PURPOSE
The prime function of the College of Law is to educate students in the law so that they may assume the various societal roles involved with the law. Some of its graduates turn to government legal service, to legal aid and public defender offices, to law enforcement work, to the world of business, to education, and the many other avenues opened by legal training. Some students, while yet in school, develop programs of study involving fields and disciplines outside the law in its conventional sense. Through the university, the College of Law provides many of those wider avenues of study.
The students of the College of Law seek to develop an understanding, in formal courses and in clinical experience, of the very heavy responsibilities borne in society by the legal profession, and to learn of the satisfactions that come from discharging, at a high standard, the duties of counselor and advocate. In addition, the college has a responsibility to contribute to the quality of justice administered in society.
ORGANIZATION
The law school has a distinguished faculty, a professional course of study constructed for the modern era, and a unique and highly functional law building especially designed for modern legal education. Classrooms are located on the ground floor along with seminar rooms; offices for the Law School Clinics; Student Services offices; a Career Planning Resource Center; informal student lounge areas; a modern trial courtroom equipped with modern sound and video equipment; a classroom equipped with a computer projection unit, broadband capability, VCR, sound system, and infrared system for the hearing impaired; and the Willard H. Pedrick Great Hall, a unique, full-bench setting that seats 400. Faculty, staff and administrative offices are located at the mezzanine level.
The award-winning John J. Ross-William C. Blakley Law Library, named in memory of two prominent Phoenix attorneys, is one of the finest law libraries in the Southwest with a collection of more than 310,000 volumes and microform volume equivalents. The collection includes a broad selection of Anglo-American case reports and statutes as well as legal treatises, periodicals, encyclopedias, digests, citators, and administrative materials. The collection also includes growing special collections in the areas of international law, Indian law, Mexican law, and law and technology. In addition, the library has a 30-station computer lab as well as LEXIS and WESTLAW rooms each containing 10 stations, 27 meeting and study rooms, a microforms facility and a classroom. The library is also a selective U.S. government depository.
Students have ready access to the other campus libraries, including the Charles Trumbell Hayden Library, the Daniel E. Noble Science and Engineering Library, the Architecture and Environmental Design Library, and the Music Library. The collections of the university’s libraries comprise more than 3 million volumes.
GRADUATE PROGRAMS
Juris Doctor Degree
The College of Law offers a three-year program of professional studies at the graduate level leading to the degree of Juris Doctor (J.D.).
Dual/Concurrent Degree Programs
| Juris Doctor/Master of Health Services Administration (with College of Business) |
| Juris Doctor/Master of Business Administration (with College of Business) |
| Juris Doctor/Ph.D. in Justice Studies (with the Committee on Law and Social Sciences) |
ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS
Each applicant for admission to the Juris Doctor (J.D.) program must have earned an undergraduate degree from an accredited four-year college or university (B.A., B.S., or other equivalent). The College of Law Admissions Office considers an applicant’s file complete only if it includes each of the following:
To be assured consideration, all application materials must be complete by March 1.
SPECIAL PROGRAMS
Center for the Study of Law, Science, and Technology
The Center for the Study of Law, Science, and Technology is a multidisciplinary research center created by the Arizona Board of Regents in 1984. The center publishes research studies, sponsors seminars and symposia, and houses visiting scholars and teachers. Through these programs, the center seeks to contribute to the formulation and improvement of law and public policy affecting science and technology and to the wise application of science and technology in the legal system.
The College of Law offers a substantial number of courses in the law, science, and technology area including bioethics law and psychiatry, environmental law, health care law, intellectual property, land use regulation, law and evolutionary biology, law and medicine, law and social science, mass communication, natural resources law, patent law, regulatory problems in law, science and technology, and water law. Each semester, the center publishes a student guide to other less obvious courses that contain science and technology issues. In recent semesters this guide has listed courses in AIDS and the law, commercial law, employment law, law and the handicapped, antitrust, statistical proof in employment discrimination litigation, and several courses offered by other departments on campus available for registration by law students. In addition to regular course offerings, students can arrange independent studies with supervising faculty on topics of special interest to them. The center also invites guest speakers from legal or scientific fields to visit with interested law students, generally during the noon hour.
In cooperation with the American Bar Association Section on Science and Technology and under the leadership of a faculty editor, second- and third-year students edit the Jurimetrics Journal of Law, Science and Technology. Student editors do both editorial work on submitted articles and original writing for publication in the journal.
Indian Legal Program
The College of Law offers an Indian Legal Program whose missions are to assist tribal courts and governments in improving justice in Indian country and to develop education and scholarship in Indian law. Students have the opportunity to participate in all phases of the Indian Legal Program and gain in-depth understanding of the legal issues affecting Indian tribes and peoples. Courses on Federal Indian law and seminars on advanced Indian law topics such as Tribal Court dispute resolution, economic development, American Indian cultural resources protection, and tribal environmental law are part of the curriculum. Students may also participate in externships with the local tribal courts or spend a semester in Washington, D.C. working with the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs. This variety of academic and work experience provides the students an outstanding legal education with a firm grounding in both the theoretical and practical aspects of Indian law.
Law Journal
The College of Law publishes a professional law review, the Arizona State Law Journal, edited by students of the second- and third-year classes. Membership on the law journal is determined by grade performance in the first year and, for some, by submitting written work in a writing competition. Participation on law review is hard but rewarding work. For those eligible, the review provides one of the finest avenues for legal education thus far developed. Its work contributes to the student’s intellectual advancement, to the development of law and the legal profession, and to the stature of the law school.
ADVISING
Preadmission information, advisement, and continued support for the J.D. is provided by the College of Law Admissions Office, 602/965–1474.
ACCREDITATION
The college is fully accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools.
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