Program Overview
The University of Chicago Law School emphasizes its tight-knit community and focus on interdisciplinary learning. Students are encouraged to embrace “the life of the mind” and study law for the sake of learning. With more than 170 different courses and seminars, aspiring attorneys with a genuine interest in interdisciplinary scholarship will find themselves at home.
President Barack Obama famously taught constitutional law at UChicago Law. The current faculty includes such luminaries as Martha Nussbaum, Richard Posner, and David Strauss. Former US Attorney General John Ashcroft, Senator Amy Klobuchar, and TMZ founder Harvey Levin are among the school’s alumni.
UChicago Law embraces the Socratic Method, and students are expected to be active participants in their own legal education. There’s room for socializing as well, including breakfast and lunch with faculty and administrators, weekly Wine Mess and Coffee Mess, and Wellness Wednesday Programming to counterbalance the stresses of rigorous study.
Standing proud before a zero-depth reflecting pool on the South Side of Chicago, the modernist building that houses UChicago Law was designed by architect Eero Saarinen, whose work includes the St. Louis Gateway Arch. The school’s Hyde Park neighborhood offers easy access to parks, museums, and shopping.
UChicago Law maintains housing in three different residences with offerings ranging from studios to one- to three-bedroom apartments, where law students are joined by other grad students and, occasionally, faculty members.
Curriculum
Unique to UChicago Law’s first-year curriculum is the “Elements of the Law” course, which introduces students to the interdisciplinary nature of law. To foster this interdisciplinary spirit after the first year, students are encouraged to take up to 12 hours of coursework “across the Midway” in the university’s other graduate schools.
Although UChicago Law values a general legal education, opportunities to specialize abound. Chicago is considered the birthplace of law and economics, which is one of the school’s most well-known interdisciplinary fields. However, faculty also focus on the intersection of law in diverse disciplines such as philosophy, cultural studies, public policy, feminist and race theory, history, political science, and business.
Chicago Law offers several dual-degree programs in such areas as public policy, international relations, and religious studies in addition to a JD/MBA. The law school also maintains several certificate-granting programs, including one in Health Administration and Policy and another in Business Leadership. For applicants interested in financial statements, capital structures, and complex transactions, the unique Doctoroff Business Leadership Program combines elements of the MBA program into a certificate to teach aspiring lawyers to “speak the language” of the corporate world.
UChicago Law’s International Immersion Program sends students to host countries to study a theme of that country’s law, allowing students to meet with attorneys, judges, and policymakers during the course of their studies. Past programs have focused on such locations as Cuba, France, Japan, and China.
The school’s quarter system is designed to ease students into final exams by reducing the number of courses required in a semester while simultaneously increasing the overall number of courses taken during their time in law school.
Chicago Law does not rank its students, and the school prohibits the estimation of rankings. Students must maintain a minimum cumulative GPA of 168 on the school’s 155–186 grading scale to maintain a satisfactory academic standing.
Clinical and Experiential Learning
Clinical programs at UChicago Law are autonomous units, with each boasting its own faculty and support staff. Through the Edwin F. Mandel Legal Aid Clinic, students aid indigent clients encountering legal issues in such areas as police accountability, employment, housing initiatives, international human rights, and immigration. For more business-minded law students, the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship and the Kirkland & Ellis Corporate Lab Clinic give students an opportunity to engage with companies navigating regulatory requirements and participate in real-world transactional corporate exercises. In the Jenner & Block Supreme Court and Appellate Clinic, students represent parties and write amicus curiae briefs to the US Supreme Court and other Circuit Courts.
Chicago Law’s research centers—such as the Center for Law, Philosophy, and Human Values and the Center on Law and Finance—sponsor speakers and conferences on cutting-edge legal topics. In addition, workshops expose students to a rich, intellectual community of scholars and include the Regulation of Family, Sex, and Gender Workshop and the Law & Economics Workshop.
Statistics
Class Profile (Class of 2024)
Class Size: 191
Average Age: 24
Median LSAT: 172
Median GPA: 3.91
Career Placement (Class of 2020)
- Law Firms: 62.8%
- Judicial Clerkships: 31.2%
- Public Interest: 5.0%
- Business and Industry: 0.5%
- Government: 0.5%