Academics

Juris Doctor (JD) Requirements

October 2010

A. Credit Requirements

Students must complete 84 law credits in order to earn the JD from Duke Law. JD/LLM students must complete an additional 20 credits in international, foreign or comparative law (for a total of 104 credits) to earn both degrees. Students pursuing a dual degree with another school (e.g., JD/MA or JD/MBA) must complete 72 law credits plus all non-law credits required by the dual program.

Regularly-Scheduled Law School Classes. All students, including dual degree students, must complete at least 64.5 credits in regularly-scheduled Law School classes. Regularly-scheduled Law School classes include:

  1. Law School courses and seminars, including courses cross-listed at the Law School but originating in another school or department at the University;
  2. Law School clinics;
  3. in-class credits completed at another law school, including transfer credits and credits completed by students visiting away at another law school;
  4. credits from approved study in a foreign exchange program.

Regularly-scheduled Law School classes do not include:

  1. independent study work;
  2. non-law classes (even those taken by dual-degree students);
  3. research tutorials;
  4. externships; and
  5. ad hoc seminars.

If a JD student completes the minimum 84 law credits to graduate, the student may earn 19.5 of those credits in non-regularly scheduled law class hours (e.g., independent study, ad hoc seminars). A dual degree student who earns 72 law credits toward his dual degree is limited to 7.5 credits of non-regularly scheduled law classes.

While all students must monitor compliance with this requirement, JD candidates who intend to spend a semester in a faculty-mentored externship and students earning a dual degree through another school at the University must pay particular attention to this requirement. For example, a JD/MA student who completes 72 law credits for her degree could write a 3-credit independent study, take a 2-credit ad hoc seminar and participate in a 2-credit domestic externship but could not take any additional non-regularly scheduled law classes for purposes of her law requirements.

B. Upper-Level Academic Requirements

All law students must satisfy the following three requirements after their first-year of study: (i) an upper-level writing requirement, (ii) a 2-credit legal ethics requirement; and, (iii) a professional skills requirement. These three requirements, as well as the credit requirement described above, are mandated by the American Bar Association. Double-counting of courses for these requirements is not permitted.

1. Upper-level Writing Requirement

The ABA requires all graduating students to complete at least one substantial written product after 1L. Law School Rule 3-31 specifies how a student can fulfill this requirement at Duke. In short, students must write an original analytic paper, typically 30 pages in length, that involves significant independent research under the supervision of a faculty member. The paper may be written for a class or seminar or as an independent study project, law journal note.

In order for the paper to fulfill the upper-level writing requirement, a student must ask the faculty member for whom he or she intends to write the paper if the faculty member is willing to supervise the paper for purposes of the upper-level writing requirement. If the faculty member agrees, the student should complete the upper-level writing registration form and submit the form (signed by the supervising faculty member) to the Office of the Registrar before the drop/add period ends. Students must be engaged in or have already completed their writing project by the fifth semester of law school. Consequently, the upper-level writing registration form for a chosen project must be submitted no later than the end of the drop-add period of the student's fifth semester.

An important part of the upper-level writing requirement is the draft/feedback/revision process. During the course of working with the faculty supervisor, the student must produce a draft of the paper for review and revise the paper based on the faculty member’s comments. Once the paper is complete, the student should submit the upper-level writing certification form (signed by the supervising faculty member) to the Office of the Registrar to document that he or she has satisfied the requirement.

Courses with writing components that ordinarily do not satisfy the writing requirement include (but are not limited to):

2. Legal Ethics Requirement

Students are required to take a minimum of 2 credits of legal ethics coursework in order to graduate, with one of those credits focused on instruction in the Model Rules of Professional Conduct and the second credit focused on the application of the Model Rules. Duke Law offers classes every semester that satisfy the ethics requirement in its entirety. Classes that fulfill the ethics requirement in its entirety are Ethics and The Law of Lawyering (LAW 238), Ethics in Action (LAW 539), and Criminal Justice Ethics (LAW 317.01). Note that beginning with Fall 2011, the one-credit class (Ethics and the Rules of Professional Conduct (LAW 246)) will not be taught at the Law School.

One-Credit Rules Class. Any students who chose to fulfill part of the ethics requirement by taking Ethics and the Rules of Professional Conduct (LAW 246) prior to Fall 2011, must complete the second credit of ethics by taking a designated course or clinic. In past semesters, the following classes paired with the Ethics and the Rules of Professional Conduct course fulfilled the ethics requirement in its entirety:

*Readings in Ethics (LAW 611) are year-long, credit-no credit seminars. Students who took Law 246 prior to Fall 2011 could pair with Ethics and the Rules of Professional Conduct in order to satisfy the ethics requirement. Students may take only one Readings in Ethics seminar for credit and must maintain enrollment in the seminar for the entire year in order to earn course credit.

Prerequisite for Clinics and Externships.

A student must take a legal ethics class that is designated as providing instruction on the Model Rules of Professional Conduct (e.g., The Law of Lawyering, Ethics in Action, or Ethics and the Rules of Professional Conduct) before enrolling in a clinic or domestic externship. In unusual circumstances, the appropriate faculty clinician or Dean for Public Interest and Pro Bono may grant a waiver of the ethics requirement for a clinic or domestic externship, respectively.

Moreover, a student who took Ethics & the Rules of Professional Conduct (246) prior to 2011 may fulfill the ethics requirement in its entirety by also taking one of the following clinics:

Professional Skills Requirement

The ABA requires all students to receive substantial instruction in “professional skills generally regarded as necessary for effective and responsible participation in the legal profession.” In the past, students have satisfied this requirement by completing a clinic, externship or capstone project with a substantial skills component or by taking at least one of the following courses:

*Although some of the courses listed above offer opportunities to fulfill the ethics, professional skills, and/or upper-level writing requirements, students must satisfy each of the degree requirements separately (e.g., through three separate courses).