Planning Form for JD Academic Requirements (PDF)
Academic requirement information can be found in the Law School Catalog.
JD Students matriculating in fall 2020 or later are required to earn a minimum of 86 credits and the below requirements.
First Year/Foundational Required Courses (30 credits):
- 1003-Civil Dispute Resolution (4 credits)
- 1004-Torts: The Common Law Process (4 credits)
- 1005-Criminal Law: Statutory Interpretation (3 credits)
- 1006-Contracts: Transactional Law (4 credits)
- 1651-Property: Jurisprudential and Comparative Analysis (4 credits)
- 2410-Constitutional Powers: Advanced Legal Reasoning (3 credits)
- 1415-Legal Analysis, Research, and Communication (LARC) I (3 credits)
- 1416-Legal Analysis, Research, and Communication (LARC) II (3 credits)
- 1450-Legal Methods (1 credit)
- 1452-Foundations of Practice (1 credit)
Upper Division Requirements:
- 3200-Professional Responsibility (3 credits)
- 9550/9551/9555/9556-Advocacy (3 credits) OR 9552-Advocacy: Trial (2 credits) and 9553-Advocacy: Appellate (1 credit)
- 4575-Negotiation (3 credits) OR 9014-Transactions and Settlements (3 credits)
- 2421-Constitutional Liberties (3 credits)
Graduation Requirements:
- Completion of upper level Advanced Research and Writing (fulfilled through various courses, seminars, clinics, MH publications, or independent long paper).
- Completion of Career Development Employment Survey (questions about this should be directed to the Office of Career and Professional Development)
- If a student received Title IV student loans (Direct Student loan, or Federal Stafford, Federal Unsubsidized Stafford, and/or Federal SLS programs), the student must complete on-line financial aid exit counseling (questions about this should be directed to the Office of Financial Aid)
- Completion of Perkins Loan Exit Interview, if applicable (questions about this should be directed to the Student Accounts Office)
- Six total hours of extracurricular diversity programming. Of the six total hours required before graduation, at least four hours must be completed during the student’s first and second year. (questions about this should be directed to the Office of Diversity and Inclusion)
No more than 22 credits under the 86 credit requirement can be applied toward graduation from non-classroom courses:
- field placements (including externships and residencies but not clinics)
- moot court or other competitions
- publications
- independent studies, including independent long papers, independent research, and internships with faculty
- teaching assistant placements, like structured study group leaders
- dual-degree (graduate school) courses
- any course for credit that is substantially based upon time expended outside a regularly scheduled class at Mitchell Hamline or another ABA-approved law school
This does not include study abroad or distance courses.
No more than 28 credits may be earned toward the J.D. degree through courses that are designated “distance education courses.” A distance education course is one in which students are separated from the faculty member or each other for more than one-third of the instruction and the instruction involves the use of technology to support regular and substantive interaction among students and between the students and the faculty member, either synchronously or asynchronously. Source: ABA Standard 306 (a). Courses that were converted to a remote format for the Covid emergency do not count against this limit.
Requirement for Additional Curricula and/or Academic Support Programming
Students with a cumulative grade point average under 2.8 and/or students in the bottom quartile of the class at the end of a student’s second academic semester will be required to complete curricula and/or academic support programming.
Academic Support curricula includes the following courses:
2318-Bar Exam Primer (required summer after 1L course)
2418-Bar Preparation Strategies: MPT (offered only fall semester)
1204-Constitutional Criminal Procedure: Investigation and Interrogation
2500-Evidence
4001-Bar Preparation Strategies: MBE and MEE (offered only spring semester; must be taken in the final spring semester of law school)
First year students matriculating in fall 2018 or later are required to take the following course:
1450 Legal Methods
JD Students matriculating in fall 2016 – spring 2020 are required to earn a minimum of 83 credits and the below requirements.
First Year Required Courses (28 credits):
- 1003-Civil Dispute Resolution (4 credits)
- 1004-Torts: The Common Law Process (4 credits)
- 1005-Criminal Law: Statutory Interpretation (3 credits)
- 1006-Contracts: Transactional Law (4 credits)
- 1651-Property: Jurisprudential and Comparative Analysis (4 credits)
- 2410-Constitutional Powers: Advanced Legal Reasoning (3 credits)
- 1415-Lawyering: Advice and Persuasion (effective Fall 2020, the title of this course will be Legal Analysis, Research, and Communication (LARC) I) (3 credits)
- 1416-Lawyering: Advice and Persuasion II (effective Fall 2020, the title of this course will be Legal Analysis, Research, and Communication (LARC) II) (3 credits)
Upper Division Requirements:
- 3200-Professional Responsibility (2 or 3 credits)
- 9550/9551/9555/9556-Advocacy (3 credits)
- 4575-Negotiation (3 credits) OR 9014-Transactions and Settlements (3 credits)
- 2421-Constitutional Liberties (3 credits)
Graduation Requirements:
- Completion of upper level Advanced Research and Writing (fulfilled through various courses, seminars, clinics, journals/law review, or independent study/research).
- Completion of Career Development Employment Survey (questions about this should be directed to the Office of Career and Professional Development)
- Completion of Financial Aid Exit Interview (questions about this should be directed to the Office of Financial Aid)
- Completion of Perkins Loan Exit Interview, if applicable (questions about this should be directed to the Student Accounts Office)
- Six total hours of extracurricular diversity programming. Of the six total hours required before graduation, at least four hours must be completed during the student’s first and second year. (questions about this should be directed to the Office of Diversity and Inclusion)
No more than 19 credits under the 83 credit requirement can be applied toward graduation from non-classroom courses:
- field placements (including externships and residencies but not clinics)
- moot court or other competitions
- Law Review or Journal
- independent studies
- teaching assistant placements, like structured study group leaders
- dual-degree (graduate school) courses
- any course for credit that is substantially based upon time expended outside a regularly scheduled class at Mitchell Hamline or another ABA-approved law school
No more than 27 credits may be earned toward the J.D. degree through courses that are designated “distance education courses.” A distance education course is one in which students are separated from the faculty member or each other for more than one-third of the instruction and the instruction involves the use of technology to support regular and substantive interaction among students and between the students and the faculty member, either synchronously or asynchronously. Source: ABA Standard 306 (a). Courses that were converted to a remote format for the Covid emergency do not count against this limit.
Requirement for Additional Curricula and/or Academic Support Programming
Students with a cumulative grade point average under 2.8 and/or students in the bottom quartile of the class at the end of a student’s second academic semester will be required to complete curricula and/or academic support programming.
Academic Support curricula includes the following courses:
2318-Bar Exam Primer (required summer after 1L course, not applicable for students who matriculated prior to fall 2018)
2418-Bar Preparation Strategies: MPT (offered only fall semester)
1204-Constitutional Criminal Procedure: Investigation and Interrogation
2500-Evidence
4001-Bar Preparation Strategies: MBE and MEE (offered only spring semester; must be taken in the final spring semester of law school)
Standard Degree Audit Request Form (PDF)
JD Students matriculating in spring or fall 2015 are required to earn a minimum of 83 credits and the below requirements.*
First Year Required Courses (28 credits):
- 1003-Civil Dispute Resolution (4 credits)
- 1004-Torts: The Common Law Process (4 credits)
- 1005-Criminal Law: Statutory Interpretation (3 credits)
- 1006-Contracts: Transactional Law (4 credits)
- 1651-Property: Jurisprudential and Comparative Analysis (4 credits)
- 2421-Liberties: Advanced Legal Reasoning (3 credits)
- 1415-Lawyering: Advice and Persuasion (6 credits)
Upper Division Requirements:
- 3200-Professional Responsibility (2 or 3 credits)
- 9550/9551/9555/9556-Advocacy (3 credits) – satisfies 3 credits of Experiential Courses
- 2410-Constitutional Law–Powers (2 or 3 credits)
- 6 credits in Experiential Courses
Graduation Requirements:
- Completion of upper level Advanced Research and Writing (fulfilled through various courses, seminars, clinics, journals/law review, or independent study/research).
- Completion of Career Development Employment Survey (questions about this should be directed to the Office of Career and Professional Development)
- Completion of Financial Aid Exit Interview (questions about this should be directed to the Office of Financial Aid)
- Completion of Perkins Loan Exit Interview, if applicable (questions about this should be directed to the Student Accounts Office)
No more than 19 credits under the 83 credit requirement can be applied toward graduation from non-classroom courses:
- field placements (including externships)
- moot court or other competitions
- Law Review or Journal
- independent studies
- course exchanges
- dual-degree courses
- Structured Study Group Leader, Legal Methods Student Leader, and similar teaching assistant courses
- any course for credit that is substantially based upon time expended outside a regularly scheduled class time at Mitchell Hamline or another ABA-approved law school
No more than 15 credits may be earned toward the J.D. degree through courses that are designated “distance education courses.” A distance education course is one in which students are separated from the faculty member or each other for more than one-third of the instruction and the instruction involves the use of technology to support regular and substantive interaction among students and between the students and the faculty member, either synchronously or asynchronously. Source: ABA Standard 306 (a).
*Students matriculating fall 2014 or earlier are required to earn a minimum of 86 credits plus the requirements listed above.
LL.M. Students
Mitchell Hamline’s LL.M. Program is designed for foreign law graduates who possess a law degree (LL.B. or equivalent) from outside of the United States. The program requires students to complete 24 credits including an introductory course to familiarize them with the American Legal System. Students may complete a master’s thesis. Most students complete the program in one academic year (fall and spring) of study during which they focus on a specialized area of law.