| Saint Louis University School of Law | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Motto | Ad maiorem Dei gloriam (Latin) "For the greater glory of God" |
| Parent school | Saint Louis University |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic Society of Jesus |
| Established | 1843-1847 (original) 1908 (re–establishment) |
| School type | Private |
| Parent endowment | $1.3 Billion[1] |
| Dean | William P. Johnson (since 2017)[2] |
| Location | Saint Louis, Missouri, United States |
| Enrollment | 601 (2023)[3] |
| Faculty | 54 Full-Time, 73 Adjunct, and 22 Emeritus Faculty (2023)[4][5] |
| USNWR ranking | 89th (2023)[6] |
| Bar pass rate | Two-year pass rate of 96.8% (class of 2020) 94.6% (2023 First-Time takers)[7] |
| Website | law |
 | |
Saint Louis University School of Law, also known as SLU Law, is the law school affiliated with Saint Louis University, a private Jesuit research university in Saint Louis, Missouri. The school has been American Bar Association approved since 1924 and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools.
The Law School was initially founded by Judge Richard Aylett Buckner and opened in 1843, making it the first law school to open west of the Mississippi River.[8][9] The original Law School closed at some point after Buckner died in 1847. The Law School was re-established in 1908 in the Midtown neighborhood on the corner of Leffingwell Avenue and Locust Street.[10] In its 1908 re-establishment, the law school accepted its first female law students.[11] In August 2013, the school moved to its current location, Scott Hall, a new facility at 100 North Tucker Boulevard in Downtown Saint Louis.[12]
The Law School offers both J.D. and LL.M degrees. In addition to the law school-specific programs, the Law School offers a variety of dual-degree programs:[13]
In their first year, full-time students are required to take the Law School's core curriculum. This includes 31 hours of coursework in civil procedure, constitutional law, contract law, criminal law, property law, torts, a course in legal analysis, research, & communications ("LARC"), as well as an introduction to legal studies course.[14] After their first year, full-time students are allowed greater flexibility in their course selection, choosing from a vast selection of upper-division course electives to complete the required 91 credit hours.[15] While students enjoy a lot of freedom in their upper-divisional schedules, the ABA and the Law School does require them to take a legal professions course, six hours of "experiential courses" (i.e., classes that give students the opportunity to practice their professional skills), and a seminar class where students will write a long-form legal research essay.[16]
The Law School offers both a part-time day program and a part-time evening program.[17] Students in the part-time program can choose between an 11.5 hour and an 8.5 hour per semester schedule for their first two years that matches the classes the full-time students take.[18] Following the first two years, part-time students select electives with the same requirements as full-time students and typically graduate with their J.D. in four to five years. As of 2023, the part-time program is ranked 29th by U.S. News & World Report.[19]
The Law School offers two LL.M programs. One of the programs is an LL.M in American law for foreign lawyers,[20] which is a one-year program for foreign law school graduates seeking to start working in the United States. The Law School also offers an LL.M. in health law.[21] The Law School has consistently been ranked first in Health Care Law by U.S. News & World Report.[22]
In addition to their regular J.D., the school gives students the opportunity to choose a concentration in employment law, health law, intellectual property law, or international & comparative law if they wish to.[23]
The center was first established in 1982 and focuses on the intersection between health care systems and the legal system. The Center has been ranked first in the country by U.S. News & World Report 16 of the last 17 years.[24] The center has twelve full-time faculty members and four affiliated faculty members who publish work in law, medicine and ethical journals.[25] It offers a range of health law courses taught by full-time faculty, including foundational and specialized health law courses each semester. The Center also hosts the Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy and hosts a distinguished speaker series as well as an annual Health Law Symposium.[26]
Students involved in the Center also have the opportunity to spend a semester in Washington, D.C. clerking full time for health-related federal agency. Past agencies have included the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Competition's Health Care Division.[27]
The Center for International and Comparative Law ("CICL") promotes legal scholarship over many corners of international law. The school offers both pragmatic and theory based courses, including, but not limited to, public international law, international trade, multinational corporate responsibility, international tax, comparative law, immigration law, international criminal law, gender rights and international human rights.
Additionally, there are several ways for students to get involved with international law outside of the classroom. There are multiple opportunities to study law in foreign countries with study abroad programs in Madrid, Berlin, Orléans, Paris, Bochum, and Cork. The school has a Jessup Moot Court Team. In 2023, the team took second place in the Midwest Regional Rounds held in Chicago and won third best brief.[28] Previous, the team had advanced to the semi-final rounds of the 2009 Southwest Super Regionals in Houston, Texas, and subsequently won third place for best brief overall. The school also has a chapter the International Law Student Association, commonly called ILSA, that is student led and organized.[29]
CICL regularly hosts speakers and various events to promote the legal development and involvement of Law School faculty and students in the field of international law. In April of 2023, in conjunction with the Saint Louis University Law Journal, CICL hosted a symposium entitled The Legitimacy and Legality of War: From Philosophical Foundations to Emerging Problems. The two day event focused the legal intricacies of war with a special focus on the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War.[30]
The Center was founded in 1987 and offers a range of courses addressing the rights and responsibilities of employers and employees, including the prohibition of discrimination; establishment of collective bargaining relationships in the private and public sector; regulation of employee benefits; health and safety in the workplace; and arbitration and mediation of labor and employment disputes. The Center has eight full-time faculty. To obtain a concentration in employment law, students must complete 11 hours of approved coursework in the employment field and write a paper of publishable quality on an employment law topic. All students in the concentration take the basic law labor course. Every year, the student-sponsored Employment Law Association and the Center offer a variety of extra-curricular programs for students.[31][32]
Students involved in the Center have the opportunity to spend a semester in Washington, D.C. working federal agencies such as the Department of Labor, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).[33]
Law School professors and students annually provide more than 36,000 hours of free legal service, totaling an estimated $4+ million, to the community through the School of Law's Legal Clinics and public service programs.[34] The Legal Clinics offer upper-divisional students practical experience while providing legal services to the community. Students are able to appear in court on cases under Missouri's Student Practice Rule. A full-time faculty member supervises the in-house students.
The Law School offers five clinics:[35]
First-year students take four final examinations each semester, one for each class other than legal research and writing. All other students self-schedule their exams. Generally the exam period is two weeks long; graduating students are required to complete exams in a shorter time. Students may choose between typing their exams on laptop computers or handwriting them.
The 2021 incoming class accepted 536 of 887 applicants for an admissions rate of 60.4%. Of those accepted, 193 enrolled as Full-Time students and 18 as Part-Time for a yield rate of 39.4%. The median LSAT score was 156 and the median undergraduate GPA was 3.5.[41]
The 2021 incoming class has a gender distribution of 55% female, 44.5% male, and 0.5% Gender Identity X (not exclusively male or female).[42] The 2021 incoming class consisted of 159 white students, 21 Black students, 11 Asian students, and 3 American Indian/Alaskan Native students. 14 students were Hispanic or Latino of any race.[43]
109 undergraduate institutions were represented in the 2021 incoming class and students were from 29 different U.S. states and 3 foreign countries.[44]
The Law School is located in Scott Hall, a 12-story facility located at 100 North Tucker Boulevard in Downtown Saint Louis.[45] The building contains classrooms; the Vincent C. Immel Law Library, named after a former professor who taught at the Law School from 1958 to 2004,[46] the school's administrative and faculty offices; event space; and a restaurant called "Chris' at the Docket." The legal clinics are housed on the 7th floor of the building. The 12th floor, which was added to the building during renovations, is almost entirely glass, is home to a court room that occasionally hears appeals for the Eastern District of Missouri and offers views of the surrounding downtown area. The school's downtown location puts it in close proximity to many law firms and city, state, and federal courts.
Prior to Scott Hall, the law school was housed in three buildings on the main SLU campus in Midtown. Morrissey Hall housed the bulk of the law school, including the law library, four large lecture halls, faculty offices, and some administrative space. Queen's Daughters Hall is a historic building and housed the rest of the administrative offices and meeting rooms. The law school also had a separate clinic building located on Spring Street, one block from the main building. The clinic was renovated and enlarged in 2008.[47]
In the 2023 U.S. News & World Report rankings, Saint Louis University School of Law was ranked 89th in the "Best Law Schools" list.[48] The Law School's Center for Health Law Studies was ranked as the best in the country.[49] The Part-Time Program was ranked 29th.[50]
In the 2012 category "When Lawyers Do the Grading," the School of Law was ranked 67 by recruiters and hiring partners at highly rated firms.[51]
The Law School has three student-edited academic law journals:
Additionally, from 1981 through 2017 the school published the Saint Louis University Public Law Review. This law journal focused on legal issues of public interest and public policy and to provide an uncensored forum to legal scholars, practicing attorneys, legislators, and public interest advocates for debating topics of public interest law.[59]
The SLU Law Brief Alumni Magazine[60] is a publication about the law school that is distributed to alumni and supporters with articles written by faculty, alumni, and students.
Students at one time published the 1843 Reporter, an independent student newspaper administered and funded without assistance from the school.[61] It published bi-monthly and sought to foster a sense of community and on-campus dialogue, as well as provide an outlet for students wishing to publish in a non-journal forum.
Saint Louis University School of Law has over 30 student organizations. The organizations are typically student-driven and hold elections where student members can be chosen for leadership positions within the club. The organizations' funding is distributed in part by the law school's student government, the Student Bar Association (SBA). Organizations include:[62]
The Class of 2021 reported a 90.2% employment rate for graduates employed in both full-time bar passage required (71.7% of graduates) and full-time JD advantage (18.5% of graduates) positions. 114 graduates stayed in Missouri while the next two most common employment locations were Illinois (22) and California (3)[65]
The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at the Law School for the 2023-2024 academic year is $71,054 for Full-Time students and $56,990 for Part-Time students.[66] The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $249,077.[67] More than 92% of students received a merit-based scholarship.[68]
