Fall 2025 or later

Graduation Requirements for students entering Fall 2025 or later:

1. Complete a minimum of 90 semester credits of which:

- At least 71 credits must be from courses that require attendance in regularly scheduled classes or direct faculty instruction.

- At least 6 credits must be from courses approved by the faculty as meeting the EXPERIENTIAL requirement.

NOTE: A single course can count toward both the regularly scheduled classes/direct faculty instruction and the experiential categories.

2. Complete the first-year courses (whether taken full-time in one year or part-time over more than one year)

3. Complete Constitutional Law II

4. Complete the Professional Responsibility Requirement

5. Complete two upper-division writing requirements: WIE and Capstone.

6. NOTE carefully that the ABA requires 6 experiential credits, 2 professional responsibility credits, and 1 upper-division writing experience (all of which are integrated into Lewis & Clark’s graduation requirements). These three ABA requirements must be fulfilled in completely separate classes. You may, however, fulfill your second Lewis & Clark upper-division writing requirement (either the WIE or Capstone) in one of the classes you use to fulfill these ABA requirements.

 

DETAILED INFORMATION ON REQUIREMENTS FOR STUDENTS ENTERING LAW SCHOOL IN FALL 2025

Regularly Scheduled Classes or Direct Faculty Instruction

All courses with a LAW subject code count towards the regularly scheduled classes or direct faculty supervision requirement EXCEPT:

Externships  

Law Review 

Student-Directed Reading Groups

Moot Court Competitions - the following fall semester moot court courses ARE eligible to count towards the direct faculty instruction requirement: LAW-724 Client Counseling, LAW-726 Jessup, LAW-728 Mock Trial, LAW-732 Negotiation Intensive, LAW-736 NALSA

First-Year Courses:

Civil Procedure	Constitutional Law I	Lawyering I	Legal Research I
Contracts	Foundations of Professional Practice I	Lawyering II	Property
Criminal Procedure I	Foundations of Professional Practice II	Legal Methods	Torts

All first-year courses (including those first year courses taken after the first year of classes by part-time students) count towards the direct faculty instruction requirement.

Professional Responsibility Requirement

A student must earn a minimum of 2 credits in a course or courses which provide instruction in the duties and responsibilities of the legal profession. The Dean, after consulting with the Curriculum Committee, shall designate the courses which satisfy this requirement. The following options to satisfy the professionalism requirement:

LAW-132: Regulation and Ethics of Lawyers

LAW-150 and LAW-151: Earthrise Ethics I and II (both semesters)

LAW-152: Business Law: Lawyering and Ethics

LAW-153: Practical Legal Ethics

LAW-154: Modern Ethics & the Future of Lawyering

LAW-155: Legal Ethics for Public Service and NGO Attorneys

Writing Requirements: WIE and Capstone:

For more information about the writing intensive experience (WIE) and Capstone requirements please view the Writing Requirements page.

 

ADDITIONAL ADMINISTRATIVE AND ACADEMIC RULES & REQUIREMENTS

• No student is allowed to take more than 17 credits per semester without special permission of the Associate Dean for Student Affairs. Such permission requires unusual, circumstances. The assumption is that a student would not receive such permission more than once. The maximum credits any student can take in one semester is 18.
• Students are allowed to count up to 15 Externship credits towards the total credits required for graduation.
• Students may earn up to 8 credits through Individual Research and are allowed to undertake up to two Individual Research papers per semester.
• Unless they have special permission from the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, students may not take more than 6 credits in any one moot court course, including the credits for the competition semester.

In addition, to be issued a degree and to be certified to take a state bar exam, all students must:

• Have no outstanding incomplete coursework (i.e. no XT or INC grades).
• Have a minimum yearly and cumulative GPA of 2.00 or better at time of graduation (see rules on Standard for Continuation and Academic Probation).
• Have all official transcripts on file verifying all academic credits undertaken and degrees conferred for undergraduate and advanced degree studies.
  • For fall matriculates, undergraduate transcripts are due by October 15; for students matriculating at any other time, the undergraduate transcript is due within four weeks after classes begin, per ABA requirements. If a student does not have their undergraduate transcript on file by these dates, the student will be permitted to complete the current semester but will not be permitted to enroll in a subsequent semester until the law school has the student’s official undergraduate transcript(s) on file.
• During the 2L year, attend at least one workshop focused on career exploration or career-building skills presented by the Career Services Office or meet individually with a Career Services’ counselor.
• During the final year in law school, preferably during fall semester, meet individually with a Career Services’ counselor to discuss post-graduation plans. Students are strongly encouraged to meet with the Career Services’ counselors throughout law school.
• Submit a Degree Application during the fall before graduating. 
• Clear all accounts with the Student and Departmental Account Services, Law Library, Law Bookstore, and Law Business office. You can check WebAdvisor for any holds on your student account
• Complete any required exit interviews with the Financial Aid office.
• Be in good standing both academically and in matters of discipline.
• Students must complete all law school work within 84 months of starting law school and no less than 24 months from starting law school.