First Year Curriculum

Lewis & Clark Law School requires all first-year students to take the same curriculum. The first-year curriculum provides a strong foundation for upper-division law study and for success in the profession of law. First-year, full-time day division students take eight courses:

• Civil Procedure
• Criminal Procedure
• Property
• Torts
• Contracts
• Constitutional Law
• Legal Analysis and Writing
• Legal Elements (designed to provide general background on the foundations, history, and structure of the legal system)

Part-time, evening students take the same courses, except for criminal procedure and property law, which they take as upper-division students.

Upper-division students (whether part-time or full-time) must take a second semester of constitutional law, Constitutional Law II, professionalism (see: Regulation and Ethics of Lawyers) and a seminar course and complete two major papers before graduation. Detailed information about the number of hours, minimum grade point averages, and other administrative requirements for graduation are available from the Law School Registrar.

Students are free to design their own programs of study after the first year; the only limitation is that students are responsible for seeing to it that they meet the requirements for graduation.

See the Academics Home Page for more information on the various courses and specialties offered, and for curriculum planning guides.