Loyola University Chicago School of Law

Introduction

The School of Law is located on the Water Tower Campus of the university, a few blocks north of the Chicago Loop. This campus adjoins Michigan Avenue at the historical Water Tower, a Chicago landmark, in approximately the center of the renowned Magnificent Mile, a commercial center over which the John Hancock Center towers. This location provides ready access to the state and federal courts and to the offices of most other institutions of federal, state, and local government, as well as the cultural centers of Chicago. The school became a member of the AALS in 1924, and was approved by the ABA in 1925. The School of Law celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2008.

Library and Facilities

The Philip H. Corboy Law Center, at 25 East Pearson Street, provides Loyola’s law students with a modern and enhanced learning environment. The School of Law library is located on floors three through five of the Law Center. More than 400,000 volumes enhance Loyola’s broad-based law curriculum and support the varied research needs of students and faculty. Offering custom-designed furnishings and custom carrels, the 43,900-square-foot facility creates a comfortable and accommodating atmosphere for users. The library is open 100 hours each week, with expanded hours during examination periods. The law library is fully staffed with professional librarians and paraprofessionals to assist students and faculty.

Across the street from the Law Center is a 25-story, 600-bed residence hall, Baumhart Hall, which opened in fall 2006. This structure enables graduate, professional, and undergraduate student residents to experience contemporary living in fully furnished apartments. Amenities include a 24-hour security staff, a food court and late-night café, a fitness center, wireless access in apartment bedrooms and public areas, and a laundry room equipped with “smart system” washers and dryers. Rent includes all utilities, heat and air-conditioning, cable, and high-speed Internet access.

Foreign Study Programs

Since 1983, the School of Law has offered a program of international and comparative law courses at the John Felice Rome Center, the university’s campus in Rome, Italy. Each summer, for approximately four weeks, law students can take one or more of the courses offered in Rome by members of Loyola’s law faculty.

In 1988, Loyola inaugurated its London Comparative Advocacy Program in which students travel to London between semesters for approximately 15 days to become immersed in the world of the British barrister.

In spring 2003, Loyola inaugurated an immersion program at Universidad Alberto Hurtado, a Jesuit law school in Santiago, Chile.

Each spring semester, approximately 20 students travel with faculty members in a service-learning program to one of the world’s developing countries. In past years, the Global Law Seminar has been conducted in Tanzania, India, Vietnam, Thailand, South Africa, and Turkey.

In summer 2008, Loyola inaugurated a summer program in China. In addition to time in the classroom, students hear from guest lecturers and experience guided excursions to sites in Beijing and the surrounding areas.

Clinical Legal Education

For students, faculty, and alumni, Loyola’s legal clinics represent a valuable bridge between theory and practice, classroom and career. Through the clinics, the School of Law offers service to others in a way that gives them dignity while providing students with practical legal experience. Loyola’s clinical program began in 1983 with the founding of its Community Law Center Clinic, followed later by the Federal Tax Clinic, Child and Family Law Clinic, Business Law Clinic, Health Justice Project, and the Legislation and Policy Clinic.

Special Opportunities

The School of Law has dual-degree programs with the School of Social Work, the Department of Political Science, the School of Education, Master of Public Policy Program, and the Quinlan School of Business. Automatic acceptance into the master of political science program is granted to candidates admitted to the School of Law. Provisional admission to the MBA program is granted based upon LSAT score and law school grades. The multidegree programs are structured to allow completion after four years. Loyola offers accelerated LLM programs in health law, child and family law, and taxation to JD students who fulfill program requirements. Recognizing the increasing need for specialization in legal education and practice, the school offers specialized curricula in key areas: International Law and Practice, Health Law, Child and Family Law, Advocacy, Tax Law, Public Interest, Compliance Studies, and Transactional Law.

Civitas ChildLaw Center

The Civitas ChildLaw Center was created in 1993 to prepare law students to represent abused and neglected children. The center is the first of its kind at any American law school; it was the recipient of the National Association of Counsel for Children 1996 Outstanding Legal Advocacy Award, and it draws on the full resources of Loyola University, including the schools of medicine, social work, and education. The program includes an LLM degree and a master’s degree program for professionals who work with children and families.

The center houses our renowned Education Law and Policy Institute, offering students an integrated curriculum in education law, interdisciplinary research, and outreach experiences, with the opportunity to represent children confronting barriers to educational equality. Law students also may obtain a unique dual degree with the School of Education, which will result in a JD and MA in Comparative Education.

The law school and Teach for America (TFA) have entered into a partnership. TFA corps members who are interested in using their legal education to advocate for children’s legal interests and well-being may receive matching AmeriCorps Awards.

Annually, child and family law fellows are selected from the entering law class. One fellowship is reserved for a TFA corps member. Each fellow receives financial support.

Beazley Institute for Health Law and Policy

The Beazley Institute for Health Law and Policy was created in 1984 in recognition of the need for an academic forum to study the field of health law and to act as a vehicle to foster dialogue between the law and the health sciences. Through the institute, the law school offers an SJD in Health Law and Policy and an LLM in Health Law. In addition, it offers the first Master of Jurisprudence (MJ) in Health Law, providing health care professionals with an intensive overview in health law. More than 50 health law classes are offered at the law school, both on campus and online.

Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies

The Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies is an independent, academically based institute designed to explore the effect of antitrust and consumer law enforcement on the individual consumer and the general public. The institute was founded by a grant from the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and is supported by Loyola and private donors.

Advocacy

Loyola prepares its students for careers of leadership at the bar and on the bench. For over 100 years, Loyola’s tradition of educating and training top litigators has produced some of the country’s most accomplished and recognized trial attorneys and judges. The Dan K. Webb Center for Advocacy is composed of a second-year required course in advocacy, courses in beginning and advanced trial advocacy, numerous moot court competitions, the Corboy Fellowship Program in Trial Advocacy for mock trial competitions, a wide variety of litigation-related courses, and an extensive curriculum in alternative dispute resolution. A certificate in advocacy is available for students who complete a menu of advocacy courses.

Symbolic of our advocacy success is our selection by the National Institute for Trial Advocacy as the site for two of its largest advocacy training programs: the Midwest Regional Trial Advocacy Program and the Midwest Regional Deposition Training Program.

Admission

Factors other than LSAT scores and college grades are considered. Such factors include work experience, personal goals, specialized education, and other evidence of the ability to contribute invaluable insight to law classes.

Career Services

The Career Resources Office assists students and alumni with career planning and employment selection. Seminars by practicing attorneys and alumni, résumé preparation, interviewing techniques, individual counseling, and job-search strategies are just some of the programs administered by the Career Resources Office.

A year-round, on-campus employer interview and recruitment program provides employment opportunities.

The School of Law is a member of NALP.

Cocurricular Activities

Students are encouraged to participate in cocurricular activities. There are six student-edited publications, including the Annals of Health Law, Children’s Legal Rights Journal, Consumer Law Review, International Law Review, Loyola University Chicago Law Journal, Loyola University Chicago Journal of Regulatory Compliance, and Public Interest Law Reporter. Students compete in more than 20 moot court and mock trial national and international competitions. All students are members of the Loyola Student Bar Association, the principal instrument of student government. There are over 30 student organizations devoted to legal practice, ethnic groups, or law student chapters of professional bar associations.