A. Graduation Requirements: Students must complete a minimum of 91 hours of course work. Students must complete the 30 core course (first year) hours; complete Legal Profession; complete a seminar and a humanities course (identified by an H). Students entering law school in the fall of 2006 and later are also required to complete one professional skills course.
B. Bar Examination Courses: Students are strongly encouraged to take as many bar exam courses as possible. Many bar exam courses are offered in the evening. Therefore, students should take these bar courses at the earliest opportunity.
C. Evening Courses Offered Every Year
- Evidence - Fall
- Business Associations -Fall
- Trusts and Estates - Spring
- Legal Profession -Spring
- Taxation - Fall
- Trial Advocacy I and II - Fall and Spring
- Moot Court I (evening or Saturday) - Fall & Spring
- Civil Practice - Fall and Spring
- Patent Law - Fall
- Advanced Real Estate Transactions - Spring
D. Evening Alternate Year Courses: Some evening program courses are scheduled on a rotation, which ensures that students will have access to all bar courses during their four-year tenure in the program. Therefore, certain bar and other courses are offered on an every-other year basis. The following course rotation is currently in effect:
Courses offered in academic years which begin with an even number, (i.e. 2006-2007, 2008-2009)
- Bankruptcy
- Commercial Transactions
- Conflicts
- Constitutional Law II
- Corporate Tax
- Federal Courts
- Real Estate Transactions
- Secured Transactions
Courses offered in academic years which begin with an odd number, (i.e. 2007-2008, 2009-2010)
- Administrative Law
- Criminal Procedure I
- Fiduciary Tax
- Estate Planning
- Family Law
- Labor Law
- Remedies
E. Summer Courses:(Most frequently offered subjects)
- Two bar exam subject matter courses
- Civil Practice
- Clinical Program
- Two to four elective courses
F. Certificate Programs: Saint Louis University School of Law Centers for Excellence offer certificate programs for students in Health Law, Employment Law and International Law. These certificate programs have certain course requirements. Students who wish to pursue a certificate program should review the information on the web site, contact the program chair and enroll in the certificate program.
G. Concentrations: The School of Law has adopted five concentration programs that allow students to concentrate their legal studies in particular fields. These areas of concentration are:
- Business Transaction Law
- Taxation
- Criminal Litigation Skills
- Civil Litigation Skills
- Urban Development, Land Use and Environmental Law
Each of these concentrations has unique requirements of course work and clinical participation. Students can learn about the particular course and clinical requirements of these concentrations by accessing the Law School “Academic” web site and then selecting the individual Concentration forms. If students wish to obtain one of these concentrations, they must pay particular attention to the requirements and make sure that they select the appropriate courses at the earliest opportunity as some of these courses may be offered on an every-other-year cycle.
H. Pre-requisite/Co-requisite classes: Attention should be paid to foundational courses, which serve as a pre-requisite or co-requisite for other courses in certificate and concentration programs. For example, Health Law is a pre-requisite for many health law classes. Taxation serves as a prerequisite for many courses in the Taxation concentration. Business Associations and Taxation are prerequisites for the Business Transactional Law concentration. Evidence and Civil Practice are prerequisites for many courses in the Civil Litigation Skills concentration. Evidence is a prerequisite for the Trial Advocacy I class. Legal Profession is a prerequisite for many clinical programs and externships. Please review the “Course Descriptions and Seminar Descriptions” to determine whether courses have pre or co-requisite requirements.
I. Legal Profession: Legal Profession must be taken by evening students “at the first opportunity”. Therefore, students must take that course the first time it is offered during the evening after they have completed their first 30 hours of required course work. This will typically be in the spring semester of their second year in the part-time program.
A full-time course load is 12-16 hours per semester. Students may take up to 17 hours in any semester if their CGPA is 3.3 or higher or if they have the written permission of the Dean of Students or the Dean of the Academic Program. Students must pay the full-time tuition rate if they register for 12 or more hours.
Students enrolled in more than 12 hours are not permitted to work more than twenty (20) hours per week under the American Bar Association Law School Accreditation rules.
Please be sure to monitor the registration web site for information about registration dates and times, as well as the use of the Banner registration system.
