"College of Law" redirects here. For the UK charity providing legal education, see
The College of Law.
A law school (also known as a school of law or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education.
The oldest civil law faculty in Canada offering law degrees was established in 1848 at McGill University in Montreal, and the oldest common law faculty in Canada offering law degrees was established in 1883 at Dalhousie University in Halifax. The typical law degree required to practice law in Canada is now the Juris Doctor,[1] which requires previous university coursework and is similar to the first law degree in the United States, except there is some scholarly content in the coursework (such as an academic research paper required in most schools).[2] The programs consist of three years, and have similar content in their mandatory first year courses. Beyond first year and the minimum requirements for graduation, course selection is elective with various concentrations such as business law, international law, natural resources law, criminal law, Aboriginal law, etc.[3] Some schools, however, have not made the switch from LL.B. to the J.D. - one notable university that has not made the switch is McGill University.
Given that the Canadian legal system includes both the French civil law and the Anglo-American common law, some law schools offer both an LL.B. or J.D. (common law) and a B.C.L., LL.L. or LL.B. (civil law) degree, such as McGill University, University of Ottawa and the Université de Montréal. Furthermore, if a person completes a common law degree, then a civil law degree can be obtained with only an extra year of study. This is also true for civil law graduates who wish to complete a common law degree.
Despite changes in designation, schools opting for the J.D. have not altered their curricula. Neither the J.D. or LL.B. alone are sufficient to qualify for a Canadian license, as each Province's law society requires an apprenticeship and successful completion of provincial skills and responsibilities training course, such as the British Columbia Law Society's Professional Legal Training Course,[4] the Law Society of Upper Canada's Skills and Responsibilities Training Program.[5] and the École du Barreau du Québec.
The main reason for implementing the J.D. in Canada was to distinguish the degree from the European counterpart that requires no previous post-secondary education,[6] However, in the eyes of the Canadian educational system, the J.D. awarded by Canadian universities has retained the characteristics of the LL.B. and is considered a second entry program, but not a graduate program.[7] (This position is analogous to the position taken by Canadian universities that the M.D. and D.D.S. degrees are considered second entry programs and not graduate programs.) Nevertheless, disagreement persists regarding the status of the degrees, such as at the University of Toronto, where the J.D. degree designation has been marketed by the Faculty of Law as superior to the LL.B. degree designation.[8]
Some universities have developed joint Canadian LL.B or J.D. and American J.D programs, such as York University and New York University,[9] the University of Windsor and the University of Detroit Mercy,[10] and the University of Ottawa and Michigan State University program.[11]
In France, the legal education is a three tier system. The student may study for a LLB (licence de droit), then a LLM (master de droit) and, for those interested in Law theory, a PhD in Law (doctorat de droit).
The majority of French universities offers Law courses in schools labelled as Research and Education Units (unité de formation et de recherche), Faculties of Law, or Law Schools.
A LLM-level is a prerequisite for legal professions, but is combined with vocational education, such as the école nationale de la magistrature for judges and the Certificat d'aptitude aux fonctions d'avocat for advocates.
In India, legal education has been traditionally offered as a three-year graduate degree. However, the structure has been changed since 1987. Law degrees in India are granted and conferred in terms of the Advocates Act, 1961, which is a law passed by the Parliament both on the aspect of legal education and also regulation of conduct of legal profession.[12] Under the act, the Bar Council of India is the supreme regulatory body to regulate the legal profession in India and also to ensure the compliance of the laws and maintenance of professional standards by the legal profession in the country.
To this regard, the Bar Council of India prescribes the minimum curriculum required to be taught in order for an institution to be eligible for the grant of a law degree. The Bar Council also carries on a periodic supervision of the institutions conferring the degree and evaluates their teaching methodology and curriculum and having determined that the institution meets the required standards, recognizes the institution and the degree conferred by it.
Traditionally the degrees that were conferred carried the title of LL.B. (Bachelor of Laws) or B.L. (Bachelor of Law). The eligibility requirement for these degrees was that the applicant already have a Bachelor's degree in any subject from a recognized institution. Thereafter the LL.B. / B.L. course was for three years, upon the successful completion of which the applicant was granted either degree.
However, upon the suggestion by the Law Commission of India and also given the prevailing cry for reform, the Bar Council of India instituted upon an experiment in terms of establishing specialized law universities solely devoted to legal education and thus to raise the academic standards of legal profession in India. This decision was taken somewhere in 1985 and thereafter the first law University in India was set up in Bangalore which was named as the National Law School of India University (popularly 'NLS'). These law universities were meant to offer a multi-disciplinary and integrated approach to legal education. It was therefore for the first time that a law degree other than LL.B. or B.L. was granted in India. NLS offered a five-year law course, upon the successful completion of which an integrated degree with the title of "B.A.,LL.B. (Honours)" would be granted.
Thereafter, other law universities were set up, all offering five-year integrated law degrees with different nomenclature. The next in line was National Law Institute University set up in Bhopal in 1997. It was followed by NALSAR university of law in 1998. The Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University in Delhi offered a five-year integrated law degree course of B.A.,LL.B / B.B.A.,LL.B (Honours) from 1998 and the Mysore University School of Justice set up by the University of Mysore in Mysore offered a five year integrated law degree course of B.A.,LL.B (Honours) from 2007. The course for three years LL.B. is also regularized in University of Delhi as an option for post graduation after the completion of graduation degree. The National Law University, Jodhpur offered for the first time in 2001 the integrated law degree of "B.B.A, LL.B. (Honours)" which was preceded by the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences offering the "B.Sc., LL.B. (Honours)" degree. Gujarat National Law University established in Gandhinagar also offers LL.B.
However, despite these specialized law universities, the traditional three-year degree continues to be offered in India by other institutions and are equally recognized as eligible qualifications for practicing law in India. Another essential difference that remains is that while the eligibility qualification for the three year law degree is that the applicant must already be a holder of a Bachelor's degree, for being eligible for the five years integrated law degree, the applicant must have successfully completed Class XII from a recognized Boards of Education in India.
Both the holders of the three-year degree and of the five-year integrated degree are eligible for enrollment with the Bar Council of India upon the fulfillment of eligibility conditions and upon enrollment, may appear before any court in India.[13]
In Malaysia, saved for UiTM, the new law degree curriculum requires completion of 8 semesters in undergraduate degree in order for the law degree holder to underway pupillage or chambering in respected firms. Any overseas LL.B holder are required to obtain Certificate of Legal Practice in order for them to be admitted as an Advocates and Solicitors. However, local graduate with LL.B (Honours) are exempted from taking Certificate of Legal Practice as they have undergone professional training in their fourth year of undergraduate study. The oldest school of law founded in Malaysia can be traced back in year 1967 from the establishment of Law Faculty, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) where UiTM offered the London-External LL.B programme. Later, when UiTM started to confer its own degrees, UiTM offered the programme of Bachelor of Legal Studies (Hons.) Upon completion of the programme, the students can choose either to work as legal advisors / legal executives or as advocates and solicitors. If they choose to practice as advocates and solicitors, they will be vetted and short-listed to pursue with a one year LL.B (Hons) programme. The places for UiTM's LL.B (Hons) programme are limited and those who are not qualified need to do the Certificate in Legal Practice examination if they still wish to practice law. The Bachelor of Laws in UiTM is recognized as a professional examination and as such, unlike other law programmes, the students work in a law office simulated environment. The students are provided with a practitioner’s office - like settings and are required to work in mock law firms. The programme structure has been designed in such a way that students will actually get a hands-on experience of legal practice to prepare them for the real legal world.
National University of Malaysia or also known as UKM faculty of law was established in February 1984. The faculty began admitting students in the 1986/87 academic year. The objective of the faculty is to train lawyers to be competent both in practice as advocates and solicitors and to serve in the legal and judicial service and the private sectors. The curriculum was designed to include academic and practical aspects of the law with the addition of Islamic courses to reflect the increasing importance of Islamic law in Malaysia. Instead of civil law students are required to extend their knowledge in islamic law.
In Hong Kong, which generally follows the English common law system, an undergraduate L.L.B. is common, followed by a one or two year Postgraduate Certificate in Laws before one can begin a training contract (solicitors) or a pupillage (barristers).
In Iran, the legal education has been influenced both by civil law and Islamic Shari'ah law. Like many countries, after high school, one can enter the law school. The first law degree is LL.B. It takes about four years to get LL.B. The first graduate program in law is LL.M. It takes about two to three years to get LL.M. The LL.M. is a mix of course work in a specific field of law and a dissertation. PHD in law is the highest law degree offered by some law schools. It takes about 5–7 years depending on the school as well as the students. The faculty of law in Shahid Beheshti University (formerly known as Iran's National University) and the faculty of law and political sciences at University of Tehran are the top two law schools in Iran.
See Law School (Japan)
Law degree programs are considered graduate programs in the Philippines. As such, admission to law schools requires the completion of a bachelor's degree, with a sufficient number of credits or units in certain subject areas.[13]
Graduation from a Philippine law school constitutes the primary eligibility requirement for the Philippine Bar Examination, the national licensure examination for practicing lawyers in the country. The bar examination is administered by the Supreme Court of the Philippines during the month of September every year.
As of 2011 the bar examinations were held during November.
In Serbia, prospective students are required to pass an admission test for enrollment in a law school. The legal education is a three tier system - 4-year Bachelor degree studies, 1-year Master of Law and 5-year doctoral studies. The Belgrade Law School is the most distinguished and largest by capacity in Serbia. Courses are offered in Serbian and English.
On July 3, 2007, the Korean National Assembly passed legislation introducing 'Law School', closely modeled on the American post-graduate system.[14] Moreover, naturally, since March 2, 2009, 25 (both public and private) 3-year professional Law Schools that officially approved by Korean Government, has been opened to teach future Korean lawyers.[15] The first bar test to the lawschool graduates will be scheduled in 2012.
In Sri Lanka to practice law, one must be admitted and enrolled as an Attorney-at-Law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. This is achieved by passing law exams at the Sri Lanka Law College which are administered by the Council of Legal Education and spending a period of six months under a practicing attorney of at least 8 years standing. To undertake law exams students must gain admission to the Sri Lanka Law College and study law or directly undertake exams after gaining a LLB from a local or foreign university.[16]
Taiwan was a colony of Imperial Japan until the U.S. defeated Japan in 1945, and handed power back to the Republic of China. At that time a new legal system put in place. Since that time, the study of law has been an undergraduate pursuit resulting in a bachelor's degree. Foreigners are not allowed to practice law (no exception is made for citizens of the United States).
In the United States, law school is a postgraduate program that typically lasts three years and earns the student a Juris Doctor (J.D.) law degree. Some schools in Louisiana concurrently award a Graduate Diploma in Civil Law (D.C.L.). To gain admission to a United States American Bar Association (ABA) approved law program, a prospective student must take the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT), and have a minimum four-year undergraduate (bachelor's) degree in any major. Currently, there are 199 ABA-approved law schools.[17]
There currently are five online law schools that are unaccredited by the ABA but registered by the State Bar of California.
Law schools generally portray law school as a good investment, citing high salaries and employment rates. The National Association for Legal Career Professionals produces an annual report summarizing the employment data of law schools in the United States that suggests otherwise. As of the 2009 report, out of 44,000 law school graduates, less than 80 percent (35,002) reported any form of employment (full or part time) within 9 months of graduation.[18] Over 25 percent of all employed respondents were employed in a temporary position, bringing the number of graduates employed in non temp jobs of any kind (legal or otherwise) to under 60 percent. Only 45 percent of graduates were employed in non temporary attorney jobs and less than 40 percent of all graduates were employed as full time non temporary attorneys.[18] Furthermore, scam blogs have appeared around the internet, such as http://lawschoolfail.blogspot.com, which have gotten attention in the media. These blogs portray law school from the student's point of view, calling for reform.
Critics question the forthrightness of some law schools in providing prospective students with accurate information on alumni job placement and compensation rates, suggesting that law schools may distort their statistics to attract students.[19]
Some law school graduates suggest that their schools use misleading statistics to attract students. An example of this would be schools citing a relatively high employment rate of students who responded to their employment survey without disclosing the percentage of students that responded. This is misleading because unemployed graduates tend not to respond to employment surveys until they gain employment, and some schools even explicitly tell graduates not to respond unless they are employed.[20] In addition, schools cite the mean graduate salary, instead of the median; while the median salary of law graduates is approximately $62,000, the mean could be inflated somewhat by a relatively small concentration of graduates earning starting salaries well above the median.[21] For example, the starting salary at mega law firms[ambiguous] in several cities across the country in 2008 is US$160,000.[22][not in citation given] It is likely that median salary statistics are incorrect, because students who are unemployed, working temporary jobs or have a low salary may be less likely to submit a salary report to the school.[citation needed]
A common response to this criticism is that it simply reflects the reality of competitiveness in legal education and in the legal market. With a limited number of top positions available, prospective law students should be circumspect about the employment opportunities that will await them after graduation—especially if they plan on attending a lower-ranked school.[citation needed]
Students at prestigious, highly regarded institutions have a variety of options available. This discrepancy can be seen as a function of supply and demand, with the number of newer (and thus lower-ranked) law schools proliferating in recent years. A similar difficulty may be encountered by graduate students in other fields, although the aforementioned lack of accurate information about post-graduate employment may exacerbate the problem for law students.[19]
In 2008 Makau Mutua, the interim dean of the State University of New York's only law school, said there was a "glut" of law schools,[23] with a total of 15 in the state (Albany, Brooklyn, Cardozo, Columbia, Cornell, Fordham, Hofstra, New York Law School, NYU, Pace, St. John's, Syracuse, Touro (Fuchsberg), and public SUNY Buffalo and CUNY Queens College).[24]
According to the National Law Journal, 40% of law school graduates default on their student loans, incurring collection fees of 29% when the loans are turned over to collection agencies. Law school graduates default more often than doctors, engineers, and business school graduates.[25]
According to the 2009 annual report of the Association for Legal Career Professionals, 55% of graduates responded to employment statistics requests. Of 19,513 respondents, 88% reported that they were working, or approximately 45% of all graduates assuming those not responding are not employed. Of the respondents, 39% reported that they were not practicing law but were in the military, public interest, business or the same job as was held before law school.[26] Of the remaining 61% of respondents (34% of the graduating class), the reported salaries for first-year lawyers congregated in two camps: those who earn about $30,000 to $65,000 a year (representing about 34% of reported lawyer salaries), and those who earn about $160,000 a year (representing about 25 percent of reported lawyer salaries). Few lawyers actually receive “average” or even median pay.[26] Additionally, 86% of lawyers reported start dates pushed more than 6 months after passing the bar.[26]
Thus according to the NALP, of the responding lawyers salaries for those earn around $160,000 they represent only 8% of the entire graduating class. This mirrors the top 10% observation of "super lawyers" which has been cited elsewhere. Super lawyers are the top 10% of top 10 law schools who go on to earn $160,000.[27] Of the remaining 90% with a law school debt that can exceed $200,000 the return on investment is very poor and can significantly affect quality of life.[28]
As of 2010, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the expected number of new lawyer positions is to be fewer than 60% of the number of graduates out of law schools.[29] However, employment statistics vary by race, ethnicity, gender, age, location, and school rankings. For instance in the last recession in Los Angeles the public sector employment for lawyers was frozen for 5 years (as of 2010 it has been frozen for 1 year). In the private sector in California approximately 3,500 attorneys were terminated in 2009. In one day alone nationwide 800 law firm jobs were terminated.[30] Attrition among graduates of law schools are also very high, with 39% reporting not practicing law after 1 year.[31] After 10 years in lower tier schools it approaches 90%.[31]
In order to pay for law school, many law students assume debt obligations in the form of student loans. Many graduate with well over $100,000 in student loan debt.[32] Currently the maximum a student may borrow under the federal loan borrowing program is $20,500 per year. Tuition charged by instutitions above $20,500 per year must be covered by private education loans that are not eligible for deferment and forgiveness programs available for federally backed educational loans.[33] The New York Times has recently published an article questioning the propriety of the Chairman of the Board of Access Group, Richard Matasar, also serving as the Dean of New York Law School.[34] Unlike most other types of debt including gambling debt, student loan debt is generally not discharged in bankruptcy proceedings.[35]
A 2005 study found that liberals were significantly overrepresented among elite law schools professors. This has been criticized since law professors may significantly influence legal issues and courts by their submissions.[36] A 2010 study of hiring initial, tenure-track professors made during the years 2005, 2007 and 2009 at law schools found that 52% of those hired were openly liberal compared to 8% openly conservative. There was no statistical relationship between law school prestige and tendency to hire liberals or conservatives. The authors wrote that "the extreme discrepancy between the proportion of new professors who can be clearly identified as liberal or conservative indicates either unequal hiring patterns or environments less conducive to openness and debate in the law school setting,"[37]
Four lawsuits were filed in 2011 involving various law schools. One was filed by the Thomas Cooley Law School against a law firm and four anonymous internet bloggers and seeks to recover damages for defamation.[38] A separate lawsuit was filed by a graduate of the Thomas Jefferson School of Law against her school, seeking damages for misrepresentation and fraud regarding the school's published employment statistics and salary information.[39] The third and fourth lawsuits were filed by The Kurzon Strauss law firm against New York Law School and Thomas Cooley Law School.[40] On February 1, 2012, twelve addidional law schools were sued. They are Albany Law School of Union University, Brooklyn Law School, Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University, Florida Coastal Law School, IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, DePaul University College of Law, The John Marshall Law School, California Western College of law, Southwestern Law School, Golden Gate University School of Law, University of San Francisco School of Law, and Widener University School of Law. [41]
In 2011 a weblog was created by University of Colorado law professor Paul Campos asserting that the concept of and education provided by American law schools is a scam.[42][43]
Some schools offer a Master of Laws (LL.M.) program as a way of specializing in a particular area of law. A further possible degree is the academic doctoral degree in law of Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) (in the U.S)., or the Doctorate of Laws (LL.D.) in Canada, or the Ph.D. in Law from European or Australasian universities.
In addition to attending law school, many jurisdictions require law school graduates to pass a state or provincial bar examination before they may practice law. The Multistate Bar Examination is part of the bar examination in almost all United States jurisdictions. Generally, the standardized, common law subject matter of the MBE is combined with state-specific essay questions to produce a comprehensive bar examination.
In other common law countries the bar exam is often replaced by a period of work with a law firm known as articles of clerkship.[citation needed]
While law schools in the U.S. and Canada are typically post-graduate institutions with considerable autonomy, legal education in other countries is provided within the mainstream educational system from university level and/or in non-degree conferring vocational training institutions.
In countries such as the United Kingdom and most of continental Europe, academic legal education is provided within the mainstream university system starting at the undergraduate level, and the legal departments of universities are simply departments like any other rather than separate "law schools". In these countries, the term "law school" may be used, but it does not have the same definition as it does in North America. The same is true for private Law Schools, e.g. in Germany two private law schools have been established, Bucerius Law School in Hamburg and EBS Law School in Wiesbaden which are termed law schools but follow the usual German path of legal education.
There are also sometimes legal colleges that provide vocational training as a post-academic stage of legal education. One example is the College of Law in the United Kingdom, which provides certain professional qualifications British lawyers must obtain before they may practice as solicitors or barristers.
In Australia, law schools such as the Sydney Law School and the University of Melbourne have emphasised a combination of the British and American systems. However, other universities such as the University of New South Wales, the Australian National University and Monash University are known for their intensive and practical work.[44]
- ^ The practice of law in Canada. FLSC. Accessed September 16, 2008
- ^ University of British Columbia. Requirements for Graduation and Evaluation of Work (LL.B.). Accessed June 28, 2008
- ^ Canadian law school concentrations, certificates and joint-degree programs [1].
- ^ Law Society of British Columbia PLTC [2].
- ^ Law Society of Upper Canada Law Licensing Process
- ^ University of British Columbia Board of Governors approves request for LL.B to be renamed J.D. [3].
- ^ University of Toronto. law. Accessed April 7, 2008. Queens University. Memorandum, Law Students Society. Accessed April 7, 2008.
- ^ University of Toronto. Faculty of Law: Prospective Students. Accessed April 7, 2008.
- ^ NYU/Osgoode Joint LL.B/J.D. [4].
- ^ University of Windsor / University of Detroit. J.D./LL.B. Program. Accessed June 1, 2008.
- ^ Michigan State University School of Law and the University of Ottawa. Joint J.D. - LL.B. Degree Program. Accessed June 1, 2008.
- ^ "Advocates Act, 1961". Bar Council of India. http://barcouncilofindia.nic.in/disk1/196125.pdf. Retrieved 2009-06-10.
- ^ a b Major Legal Systems in the World Today: An Introduction to the Comparative Study of Law, by René David, John E. C. Brierley, Contributor René David, John E. C. Brierley, Edition: 2, (Published by Simon and Schuster, 1978)ISBN 0029076102, ISBN 978-0-02-907610-1 [5]
- ^ Assembly okays shift to law schools from state bar exam, The Hankyoreh, Retrieved on July 4, 2007
- ^ Korean Law School List Announced, Korean Law Blog, January 31, 2008
- ^ SRI LANKA LAW COLLEGE
- ^ LSAC List of Law Schools
- ^ a b 2009 NALP Statistics
- ^ a b Efrati, Amir (September 24, 2007). "Hard Case: Job Market Wanes for U.S. Lawyers". The Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119040786780835602.html?mod=hps_us_mostpop_emailed.
- ^ Typical Law School Email Requesting Only Employed Graduates Respond To Graduate Employment Survey (Top 100 Law School - November 2010)[6]
- ^ Empirical Legal Studies: Distribution of 2006 Starting Salaries: Best Graphic Chart of the Year
- ^ Alreadybored.com/salaries
- ^ N.Y. Dean complains of 'glut' of law schools
- ^ N.Y. State Law Schools
- ^ Fordham University School of Law, Financial Planning, htm (visited January 31, 2002).
- ^ a b c Rampell, Catherine (July 26, 2010). "The Two-Track Lawyer Market". The New York Times. http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/the-two-track-lawyer-market/.
- ^ Simple Justice: Debating The Obvious: Too Many Lawyers
- ^ Law Schools Run Like Puppy Mills- The Careelist
- ^ Greenbaum, Mark (January 8, 2010). "No more room at the bench". The Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jan/08/opinion/la-oe-greenbaum8-2010jan08.
- ^ Law.com - 800 Law Firm Jobs Lost in One Day - Law.com
- ^ a b Efrati, Amir (September 24, 2007). "Hard Case: Job Market Wanes for U.S. Lawyers". The Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119040786780835602.html.
- ^ Khimm, Suzy (July 25, 2011). The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/aba-faces-scrutiny-as-job-prospects-debt-levels-for-law-school-grads-worsen/2011/07/21/gIQAjDJ3WI_story.html.
- ^ http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/studentloans.jsp
- ^ Segal, David (July 16, 2011). "Law School Economics - Job Market Weakens, Tuition Rises". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/business/law-school-economics-job-market-weakens-tuition-rises.html?pagewanted=all.
- ^ http://www.studentloanborrowerassistance.org/bankruptcy/
- ^ The Patterns and Implications of Political Contributions by Elite Law School Faculty, McGinnis, J. O. Schwartz, M. A. Tisdell, B., Georgetown Law Journal, 2005, Vol. 93; No. 4, pages 1167-1212
- ^ "Study: Law School Hiring Skews Liberal, but Liberals Don't Get All the Key Jobs", Karen Sloan, The National Law Journal, July 21, 2010
- ^ [7]
- ^ Demurrer filed by TJSL
- ^ NY law school sued by students
- ^ http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202540950653&slreturn=1
- ^ "Inside the Law School Scam"
- ^ OTB: Campos outs self as anti-law school blogger
- ^ For a discussion on the practical training in Australian law schools see Margaret Castles and Anne Hewitt 'Can a law school help develop skilled legal professionals' (2011) ALTERNATIVE LAW JOURNAL; 36 (2) 2011: 90-95. [8](Subscription required)
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