students also enjoy Chicago’s sophisticated yet friendly atmosphere, along with its world-class cultural, sports, and entertainment offerings. Northwestern’s 20-acre Chicago campus is nestled between the shores of Lake Michigan, the energy of Michigan Avenue’s Magnificent Mile, and the elegant Gold Coast residential area.
Career Placement and Bar Passage
Learn more about career placement at
Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
Tuition and Aid
Northwestern Pritzker Law administers an extensive program of grants and scholarships, all of which are awarded on a combined basis of merit and financial need. These awards are available through endowed funds, gifts from alumni, and general funds from the university. Detailed instructions and forms for completing the financial aid application can be found on our website.
For graduates who accept lower-paying public interest jobs and have substantial education debt, Northwestern Law offers an innovative Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP), developed and revised by a group of students, administrators, and faculty. Our current LRAP will allow many Northwestern Law graduates who remain in public service work for 10 years not to use any of their own funds for federal education debt repayment.