College of Law

University of Cincinnati-Main Campus, College of Law History

University of Cincinnati College of Law was established in 1833 and is a public institution. The 473-acre campus is in an urban area in the Clifton area of Cincinnati. The primary mission of the law school is to provide students with an opportunity to equip themselves for effective and creative participation in the roles lawyers play in society. Students have access to federal, state, county, city, and local agencies, courts, correctional facilities, law firms, and legal aid organizations in the Cincinnati area. Students also have access to a variety of legal externships in Cincinnati and several clinical opportunities. Facilities of special interest to law students are the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the District Court for the Southern District of Ohio; the 3000-plus members of the Cincinnati Bar Association; the more than 300 law firms; and the Legal Aid Society of Cincinnati. Housing for students is plentiful, and most law students live off campus in housing within walking distance of campus. The average rent is about $550 a month for a single apartment. All law school facilities are accessible to the physically disabled.

University of Cincinnati-Main Campus, College of Law Academics

Students may take relevant courses in other programs and apply credit toward the J.D.; a maximum of 8 credits may be applied. The following joint degrees may be earned: J.D./M.A. (Juris Doctor/Master of Arts in women’s studies), J.D./M.B.A. (Juris Doctor/Master of Business Administration), J.D./M.C.P. (Juris Doctor/Master of Community Planning), J.D./M.S.W. (Juris Doctor/Master of Social Work), and J.D./Ph.D. (Juris Doctor/Doctor of Philosophy in political science).

The College of Law offers concentrations in corporate law, criminal law, environmental law, international law, litigation, tax law, and international human rights. In addition, clinics include Sixth Circuit, Domestic Violence, and Ohio Innocence Project. Seminar topics include corporate law, constitutional law, and jurisprudence topics. An externship program is offered to 50 or 60 students and is worth 3 credit hours. Both judicial and legal externships are available. Individual research projects are also available. Speakers can be heard at the Human Rights Institute, which invites international human rights scholars, the Center for Corporate Law, Institute for Law and Psychiatry, and the Corporate Law symposium. The college has a student exchange program with the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. An academic success program is also available. The most widely taken electives are Corporations, Wills, and Secured Transactions.

To earn the J.D., candidates must complete 90 total credits, of which 36 are for required courses. They must maintain a minimum GPA of 2.0 in the required courses. The following first-year courses are required of all students: Advocacy, Civil Procedure I and II, Constitutional Law I and II, Contracts, Criminal Law, Introduction to Law, Legal Research and Writing, Property, and Torts. Required upper-level courses consist of a seminar requirement, lawyering course, and writing requirements. Externships or a clinical experience are strongly encouraged. The required orientation program for first-year students is 1 week and includes the Introduction to Law course, registration, assignment of faculty and student advisers, a meeting with student advisers, a social event with upper-level students, information about the law library, and bar association membership opportunities.

In order to graduate, candidates must have a GPA of 2.0, have completed the upper-division writing requirement, and have completed the Lawyering course.

University of Cincinnati-Main Campus, College of Law Unique Programs

Library

The law library contains 428,753 hard-copy volumes and 875,904 microform volume equivalents. The Law Library has 2,643 subscriptions in print, plus shared access to more than 6,000 electronic titles. Such on-line databases and networks as CALI, CIS Universe, LEXIS, NEXIS, OCLC First Search, WESTLAW, and HeinOnline, WORLDCAT, OHIOLINK, BNA Direct, JSTOR, ARTSTOR, FACTIVA, ABI/INFORM, ACADEMIC SEARCH COMPLETE, and many more are available to law students for research. Special library collections include The Urban Morgan Human Rights Collection; the Segoe Collection on Land Use and Urban Planning; the Goldstein Collection on the Law of Church and State; manuscript collections: papers of William J. Butler, papers of Nathaniel R. Jones, records of Ohio 1987 Merit Plan constitutional amendment campaign regarding judicial selection, and a selective depository for U.S. federal government documents. Recently, the library updated network and web file servers, replaced all 35 computer lab workstations, expanded wireless network access, and purchased a digital scanner/printer for microfiche and microfilm. The ratio of library volumes to faculty is 12,993 to 1 and to students is 1201 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 offering a diverse student body, faculty, and curriculum. Students from across a wide spectrum of ideas and ethnicities are attracted to this diverse program. The College of Law is very affordable and particular attention is given to providing competitive financial aid packages. 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 supply their class rank, give the reason(s) for the transfer, and generally be in the top 20% of the class.

University of Cincinnati-Main Campus, College of Law Admissions

In the fall 2007 first-year class, 1293 applied, 454 were accepted, and 120 enrolled. Twenty transfers enrolled. The median LSAT percentile of the most recent first-year class was 82; the median GPA was 3.63 on a scale of 4.0. The lowest LSAT percentile accepted was 13; the highest was 99.

Applicants must have a bachelor’s degree and take the LSAT. The most important admission factors include GPA, LSAT results, and academic achievement. A 6-member committee reads all files in their entirety under a fall review process. No specific undergraduate courses are required. Candidates are not interviewed.

The application deadline for fall entry is March 1. Applicants should submit an application form, LSAT results, transcripts, a personal statement, TOEFL for international applicants, WES transcript analysis, a nonrefundable application fee of $35, and 2 (through LSAC) letters of recommendation. Notification of the admissions decision is on a rolling basis. The latest acceptable LSAT test date for fall entry is February. The law school uses the LSDAS.

University of Cincinnati-Main Campus, College of Law Financial Aid

About 90% of current law students receive some form of aid. The average annual amount of aid from all sources combined, including scholarships, loans, and work contracts, is $25,000; maximum, $34,000. Awards are based on Scholarships are awarded in an effort to attract an academically talented and diverse student body. Required financial statements are the FAFSA and scholarship application. The aid application deadline for fall entry is March 1. First-year students are notified about their financial aid application within 2 weeks of acceptance.

University of Cincinnati-Main Campus, College of Law Students

About 46% of the student body are women; 17%, minorities; 8%, African American; 5%, Asian American; 3%, Hispanic; and 1%, Native American. The majority of students come from Ohio (65%). The average age of entering students is 24; age range is 20 to 43. About 60% of students enter directly from undergraduate school, 10% have a graduate degree, and 40% have worked full-time prior to entering law school. About 1% drop out after the first year for academic or personal reasons; 96% remain to receive a law degree.

Students edit the University of Cincinnati Law Review, Immigration and Nationality Law Review, Human Rights Quarterly, and Freedom Center Journal. Students compete at the Jessup International Law Moot Court, the J. Braxton Craven, Jr. Memorial Moot Court, and the Giles Sutherland Rich Moot Court in patent law. Also, the College of Law hosts the National Product Liability Competition and participates in all other national competitions. Law student organizations include the ABA-Law Student Division, International Law Society, and Intellectual Property Society. There are local chapters of Order of the Barristers and Order of the Coif.

The law school operates on a traditional semester basis. Courses for full-time students are offered days only. There is no part-time program. New students are admitted in the fall. There is no summer session. Transferable summer courses are offered.