JURIS DOCTOR DEGREE

Degree Requirements 

In order to earn the Juris Doctor degree, students must satisfactorily meet the following academic requirements: Completion of 84 credit hours, 63 of which must have been taken for a letter grade; fulfillment of the residence requirement; completion of each course in the required curriculum with a passing grade; and maintenance of the minimum grade-point average of 1.67.

Course Scheduling Requirements for Full- and Part-Time Status

Full-time students (i.e., those registered for 12 or more credits in any se-mester) must take the majority of their credits in courses in the day unless an exception for good cause is granted by the dean of students. Registration in journals, skills competitions, outside placement, and clinical courses count as day credits. After completing courses in the required first-year curriculum, which must be taken in the evening, part-time students (i.e., those registered for a maximum of 11 credits) may take courses in the day or evening.

Transfer Between Full- and Part-Time Divisions

After the first semester, students may, with the permission of the dean of students, transfer from one division to another, but should be aware that there may be residency consequences.  Students initially admitted to the part-time division may, with the permission of the dean of students, transfer to the full-time division as early as their second semester. Students who are permitted to pursue this option after completion of the first semester must take all required courses in the eve-ning (except Professional Responsibility and Ethics, which may be scheduled as the student chooses after completion of two semesters of the re-quired first-year curriculum, and Criminal Law, which may be taken in the day during the spring semester of the first year), unless an exception is granted by the dean of students. In addition, such students must make up 4 or more credit hours during summer sessions in order to fulfill residency and other degree requirements and be eligible to graduate in three years.

See Residence, Required Curriculum, and Academic Work Load, below, for regulations governing the full-time and part-time divisions and the full-time/part-time option.

Residence

Candidates for the Juris Doctor degree must complete 6 units of residency in order to graduate. A student who is enrolled full time during the entire course of his or her program of study will accumulate 6 residency units in 6 semesters. A student who is enrolled part time during the entire course of his or her program of study and who has paid the equivalent of 84 or more credit hours of tuition will be deemed to have satisfied the residency re-quirement for graduation. Students who switch between full- and part-time status will accumulate residency units based on the number of credit hours taken each semester or summer session. Students should seek the advice of the dean of students concerning fulfillment of this requirement.

Credit hours are equivalent to residency units as follows:

Full-time status
12 credits = 1 unit

Part-time status
11 credits = .8 units
10 credits = .7 units  
9 credits = .65 units
8 credits = .6 units
7 credits = .5 units
6 credits = .4 units
5 credits =.35 units
4 credits= .3 units
3 credits = .2 units
2 credits = .15 units
1 credit = .075 units

Required Curriculum

Full-Time Day Division
Full-time students in the day division must take the following schedule in their first year: fall semester—Contracts I, Torts, Criminal Law, Civil Proce-dure I, and Legal Research and Writing; spring semester—Contracts II, Property, Constitutional Law I, Civil Procedure II, and Introduction to Advocacy.

During the second or third year of study, all full-time day division students must take Professional Responsibility and Ethics and fulfill the two-credit legal writing requirement.

Part-Time Evening Division
Part-time evening division students must take the following schedule in their first and second years: first year, fall semester—Contracts I, Civil Procedure I, and Legal Research and Writing; first year, spring semester—Contracts II, Civil Pro-ce-dure II, Torts, and Introduction to Advocacy; second year, fall semester—Property, Criminal Law, Constitutional Law I; second year, spring semester—electives.

Some required and elective courses will meet on Friday evenings in the fall and spring semesters.
During their second, third, or fourth year of study, all part-time evening division students are required to take Professional Responsibility and Ethics and fulfill the two-credit legal writing requirement.

Part-Time/Full-Time Option
With the permission of the dean of students, students initially admitted to the part-time division may transfer to the full-time division as early as their sec-ond semester. Students who choose to do so will customarily take the fol-lowing schedule in their first and second years: first year, fall semester eve-ning courses—Contracts I, Civil Procedure I, Legal Research and Writing; first year, spring semester evening courses—Contracts II, Civil Procedure II, Torts, Introduction to Advocacy; first year, spring semester day course—Criminal Law; summer session—Property; second year, fall semester eve-ning course—Constitutional Law I and electives in the day or evening, sub-ject to certain restrictions; second year, spring semester—electives in the day or evening, subject to certain restrictions.
During their second or third year of study, students pursuing this option must take Professional Responsibility and Ethics and fulfill the two-credit legal writing requirement.

Additional information concerning transfer to the full-time division is avail-able from the dean of students, including other course scheduling options for completing degree requirements in three years.

Legal Writing Requirement

Completion of 2 credit hours that are graded on the basis of written work (not examination) is required for the Juris Doctor degree. This requirement may be satisfied by (1) satisfactory completion of Law 656, Independent Legal Writing, or a seminar or other course that requires or permits a re-search paper; or (2) satisfactory service on the Law Review, International Law Review, American Intellectual Property Law Association Quarterly Journal, or Public Contract Law Journal.

In order to satisfy the legal writing requirement, the written work product must be based on sound legal research, consist of a single paper of no less than 8,000 words including footnotes, conform to the legal citation rules rec-ognized and adopted by the Law School, and receive a grade of B or bet-ter. The course used to fulfill the legal writing requirement may be graded on a Credit/No Credit basis only under the following circumstances: (1) when the student, under extraordinary circumstances, is granted permission by the dean of students to elect to take the course under the Credit/No Credit option, or (2) if the student is granted an extension beyond the deadline by the instructor. Under such circumstances, the student must receive a grade of B for the work product in order to fulfill the legal writing requirement.

To satisfy the legal writing requirement through journal participation, the work must be completed in coordination with the satisfactory completion of Law 664 Scholarly Writing. The student must receive a grade of Honors or Pass for the work to fulfill the legal writing requirement. To satisfy the upper-level writing requirement through a 2-credit independent legal writing project, the work must be supervised by a member of the faculty, and the student must submit the following for approval by the faculty member by specified dates: (1) the topic and length of the work product; (2) an outline of the work product; and (3) one or more drafts of the work product. The draft requirement is meant to provide a student the opportunity to improve the paper. The faculty member may require a revised draft or may permit one if so requested by the student. All drafts and the final work product must conform to legal citation rules and all rules outlined in the Law School publication Citing Responsibly. Failure to adhere to such rules may result in a violation of the Academic Integrity Code.