Two-year pass rate of 96.8% (class of 2020) 94.6% (2023 First-Time takers)[7]
Website
law.slu.edu
Historyedit
The Law School was initially founded by Judge Richard Aylett Buckner and opened in 1843, making it the first law school to open west of the Mississippi River.[8][9] The original Law School closed at some point after Buckner died in 1847. The Law School was re-established in 1908 in the Midtown neighborhood on the corner of Leffingwell Avenue and Locust Street.[10] In its 1908 re-establishment, the law school accepted its first female law students.[11] In August 2013, the school moved to its current location, Scott Hall, a new facility at 100 North Tucker Boulevard in Downtown Saint Louis.[12]
Degree programsedit
The Law School offers both J.D. and LL.M degrees. In addition to the law school-specific programs, the Law School offers a variety of dual-degree programs:[13]
In their first year, full-time students are required to take the Law School's core curriculum. This includes 31 hours of coursework in civil procedure, constitutional law, contract law, criminal law, property law, torts, a course in legal analysis, research, & communications ("LARC"), as well as an introduction to legal studies course.[14] After their first year, full-time students are allowed greater flexibility in their course selection, choosing from a vast selection of upper-division course electives to complete the required 91 credit hours.[15] While students enjoy a lot of freedom in their upper-divisional schedules, the ABA and the Law School does require them to take a legal professions course, six hours of "experiential courses" (i.e., classes that give students the opportunity to practice their professional skills), and a seminar class where students will write a long-form legal research essay.[16]
Part-time programedit
The Law School offers both a part-time day program and a part-time evening program.[17] Students in the part-time program can choose between an 11.5 hour and an 8.5 hour per semester schedule for their first two years that matches the classes the full-time students take.[18] Following the first two years, part-time students select electives with the same requirements as full-time students and typically graduate with their J.D. in four to five years. As of 2023, the part-time program is ranked 29th by U.S. News & World Report.[19]
LL.M programedit
The Law School offers two LL.M programs. One of the programs is an LL.M in American law for foreign lawyers,[20] which is a one-year program for foreign law school graduates seeking to start working in the United States. The Law School also offers an LL.M. in health law.[21] The Law School has consistently been ranked first in Health Care Law by U.S. News & World Report.[22]
The center was first established in 1982 and focuses on the intersection between health care systems and the legal system. The Center has been ranked first in the country by U.S. News & World Report 16 of the last 17 years.[24] The center has twelve full-time faculty members and four affiliated faculty members who publish work in law, medicine and ethical journals.[25] It offers a range of health law courses taught by full-time faculty, including foundational and specialized health law courses each semester. The Center also hosts the Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy and hosts a distinguished speaker series as well as an annual Health Law Symposium.[26]
Students involved in the Center also have the opportunity to spend a semester in Washington, D.C. clerking full time for health-related federal agency. Past agencies have included the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Competition's Health Care Division.[27]
Additionally, there are several ways for students to get involved with international law outside of the classroom. There are multiple opportunities to study law in foreign countries with study abroad programs in Madrid, Berlin, Orléans, Paris, Bochum, and Cork. The school has a Jessup Moot Court Team. In 2023, the team took second place in the Midwest Regional Rounds held in Chicago and won third best brief.[28] Previous, the team had advanced to the semi-final rounds of the 2009 Southwest Super Regionals in Houston, Texas, and subsequently won third place for best brief overall. The school also has a chapter the International Law Student Association, commonly called ILSA, that is student led and organized.[29]
CICL regularly hosts speakers and various events to promote the legal development and involvement of Law School faculty and students in the field of international law. In April of 2023, in conjunction with the Saint Louis University Law Journal, CICL hosted a symposium entitled The Legitimacy and Legality of War: From Philosophical Foundations to Emerging Problems. The two day event focused the legal intricacies of war with a special focus on the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War.[30]
William C. Wefel Center for Employment Lawedit
The Center was founded in 1987 and offers a range of courses addressing the rights and responsibilities of employers and employees, including the prohibition of discrimination; establishment of collective bargaining relationships in the private and public sector; regulation of employee benefits; health and safety in the workplace; and arbitration and mediation of labor and employment disputes. The Center has eight full-time faculty. To obtain a concentration in employment law, students must complete 11 hours of approved coursework in the employment field and write a paper of publishable quality on an employment law topic. All students in the concentration take the basic law labor course. Every year, the student-sponsored Employment Law Association and the Center offer a variety of extra-curricular programs for students.[31][32]
Students involved in the Center have the opportunity to spend a semester in Washington, D.C. working federal agencies such as the Department of Labor, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).[33]
Clinicsedit
Law School professors and students annually provide more than 36,000 hours of free legal service, totaling an estimated $4+ million, to the community through the School of Law's Legal Clinics and public service programs.[34] The Legal Clinics offer upper-divisional students practical experience while providing legal services to the community. Students are able to appear in court on cases under Missouri's Student Practice Rule. A full-time faculty member supervises the in-house students.
Children's Permanency Clinic, offering legal services on behalf of children and families in Saint Louis with the goal of achieving stability and permanence for the children.[36]
Civil Advocacy Clinic, offers students opportunities to work on litigation matters with a focus on civil rights issues, consumer protection matters, landlord-tenant disputes, and municipal ordinance violations.[37]
Criminal Defense Clinic, with the assistance of a full-time social worker, students work to provide a holistic solution to people charged with criminal offenses.[38]
Entrepreneurship & Community Development Clinic, students provide transactional representation to entrepreneurs, nonprofits community groups, and small businesses.[39]
Human Rights at Home Litigation Clinic, focusing on securing fundamental human rights for vulnerable populations, students provide legal advice and counseling to clients, draft pleadings, and interact with human rights legal systems such as the U.N. Special Rapporteur.[40]
Examinationsedit
First-year students take four final examinations each semester, one for each class other than legal research and writing. All other students self-schedule their exams. Generally the exam period is two weeks long; graduating students are required to complete exams in a shorter time. Students may choose between typing their exams on laptop computers or handwriting them.
Admissionsedit
The 2021 incoming class accepted 536 of 887 applicants for an admissions rate of 60.4%. Of those accepted, 193 enrolled as Full-Time students and 18 as Part-Time for a yield rate of 39.4%. The median LSAT score was 156 and the median undergraduate GPA was 3.5.[41]
The 2021 incoming class has a gender distribution of 55% female, 44.5% male, and 0.5% Gender Identity X (not exclusively male or female).[42] The 2021 incoming class consisted of 159 white students, 21 Black students, 11 Asian students, and 3 American Indian/Alaskan Native students. 14 students were Hispanic or Latino of any race.[43]
109 undergraduate institutions were represented in the 2021 incoming class and students were from 29 different U.S. states and 3 foreign countries.[44]
Facilitiesedit
The Law School is located in Scott Hall, a 12-story facility located at 100 North Tucker Boulevard in Downtown Saint Louis.[45] The building contains classrooms; the Vincent C. Immel Law Library, named after a former professor who taught at the Law School from 1958 to 2004,[46] the school's administrative and faculty offices; event space; and a restaurant called "Chris' at the Docket." The legal clinics are housed on the 7th floor of the building. The 12th floor, which was added to the building during renovations, is almost entirely glass, is home to a court room that occasionally hears appeals for the Eastern District of Missouri and offers views of the surrounding downtown area. The school's downtown location puts it in close proximity to many law firms and city, state, and federal courts.
Prior to Scott Hall, the law school was housed in three buildings on the main SLU campus in Midtown. Morrissey Hall housed the bulk of the law school, including the law library, four large lecture halls, faculty offices, and some administrative space. Queen's Daughters Hall is a historic building and housed the rest of the administrative offices and meeting rooms. The law school also had a separate clinic building located on Spring Street, one block from the main building. The clinic was renovated and enlarged in 2008.[47]
Rankingsedit
In the 2024 U.S. News & World Report rankings, Saint Louis University School of Law was ranked 94th in the "Best Law Schools" list.[48] The Law School's Center for Health Law Studies was ranked as the best in the country.[49] The Part-Time Program was ranked 29th.[50]
In the 2012 category "When Lawyers Do the Grading," the School of Law was ranked 67 by recruiters and hiring partners at highly rated firms.[51]
Student publicationsedit
The Law School has three student-edited academic law journals:
Saint Louis University Law Journal[52] - The Journal is the Law School's flagship law review and its oldest and largest law journal. It publishes four times a year; the General Issue, Teaching Issue, Symposium Issue, and the Childress Issue named after Richard J. Childress, who served as Dean of the Law School for 15 years.[53] The Symposium[54] and Childress Issues[55] are accompanied by academic events hosted at the Law School each year. The students who work on the journal solicit and review articles prior to publishing them. The Journal also publishes an associated Law Journal Online on a rolling basis. The Law Journal Online is host to articles between 2,000 to 6,000 words, making them shorter than the traditional print issues.[56]
Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy[57] - The Journal of Health Law and Policy is a specialty journal that is paired with the Law School's Health Law Center. It provides in-depth analyses of topical and developing issues in health law and policy. It publishes twice a year and hosts a spring health law symposium together with the center.
ABA Journal of Labor & Employment[58] - The Labor and Employment Journal is a specialty journal focusing on labor and employment issues. In 2018 the Law School was chosen by the ABA to become the new editorial home to its labor and employment journal. The journal itself dates back to 1985 and provides discussions of current developments in labor and employment law to aide practicing attorneys, judges, administrators, and the public.
Additionally, from 1981 through 2017 the school published the Saint Louis University Public Law Review. This law journal focused on legal issues of public interest and public policy and to provide an uncensored forum to legal scholars, practicing attorneys, legislators, and public interest advocates for debating topics of public interest law.[59]
Other publicationsedit
The SLU Law Brief Alumni Magazine[60] is a publication about the law school that is distributed to alumni and supporters with articles written by faculty, alumni, and students.
Students at one time published the 1843 Reporter, an independent student newspaper administered and funded without assistance from the school.[61] It published bi-monthly and sought to foster a sense of community and on-campus dialogue, as well as provide an outlet for students wishing to publish in a non-journal forum.
Student organizationsedit
Saint Louis University School of Law has over 30 student organizations. The organizations are typically student-driven and hold elections where student members can be chosen for leadership positions within the club. The organizations' funding is distributed in part by the law school's student government, the Student Bar Association (SBA). Organizations include:[62]
The Class of 2021 reported a 90.2% employment rate for graduates employed in both full-time bar passage required (71.7% of graduates) and full-time JD advantage (18.5% of graduates) positions. 114 graduates stayed in Missouri while the next two most common employment locations were Illinois (22) and California (3)[65]
Costsedit
The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at the Law School for the 2023-2024 academic year is $71,054 for Full-Time students and $56,990 for Part-Time students.[66] The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $249,077.[67] More than 92% of students received a merit-based scholarship.[68]
Hon. Michael A. Wolff; Professor Emeritus, Dean Emeritus. Former Chief Justice of the Missouri Supreme Court.[70][71]
Pastedit
Joseph J. Simeone; from 1947 to 1971. Judge for the Missouri Court of Appeals in the Eastern District (1971-1977) and Judge for the Missouri Supreme Court (1977-1979).[72]
Charles B. Blackmar; from 1966 to 1982. Judge on the Missouri Supreme Court from 1982 to 1992, Chief Justice of the Missouri Supreme Court from 1989 to 1991.[73]
Michael Joseph Reagan; from 1982 to 1988, also an alum of the Law School. Former Federal Judge for the Southern District of Illinois.[78]
Jean Constance Hamilton; from 1986-87 and in 1989. Federal Judge for the Eastern District of Missouri from 1990 to 2013 when she assumed senior status.[79]
Stanisław Frankowski; from 1983 to 2016. Helped found the Center for International and Comparative Law in 1992.[80]
United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuitedit
Theodore McMillian; Class of 1949. Second Black student to graduate from the Law School after Alphonse Lynch. First Black person to serve on the Saint Louis Circuit Court (1956-1972) and the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Eastern District of Missouri (1972-1978). Nominated by Jimmy Carter 3 August 1978 and confirmed by the Senate 22 September 1978. Assumed Senior Status in 2003 and served in that position until he died in 2006.[86][87][88]
United States District Court, Eastern District of Missouriedit
Stephen Robert Clark, Sr.; Class of 1991. Nominated by Donald Trump 23 January 2019 and confirmed by the Senate 22 May 2019. Became Chief Judge for the Eastern District in 2022 and has served in that position since then.[89]
Donald Julius Stohr; Class of 1958. 1960 Republican nominee for Missouri Attorney General, losing to Thomas F. Eagleton. First Assistant County Counselor for Saint Louis County from 1963 to 1966. U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri from 1973 to 1976. Nominated by George H.W. Bush 14 November 1991 and confirmed by the Senate 13 April 1992. Assumed Senior Status in 2006 and died in 2015.[91][92]
Edward Louis Filippine; Class of 1957. Nominated by Jimmy Carter 22 June 1977 and confirmed by the Senate 21 July 1977. Served as Chief Judge for the Eastern District from 1990 to 1995 when he assumed Senior Status and has served in that position since then.[93]
Clyde Sylvester Cahill Jr.; Class of 1951. Nominated by Jimmy Carter 2 April 1980 and confirmed by the Senate 21 May 1980. Assumed senior status on 9 April 1992 and died on 18 August 2004.[94]
United States District Court, Southern District of Illinoisedit
Stephen Patrick McGlynn; Class of 1987. Judge for the Illinois Appellate Court, Fifth District (2005-2006), Judge for the Illinois Circuit Court, Twentieth Judicial Circuit (2010-2012, 2013-2020 (short stint in private practice 2012-2013). Nominated by Donald Trump 4 February 2020, confirmed by the Senate 16 September 2020 and has served in that position since then.[95]
Michael Joseph Reagan; Class of 1980. Nominated by Bill Clinton 11 May 2000 and confirmed by the Senate 3 October 2000. Served as Chief Judge for the Southern District from 2014 to 2019 when he retired.[96]
Paul E. Riley; Class of 1967. Nominated by Bill Clinton 16 August 1994 and confirmed by the Senate 6 October 1994. Served until his death in 2001.[97]
William Donald Stiehl; Class of 1949 (LL.B). Special Assistant Attorney General for Illinois (1970-1973). Nominated by Ronald Reagan 14 May 1986 and confirmed by the Senate 16 June 1869. Served as Chief Judge for the Southern District from 1992 to 1993. Assumed Senior Status in 1996 and served in that position until his death in 2016.[98]
Omer Poos; Class of 1924 (LL.B). Nominated by Dwight D. Eisenhower 16 August 1958 and confirmed by the Senate 19 August 1958. Served as Chief Judge for the Southern District from 1966 to 1972 and assumed Senior Status in 1973 until his death in 1976.[99]
United States District Court, Central District of Illinoisedit
Sara Lynn Darrow; Class of 1997. Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of Illinois (2003-2011). Nominated by Barack Obama 5 January 2011 and confirmed by the Senate 2 August 2011. Serves as Chief Judge for the Central District since 2019.[100]
Michael Patrick McCuskey; Class of 1975. Chief Public Defender for Marshall County, Illinois (1976-1988), Judge for the Illinois Circuit Court, Tenth Judicial Circuit (1988-1990), Justice for the Illinois Appellate Court, Third District (1990-1998). Nominated by Bill Clinton 31 July 1997 and confirmed by the Senate 3 April 1998. Served as Chief Judge for the Central District from 2004-2012 and assumed Senior Status in 2013 until 2014 when he retired.[101]
Michael Martin Mihm; Class of 1967. Nominated by Ronald Reagan 27 July 1982 and confirmed by the Senate 5 August 1982. Served as Chief Judge for the Central District from 1991-1998. Assumed Senior Status in 2009 and has served in that position since then.[102]
United States District Court, Eastern District of Michiganedit
Stephen Joseph Murphy III; Class of 1987. Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan (1992-2000). Nominated by George W. Bush 15 April 2008, confirmed by the Senate 24 June 2008 and has served in that position since then.[103]
United States District Court, District of South Dakotaedit
Karen Elizabeth Schreier; Class of 1981. Nominated by Bill Clinton on 8 March 1999 and confirmed by the Senate 30 June 1999 and has served since. Chief Judge for the District from 2006 to 2013.[104]
United States District Court, Western District of Arkansasedit
Hugh Franklin Waters; Class of 1964. Nominated by Ronald Reagan on 28 August 1981 and confirmed by the Senate 21 October 1981. Served as Chief Judge for the District from 1981 to 1997 when he assumed senior status. Remained in senior status until his death in 2002.[105]
Richard J. Rabbitt; Class of 1960. Representative in the Missouri House of Representatives from 1960 to 1976, Speaker of the House from 1973 to 1976.[123]
^Hill, Steven; Heller, Kevin; Seixas-Nunes, Afonso; Heathcote, Gina; d'Aspremont, Jean; Mignot-Mahdavi, Rebecca; Katagiri, Nori; Dannenbaum, Tom; Johnston, Katie; Buchan, Russell; Roscini, Marco; Tsagourias, Nick; Murray, Daragh (14 April 2023). "2023--The Legitimacy and Legality of War: From Philosophical Foundations to Emerging Problems". Law Journal Symposia: Center for International and Comparative Law.