Law (J.D.)

A national leader in legal education, Chicago-Kent offers J.D. students a wide variety of challenging courses and seminars, both theoretical and practical, geared to enhance their education and academic experience.

At Chicago-Kent College of Law, legal innovation and academic excellence are front and center. Here students find a legal writing program that sets the standard for American law schools. Chicago-Kent has a fee-generating clinic that rivals countless law firms in Chicago, one of the nation’s largest legal markets. Our trial and appellate programs prepare students not only for success at competitions but also for excellence in the practice of law. And our technology initiatives are geared toward transforming legal practice both here and around the world. Chicago-Kent's culture is challenging and collaborative, powered by enterprising students, forward-looking faculty, and influential alumni.

Program Overview

Chicago-Kent’s exceptionally broad curriculum offers students a wide variety of challenging courses and seminars, both theoretical and practical, geared to enhance your basic doctrinal education and enrich your academic experience.

Chicago-Kent offers both full-time and part-time divisions. Entrance, scholastic, and graduate requirements are the same for both divisions, and full-time faculty teach in both divisions. Three years are normally required for full-time day division students to complete the 87 credit hours needed for the Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree. In addition to traditional courses, the curriculum offers a wide variety of innovative courses and seminars to enrich the student’s academic experience.

The First Year

The first year of legal education at IIT Chicago-Kent consists of required courses in Torts, Contracts, Criminal Law, Property, Civil Procedure, and Legislative Process and the first two semesters of the legal research and writing program. These courses embrace the essential legal relationships in society—those based upon agreement, upon ownership, upon wrongs—and the method of their enforcement and redress. First-year students learn to ask questions about the formation and dissolution of these legal relationships, and to understand that asking the right question is an essential skill.

The development of that skill is reinforced in the legal research and writing program, where advocacy on paper replaces advocacy in person. Particularly in the first year of the program, learning the mechanics of legal writing is subsidiary to learning the methods of analysis that guide all lawyers' tasks. Chicago-Kent's unique introduction to the study of law integrates information technology with the legal research and writing program. Students learn to briefcases with the help of these technologies and to develop an outline of their understanding of the law that can change and grow as they progress through the first year.

Any first-year student who requests a faculty advisor will be assigned one. Whenever possible, students who have indicated an interest in a particular substantive area of the law are given to a faculty member whose scholarly work is in that area.

Advanced Years

Mastery of legal analysis is the starting point of legal education at Chicago-Kent. After students complete their required courses, they may then pursue a deeper understanding of a particular area of substantive law and refine the practice skills that will enable them to translate that understanding into effective professional conduct.

Requirements for the J.D.

To receive the Juris Doctor, all students must successfully complete 87 credit hours. In addition, students must successfully complete all required courses and maintain a cumulative grade point average of at least 2.300.

The required courses are listed below in the normal sequence offered to day division and evening division students; however, the courses and their sequence are subject to change.

First Semester

• Contracts
• Criminal Law
• Torts
• Legal Writing 1

Second Semester

• Civil Procedure
• Property
• Legislation
• Legal Writing 2
• Professional Development and Identity

Third Semester

• Constitutional Law

Chicago-Kent graduates can be found in a wide variety of J.D.-required, J.D.-preferred, and nontraditional jobs, including:

• Administrative law judge
• Attorney
• Compliance officer
• In-house counsel
• Judge
• JAG corps officer
• General Counsel
• Law firm associate or partner
• Law librarian
• Legal recruiter
• Legislator
• Litigator
• Mediator
• Public defender
• Prosecutor
• Solo practitioner