Because we are ambitious, forward-thinking, and innovative.

At Duke, we deliver academic rigor in an environment where creativity, experimentation, and innovation rule. We continue to push new boundaries with bold strategic expansions in our faculty, clinics, interdisciplinary centers, law journals, public interest opportunities, and high-tech facilities.

Because we believe in the development of the whole person.

Great lawyers must be intellectually disciplined, creative problem-solvers, and critical thinkers. None of that is compromised here. But great lawyers also require a strong ethical compass, leadership skills, and the ability to adapt to unanticipated circumstances. They need to work well in teams and know how to bring out the best in others. They must be able to create a positive vision.

The Duke Blueprint is a powerful set of principles for leadership growth that is integrated into every aspect of our community. The Blueprint maps a collaborative commitment by students and faculty to work together toward knowledge, application, and improvement of the law. It also underlines the expectation that your experience here will be transformative of the whole person, and not merely a means to obtain a formal credential.

EMBODY INTEGRITY
ACT ETHICALLY
LIVE WITH PURPOSE
BUILD RELATIONSHIPS
SERVE THE COMMUNITY
PRACTICE PROFESSIONALISM
CREATE YOUR OWN BLUEPRINT

Because we anticipate the emerging issues of the next decade.

Our first-rate scholars and teachers are engaged in the top issues of the day and in the most important and rapidly changing fields:

• intellectual property
• biotechnology
• business and finance
• telecommunications
• constitutional law
• international law
• international trade and human rights
• national security and terrorism
• environmental studies

Interdisciplinary Centers & Programs

• Arts Project
• Center for Genome Ethics, Law, and Policy
• Center for International and Comparative Law
• Center for the Study of the Public Domain
• Global Capital Markets Center
• Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions
• Program in Public Law

Because at Duke "community" is not an abstract claim; it is a tangible reality.

Action matters and people, working together, make things happen. Faculty invite collaboration and involve students in their advocacy and research. Intensive clinical experience is guaranteed. Classes are small and challenging, and what happens in the classroom does not just stay there: speakers, debates, panels, student groups, and conferences ensure constant intellectual engagement.

Faculty-Student Collaboration

“Students are integrally involved in all of the cases I handle. They participate in the strategy sessions with other lawyers, do research, edit and comment on my briefs, and attend the oral arguments. I benefit enormously from their help at every stage. My hope is that it also is a valuable learning experience for them as they get to see how what they are learning in the classroom is applied in constitutional litigation.”

Erwin Chemerinsky
Alston & Bird Professor of Law and Political Science

“We were the legal team. That’s what Professor Chemerinsky said the first time we met with him," recalls Michelle Riskind '06. " Instead of having the resources of an entire state, he was counting on us. I loved it. It’s work that will truly make a difference.”

Riskind calls helping Professor Erwin Chemerinsky prepare the merits brief for the United States Supreme Court in Van Orden v. Perry the most exciting thing she did in law school. Far from feeling pressured by his words, Riskind says they inspired her to work “tirelessly and endlessly” on the case, a challenge to the public display of the Ten Commandments.