Law school
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[[Image:TTlaw.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The [[Texas Tech University School of Law|School of Law]] at [[Texas Tech University]] in [[Lubbock, Texas]], [[United States|US]]]]
A '''law school''' (also known as a '''school of law''' or '''college of law''') is an institution specializing in [[legal education]].
== Post-graduate law degrees ==
[[Image:Juris Doctor diploma.jpg|right|thumb|A typical juris doctor diploma, here from [[Suffolk University Law School]]]]
[[Image:Austin Hall, Harvard University.JPG|thumb|right|Founded in [[1817]], [[Harvard Law School]] is the oldest continuously operating law school in the [[United States]].]]
Law schools in [[Canada]] and the [[United States]] typically require three [[year]]s of study after completing an [[undergraduate degree]]. Programs which offer part-time study or joint-degree programs may last four or more years such as the joint BA/LL.B or BA/JD programs in Australia. Upon graduation from law school, students are awarded a [[professional degree]], the [[Juris Doctor]] (J.D.) or Doctor of Law degree in the U.S. or the [[Bachelor of Laws]] (LL.B.; or, from the [[University of Toronto]] and [[Queen's University]], a J.D.) in Common law Canada and Bachelor of Civil Law (B.C.L) in Civil Law Canada (Quebec) and some schools in Louisiana. Some schools also offer a [[Master of Laws]] (LL.M.) program, offered as a way of specializing in a particular area of law. A further possible degree is the academic [[Doctorate|doctoral degree]] in law of [[Doctor of Laws|Doctor of Juridical Science]] (S.J.D.) (in the U.S)., or the Doctorate of Laws (LL.D.) in Canada, or the Ph.D. in Law from European or Australasian universities.
In addition to attending law school, in most jurisdictions a graduate of a law school is required to pass the state or provincial [[bar examination]] in order to practice law. The [[Multistate Bar Examination]] is part of the bar examination in almost all [[United States]] jurisdictions; generally, the standardized, [[common law]] subject matter of the MBE is combined with state-specific [[Essay#Academic essays|essay questions]] to produce a comprehensive bar examination.
In the U.S., law school typically involves a full time [[Academic major|course of study]], though there are part-time programs available. In Canada, part-time study is very rare.
On July 3, 2007, the [[Korean National Assembly]] passed legislation introducing 'Law School', closely modeled on the American post-graduate system.<ref>[http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/220297.html Assembly okays shift to law schools from state bar exam], [[The Hankyoreh]], Retrieved on [[July 4]], 2007</ref>
==Controversies==
Recently, in the United States, critics have emerged questioning the forthrightness of some law schools in providing prospective students with accurate facts regarding alumni job- placement and compensation rates, suggesting that certain law schools may be distorting their statistics in order to attract students to their institutions.<ref>[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119040786780835602.html?mod=hps_us_mostpop_emailed Hard Case: Job Market Wanes for U.S. Lawyers - WSJ.com<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> In particular, many law school graduates--particularly at lower-ranked schools--suggest that their schools utilized correct, but misleading, statistics to attract students. An example of this would be citing the mean graduate salary, instead of the median; while the median salary of law grads in the U.S. is approximately $62,000, the mean could be inflated somewhat by a relatively small concentration of graduates earning starting salaries well above the median.<ref>http://www.elsblog.org/the_empirical_legal_studi/2007/09/distribution-of.html Empirical Legal Studies: Distribution of 2006 Starting Salaries: Best Graphic Chart of the Year<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> For example, the starting salary at nearly all large [[law firms]] in several cities across the country in 2008 is $160,000 plus bonus.<ref>[http://www.alreadybored.com/regions/salaries Alreadybored.com/salaries<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Also, it is very likely that even median salary statistics are incorrect, since students who are unemployed, working temporary jobs or have a low salary are less likely to submit a salary report to the school.
A common response to this criticism, however, is that it simply reflects the reality of competitiveness in legal education and in the legal market. With a limited number of top positions available, prospective law students should be circumspect about the employment opportunities that will await them after graduation—especially if they plan on attending a lower-ranked school. At the same time, however, students at prestigious, highly regarded institutions often have a variety of options available. This discrepancy can be seen as a simple function of supply and demand, with the number of newer (and thus lower-ranked) law schools proliferating in recent years. A similar difficulty may be encountered by graduate students in other fields, although the aforementioned lack of accurate information about post-graduate employment may exacerbate the problem for law students.<ref>[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119040786780835602.html?mod=hps_us_mostpop_emailed Hard Case: Job Market Wanes for U.S. Lawyers - WSJ.com<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
Even when students are able to find jobs at the top-paying [[law firms]], some say that minority law school graduates have difficulty advancing their careers. The law student organization [[Building a Better Legal Profession]] generated controversy for showing the lack of female and minority partners in large private firms. In an October 2007 press conference reported in the ''Wall Street Journal''<ref>Amir Efrati, You Say You Want a Big-Law Revolution, Take II, "Wall Street Journal", October 10, 2007. </ref> and the ''New York Times'',<ref> Adam Liptak, In Students’ Eyes, Look-Alike Lawyers Don’t Make the Grade, ''New York Times'', October 29, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/us/29bar.html?em&ex=1193889600&en=4b0cd84261ffe5b4&ei=5087%0A </ref> the group released data publicizing the numbers of [[African-Americans]], [[Hispanic-American|Hispanics]], and [[Asian-Americans]] at America's top [[law firms]]. The group has sent the information to top law schools around the country, encouraging students to take this demographic data into account when choosing where to work after graduation.<ref> Henry Weinstein, Big L.A. law firms score low on diversity survey: The numbers of female, black, Latino, Asian and gay partners and associates lag significantly behind their representation in the city's population, according to a study, ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', October 11, 2007, http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-diversity11oct11,1,661263.story?coll=la-headlines-california </ref> As more students choose where to work based on the firms' diversity rankings, firms face an increasing market pressure in order to attract top recruits.<ref> Thomas Adcock and Zusha Elinson, Student Group Grades Firms On Diversity, Pro Bono Work, "New York Law Journal," October 19, 2007, http://www.law.com/jsp/nylj/PubArticleNY.jsp?hubtype=BackPage&id=1192698212305</ref>
As well, there has been some controversy regarding the stark increases in law school tuition in recent years, at a time when compensation packages in the legal services sector are growing much more slowly than the U.S. inflation rate.<ref>[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119040786780835602.html?mod=hps_us_mostpop_emailed Hard Case: Job Market Wanes for U.S. Lawyers - WSJ.com<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
Some attribute these issues to insufficient regulation of law schools by the American Bar Association. The total number of Juris Doctor degrees awarded has been on the rise in recent years, at least partially due to the accreditation of new schools by the ABA.<ref>[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119040786780835602.html?mod=hps_us_mostpop_emailed Hard Case: Job Market Wanes for U.S. Lawyers - WSJ.com<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
== Alternative legal education systems ==
While law schools such as those in the [[U.S.]] and [[Canada]] are typically [[Postgraduate education|post-graduate]] institutions with considerable autonomy, legal education in other countries is provided within the mainstream educational system from university level and/or in non-degree conferring vocational training institutions. In countries such as the [[United Kingdom]] and most of continental Europe, academic legal education is provided within the mainstream university system starting at the undergraduate level, and the legal departments of universities are simply departments like any other rather than separate "law schools". In these countries, the term "law school" may be used, but it does not have the same clear cut meaning as it does in [[North America]]. There are also sometimes legal colleges that provide vocational training as a post-academic stage of legal education. One example is the [[The College of Law|College of Law]] in the United Kingdom, which provides certain professional qualifications which British lawyers must obtain before they may practice as solicitors or barristers but does not confer degrees. In [[Australia]], the top law schools such as [[Australian National University]], [[Sydney Law School]] and [[University of Adelaide]] have emphasised a combination of the British and American systems, employing law as a degree, but done as a combined degree with that of another discipline. Whilst [[Melbourne University Law School]] recently scrapped Law as an undergraduate combined degree in favour of moving the discipline to graduate study.
== List of law schools ==
{{main|Lists of law schools}}
== See also ==
* [[Juris Doctor]]
* [[Legal education]]
* [[Legal education in the United Kingdom]]
* [[Madrasah]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
==Further reading==
*[[Duncan Kennedy]]: ''Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy'', New Edition, New York Univ Press, 2004, ISBN 0814747787
==External links==
*[http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/law/lawindex_brief.php U.S. News Law School Rankings]
[[Category:Legal education]]
[[Category:Law schools]]
[[de:Law school]]
[[ko:법학전문대학원]]