Listed below are the basic requirements for earning a Juris Doctor from GW Law. Please see the Law School Bulletin for further details.

• 84 Credits total required for graduation
• 63 Credits must be for a letter grade
• 17 Credits maximum for pass/fail or credit/no credit after completing your first year
• 12 Credits (minimum) required to be a full-time student
• 11 Credits (maximum) permitted for part-time students
• 2 requirements beyond the first year curriculum
• Professional Responsibility
• Legal Writing Requirement
• 6 Residency points required for graduation

Course Selection Guidelines

Plan a Balanced Program

This may be the most important piece of advice that a law student can get. The faculty recommends that all students take a course of study that gives them a strong foundation in the standard subject areas of the law. Some students choose to pursue a particular area of the law in special depth or breadth because of particular career inclinations or for the intellectual values associated with specialized study. However, the faculty warns students against excessive specialization. You cannot foresee future career changes and challenges, and lawyers are not expected to be specialists when they graduate from law school.

It is also recommended that you strike a balance between paper courses and exam courses. Consider the skills-based courses (e.g., Pre-Trial Advocacy, Trial Advocacy, Negotiations, Client Interviewing & Counseling), and consider taking a few of the numerous seminar offerings on topics of interest to round put your schedule and to sample different areas of the law. Consider also the many Outside Placement opportunities that exist to get practical experience to augment your studies.


The Bar Exam and Beyond

Taking a variety of courses in core areas is important for the bar exam as well as your future career. With all due respect to other advice you might receive, it is difficult to learn many new subjects for the bar exam. While it is certainly true that you will have to learn some subjects just in bar review courses, you do not want to learn several core courses this way. A solid and balanced foundation goes a long way in helping you pass the bar.


Important Elective Courses

The Law School offers multiple sections of important elective courses every academic year. These courses survey the most important areas of the law and include:

Administrative Law, Antitrust Law, Commercial Paper, Conflict of Laws, Constitutional Law II, Corporations, Creditors' Rights and Debtors' Protection, Criminal Procedure, Environmental Law, Evidence, Family Law, Federal Courts, Federal Income Taxation, International Law, International Business Transactions, Secured Transactions, Securities Regulation, and Trusts and Estates.

The faculty recommends that students take a large number of these courses. These courses will help to build a solid foundation upon which to launch your career, and to be better prepared for the bar examination. Moreover, these courses should be taken as early as possible in a student's course of elective study because many of these courses are prerequisites for certain specialized courses, clinics, or simulation courses.


Lawyering Skills

While you are learning law, it is important not to forget to learn how to be a lawyer. Thus, the curriculum offers a large variety of clinical courses, simulation courses, and outside placement options in which students have the opportunity to learn lawyering and other advocacy skills in several contexts. These courses permit students to complement the theoretical study of law with experience in interviewing clients, investigating facts, dealing with adverse parties, contacting government agencies, negotiating on behalf of clients, and participating in real or hypothetical court and administrative proceedings. The faculty recommends that students take one or more such courses. These include:

Administrative Advocacy Clinic, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Civil Litigation Clinic, Client Interviewing and Counseling, Consumer Mediation Clinic, Domestic Violence Clinic, Domestic Violence Emergency Department Clinic, Environmental Law Clinic, Environmental Crimes Project, Federal Trial Practice, Federal, Criminal, and Appellate Clinic, Health Law Rights Clinic, Immigration Clinic, Intensive Clinical Placement, Law Students in Court, Mediation, Moot Court, Negotiations, Outside Placement, Pre-Trial Advocacy, Prisoners Project, Small Business Clinic, Trial Advocacy, Trial Court Competition, and Vaccine Injury Clinic.


The Relationship Between Law and Other Disciplines

The faculty also believe that a balanced program should include courses that help students understand the relationship between law and other disciplines such as history, philosophy, economics, medicine, the social sciences, and the humanities. Accordingly, students should take one or more of the following:

Law and Literature, Law and Medicine, Law and Psychiatry, Law and Psychology, Law and Accounting, Law and Economics, Law and Social and Economic History, Public Economic Policy and the Law, Feminist Legal Theory, History of the U.S. Constitution, Jurisprudence, Jurisprudence Seminar, Quantitative Analysis for Lawyers, Race, Racism and American Law, Sexuality and the Law, and Survey of U.S. Legal History. The Law School offers a large curriculum which gives students substantial freedom to tailor their programs to their own interests and particular future needs. However, the freedom in course selection permitted by the elective policy at the Law School places the responsibility for planning a coherent academic program on the individual student. Students should seek guidance on their course selection from members of the faculty or Deans DeVigne or Johnson. More detailed written guidance is found in the Law School Bulletin.


FAQs

1. Should I absolutely avoid taking two four-credit courses in a semester?

Not necessarily. Don't avoid taking courses that you want simply because two of them are for four credits each. Budget your time wisely, pace yourself, and do not fall behind in the reading.

2. I really want to register for Class X, but that would mean that I'd have two exams on the same day/on succeeding days.

There is nothing inherently wrong with a schedule that requires two exams on one day - it is actually good practice for the bar!

3. I think I'm interested in ____ law (international, tax, corporate, criminal, IP, etc.), so should I take as many ___ courses as possible?

Not necessarily. Certainly take a few to get a good foundation, but not at the expense of a well-rounded legal education that will serve you no matter what area of law practice you enter. Remember, what interests you today might not interest you in five years.

4. I'm not a numbers person and I don't want to be a tax lawyer, so I don't need to take tax- right?

Students generally overestimate the burdens of taking a tax class and underestimate the benefits. Having a basic knowledge of tax will help you regardless of what you do with your law degree. It is not about numbers, but concepts.