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):
- LAW 1000-Civil Dispute Resolution (4 credits)
- LAW 1040-Torts: The Common Law Process (4 credits)
- LAW 1015-Criminal Law: Statutory Interpretation (3 credits)
- LAW 1010-Contracts: Transactional Law (4 credits)
- LAW 1035-Property: Jurisprudential and Comparative Analysis (4 credits)
- LAW 1005-Constitutional Powers: Advanced Legal Reasoning (3 credits)
- LAW 1025-Legal Analysis, Research, and Communication (LARC) I (3 credits)
- LAW 1026-Legal Analysis, Research, and Communication (LARC) II (3 credits)
- LAW 1030-Legal Methods (1 credit)
- LAW 1020-Foundations of Practice (1 credit)
Upper Division Requirements:
- LAW 2015-Professional Responsibility (3 credits)
- LAW 2000/2001-Advocacy (3 credits) OR LAW 2003-Advocacy: Trial (2 credits) and LAW 2002-Advocacy: Appellate (1 credit)
- LAW 2010-Negotiation (3 credits) OR LAW 2020-Transactions and Settlements (3 credits)
- LAW 2005-Constitutional Liberties (3 credits)
- LAW 1020-Foundations of Practice (for part-time students, 1 credit)
- Upper Level Advanced Research and Writing Requirement (Long Paper: fulfilled through various courses, seminars, clinics, Mitchell Hamline publications, or independent long paper)
Graduation Requirements:
- 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 culture and inclusion 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 Culture 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 43 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:
- LAW 3047-Bar Preparation Strategies: MPT (offered only fall semester)
- LAW 3115-Constitutional Criminal Procedure: Investigation and Interrogation
- LAW 3195-Evidence
- LAW3046-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:
- LAW 1030-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):
- LAW 1000-Civil Dispute Resolution (4 credits)
- LAW 1040-Torts: The Common Law Process (4 credits)
- LAW 1015-Criminal Law: Statutory Interpretation (3 credits)
- LAW 1010-Contracts: Transactional Law (4 credits)
- LAW 1035-Property: Jurisprudential and Comparative Analysis (4 credits)
- LAW 1005-Constitutional Powers: Advanced Legal Reasoning (3 credits)
- LAW 1025-Lawyering: Advice and Persuasion (effective Fall 2020, the title of this course will be Legal Analysis, Research, and Communication (LARC) I) (3 credits)
- LAW 1026-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:
- LAW 2015-Professional Responsibility (2 or 3 credits)
- LAW 2000/2001-Advocacy (3 credits) OR LAW 2003-Advocacy: Trial (2 credits) and LAW 2002-Advocacy: Appellate (1 credit)
- LAW 2010-Negotiation (3 credits) OR LAW 2020-Transactions and Settlements (3 credits)
- LAW 2005-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 culture and inclusion 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 Culture 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:
- LAW 3047-Bar Preparation Strategies: MPT (offered only fall semester)
- LAW 3115-Constitutional Criminal Procedure: Investigation and Interrogation
- LAW 3195-Evidence
- LAW3046-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)
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.