Law School

University of Chicago, Law School History

University of Chicago Law School was established in 1902 and is a private institution. The 203-acre campus is in an urban area 7 miles from downtown Chicago. The primary mission of the law school is to train well-rounded, critical, and socially conscious thinkers and doers. Three cornerstones provide the foundation for Chicago’s educational mission: the life of the mind, participatory learning, and interdisciplinary inquiry. Students have access to federal, state, county, city, and local agencies, courts, correctional facilities, law firms, and legal aid organizations in the Chicago area. The clinics involve more than 100 students each year and permit them to represent clients with real-world legal problems under the guidance of clinical faculty. Facilities of special interest to law students include the law quadrangle, made up of buildings surrounding a reflecting pool and housing the law library, classrooms, offices, the legal aid clinics, an auditorium, and a moot court room. Housing for students consists of dormitories and a variety of apartments and single-family homes located in nearby Hyde Park. About 90% of the law school facilities are accessible to the physically disabled.

University of Chicago, Law School Academics

In addition to the J.D., the law school offers the LL.M., M.C.L., J.S.D., and D.C.L. Students may take relevant courses in other programs and apply credit toward the J.D.; a maximum of 12 credits may be applied.

Clinics available to second- and third-year students include the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic, the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship, and the Exoneration Project. Seventy-two seminars are open to second- and third-year law students. The Career Services Center helps students locate summer internships. Nearly all of first-year students and 97% of second-year students are employed during the summer. The Chicago Law Foundation, a student-run charitable organization, awards grants to students working in public-interest jobs during the summer. Faculty-supervised research may be done in the individual research program for credit. Lectures, open to the law school community, occur several times a year in workshops such as Constitutional Law, International Law, and Law and Economics. Academic counselors and the Associate Director of Student Affairs provide academic programming and counseling for students. The most widely taken electives are Evidence, Constitutional Law, and Corporations Law.

To earn the J.D., candidates must complete 105 total credits, of which 40 are for required courses. They must maintain a minimum GPA of 1.68 in the required courses. The following first-year courses are required of all students: 1 elective, Civil Procedure, Contracts, Criminal Law, Elements of the Law, Legal Research and Writing, Property, and Torts. Required upper-level courses consist of Professional Responsibility. The optional orientation program for first-year students consists of 3 days of presentations, tours, and social events, including a dinner, a Lake Michigan boat cruise, and a picnic.

In order to graduate, candidates must have a GPA of 1.68, have completed the upper-division writing requirement, and Professional Responsibility course.

University of Chicago, Law School Unique Programs

Library

The law library contains 632,325 hard-copy volumes and 11,620 microform volume equivalents, and subscribes to 6212 serial publications. Such on-line databases and networks as CALI, CIS Universe, DIALOG, Dow-Jones, Infotrac, Legal-Trac, LEXIS, NEXIS, OCLC First Search, RLIN, and WESTLAW are available to law students for research. Special library collections include a federal document depository, Supreme Court briefs and records, and Karl Llewellyn Papers. Recently, the library updated to a new integrated on-line catalog for all campus libraries. The ratio of library volumes to faculty is 12,905 to 1 and to students is 950 to 1. The ratio of seats in the library to students is 1 to 1.

Special Consideration

The law school recruits minority and disadvantaged students by using the Law School Data Assembly Service’s Candidate Referral Service and outreach at law school forums, colleges, and minority fairs. Requirements are not different for out-of-state students. Transfer students must have one year of credit, have attended an ABA-approved law school, and must be planning to spend at least 2 years at the school.

University of Chicago, Law School Admissions

In the fall 2007 first-year class, 4798 applied, 777 were accepted, and 190 enrolled. Sixteen transfers enrolled. The median LSAT percentile of the most recent first-year class was 98; the median GPA was 3.64 on a scale of 4.0.

Applicants must have a bachelor’s degree and take the LSAT. No specific undergraduate courses are required. Candidates are interviewed.

Applicants should submit an application form, LSAT results, transcripts, a nonrefundable application fee of $75, 2 letters of recommendation, a personal statement, and a resum

University of Chicago, Law School Financial Aid

About 85% of current law students receive some form of aid. Awards are based on need and merit. Required financial statement is the FAFSA. The aid application deadline for fall entry is March 1.

University of Chicago, Law School Students

About 45% of the student body are women; 24%, minorities; 7%, African American; 13%, Asian American; 10%, Hispanic; and 1%, Native American. The majority of students come from the Midwest (29%). The average age of entering students is 24; age range is 21 to 42. About 29% of students enter directly from undergraduate school. About 1% drop out after the first year for academic or personal reasons; 99% remain to receive a law degree.

Students edit The University of Chicago Law Review, The University of Chicago Legal Forum, The University of Chicago Roundtable, and The Chicago Journal of International Law. There are 4 faculty-edited journals: the Supreme Court Review, Journal of Law and Economics, Journal of Legal Studies, and Law and Economics: Working Papers. The student newspaper is The Phoenix. While first-year students have moot court practice in their Legal Research and Writing class, upper-level students participate in the Hinton Moot Court Program and selected outside moot court competitions. Other competitions include the annual trivia contest. The school has about 60 student organizations that include the Intellectual Property and Entertainment Law Society and the International Law Society. Local chapters of national associations include the Black Law Students Association, the Federalist Society, and American Constitution Society. Other organizations include Habitat for Humanity, the Hemingway Society, and the Scales of Justice.

The law school operates on a quarter basis. Courses for full-time students are offered days only and must be completed within 3-year course of study. There is no part-time program. New students are admitted in the fall. There is no summer session. Transferable summer courses are not offered.