Graduation Requirements

Required Curriculum 

To receive a J.D. degree, students must earn at least 90 credits with an overall grade point average of 2.3 or higher. Students must complete all required courses in the sequence outlined in the Academic Rules. 

Students who will graduate in May 2027 or later must take Business Associations. 

Upper Level Writing 

All students must complete at least one rigorous extended piece of legal writing (in addition to those in RWA).  The Upper Level Writing Requirement requires each student to demonstrate his or her ability to apply each of these skills in producing one substantial, cohesive piece of legal writing prior to graduating from law school.

Policy and Perspectives

Each student is required to take at least one course from selections designated by the Law Faculty or the Curriculum Committee which are grounded in jurisprudential, historical, and public policy concepts. 

Experiential Learning

The ELR consists of three components: 

1. the law school’s existing five-credit hour, required Lawyering Skills sequence; 

2. one of the law school’s one-credit hour required upper-level specialized legal research courses; 

3. at least three credit hours in the law school’s legal clinic, externship, or practica programs

Upper-Level Research 

The requirement is satisfied by either Advanced Legal Research or Specialized Legal Research. Students may only take one upper-level research course.

Bar Exam Preparation Skills Requirement

Full-time students with a cumulative GPA of 2.8 or lower after two regular semesters (fall and spring) or part-time students with a cumulative GPA of 2.8 or lower after three regular semesters (fall and spring) must enroll in and pass the Advanced Bar Preparation Skills course and the Writing for the Bar Exam course in addition to the Introduction to Bar Preparation Skills course.

Bar Preparation Substantive Course Requirement: 

In order to graduate, students matriculating at the law school after July 1, 2020 who are full-time students with a cumulative GPA of 2.8 or lower after two regular semesters (fall and spring) or part-time students with a cumulative GPA of 2.8 or lower after three regular semesters (fall and spring) must enroll in and pass all Uniform Bar Exam tested courses.

Professional Development Requirement

A student who matriculated at the law school after September 1, 2022, must complete at least 12 hours of Professional Development Programs.  A schedule of PPD programming for the 2025-2026 academic year is located here.