Click on a menu item below for information about various aspects of the Juris Doctor (JD) program at Wayne Law.
First-Year Program Options
Legal Research and Writing
Upper-class Program
Degree Requirements
Course Listings and Descriptions
First-Year Program Options
To meet the diverse needs of today's law students, the Law School offers three program options for the first year of study in the JD program. Click on the links below for more information about each option.
Full-Time Day Program
Part-Time Evening Program
Full-Time Combined Day and Evening Program
Full-Time Day Program
The first-year day program is a full-time two-semester program which begins only in the fall. Students must take all required first-year courses, totaling 15 credit hours. Courses include:
Fall
Contracts A
Civil Procedure A
Criminal Law
Torts
Legal Research and Writing
Winter
Contracts B
Constitutional Law I
Property
The Regulatory State
Legal Research and Writing
Part-time Evening Program
The Law School offers a part-time program that enables students to complete their J.D. requirements in four to six years. The first-year evening curriculum is mandatory and consists of two semesters each of the following courses, totaling 16 credits:
Course Listings and Descriptions
Civil Procedure
Contracts
Legal Research and Writing
In the second year of the evening program, students take the following courses totaling 14 credits:
Course Listings and Descriptions
Property
Torts
Criminal Law
Constitutional Law I
Second-year evening students also may choose additional electives. Most evening classes are held 6:10 and 8:10 p.m., Monday through Thursday; others are offered between 5:30 and 6:50 p.m. or between 7:00 and 8:20 p.m. A selection of weekday courses also is offered between 4:00 and 6:00 p.m. for easy accessibility by both day and evening students. Class size is generally smaller in evening courses than in day courses.
Full-Time Combined Day and Evening Program
The combined day and evening program is designed to meet the needs of students who wish to complete law school in three years, but who prefer to take as many classes as possible in the evening. The program may be elected by any applicant.
In the combined day and evening program, first-year students must take the following courses:
During the evening:
Course Listings and Descriptions
Civil Procedure
Contracts
Legal Research and Writing
During the day:
Course Listings and Descriptions
Property or Torts (students may elect to take both Property and Torts during the day)
During the second year of the combined program, students must take:
Course Listings and Descriptions
Property or Torts (if not taken during the first year)
Criminal Law (during the evening of the second semester)
Students in the combined program who complete all five courses open to them will have 24 credits at the end of their first year, only 6 credits short of the 30 credits completed by full-time first-year day students. These three credits can be readily made up during the summer or in subsequent academic years, allowing students in the combined program to complete the degree in three years if they so choose.
Legal Research and Writing
A major part of the first-year curriculum is Legal Research and Writing, taught in small sections by full-time legal writing faculty.
The two-semester course begins with a week-long Orientation program designed to prepare incoming students for their legal studies. Orientation introduces the precedent system, a method for reading and understanding cases, the modes of legal analysis, and the analysis of a sample legal problem.
Following Orientation, students meet with the legal writing faculty in weekly sessions and in individual conferences. In the Fall Term, the curriculum is devoted primarily to research, analysis, organization, and writing in an objective setting. Students learn to use library and on-line research materials. As the finale for the semester, students draft a complaint and answer a complaint submitted by opposing counsel.
In the Winter Term, students develop written and oral advocacy skills. They draft an appellate brief based on a current, open legal issue. In preparation for the oral argument, students practice their arguments under the mentorship of upper-level Moot Court students. The final oral arguments are delivered to three-judge panels of practicing attorneys. Toward the end of the semester, students negotiate and draft a contract.
A highlight of most Winter semesters is a visit by the Michigan Court of Appeals. Students watch real lawyers argue actual pending cases before the Court and respond to questioning from judges.
Wayne Law is noted for its excellent Legal Research and Writing program. Three legal writing faculty members published textbooks while at Wayne Law. These textbooks and related materials are used at law schools around the country.
Upper-class Program
After completing the required first-year day, first-year combined day and evening, or first- and second-year evening curriculum, students may choose from among an extensive listing of elective courses and seminars including interdisciplinary courses covering a broad range of subjects.
Students may elect courses offered in the day or evening or a combination of day and evening courses. It is not uncommon for evening students to elect day classes and for day students to elect evening classes. Upper-class students may change from one program to the other as their schedules require, and may elect courses in the eight-week summer term to accelerate or to accommodate individual needs.
For a listing of upper-class courses that have been offered at the Law School recently, see Course Listings and Descriptions.
Degree Requirements
The following are the requirements for the JD degree, as prescribed in the Academic Regulations of the Law School. Students should refer to a current copy of the Academic Regulations for an authoritative and updated listing of all degree requirements; students with questions should contact Michele Miller, Assistant Dean of Students.
JD degree requirements:
- A bachelor's or equivalent degree upon admission.
- Completion of a minimum of 86 semester credit hours with an overall average of C (2.00) or better on all credit hours completed.
- Completion (with a final grade of at least D) of each of the following required courses: Contracts A&B, Property, Civil Procedure A&B, Criminal Law, Torts, Constitutional Law I and Professional Responsibility. Additionally, Legal Research and Writing must be completed with a final grade of at least Low Pass. (Legal Research and Writing is graded on an Honors, Pass, Low Pass, Fail system.)
- Upper-class Writing Requirement. All students entering the law school must participate in one or more programs offering a rigorous writing experience after their first year. This upper-class writing requirement may be met in any of the following ways:
- Successful completion, with a grade of "C" or better, of a qualifying seminar, a qualifying clinic, a qualifying workshop, a qualifying course or a qualifying directed study;
- Successful completion, with a grade of "Credit" for four semesters, of Commercial Law: Directed Research;
- Satisfactory service, with a grade of "Credit" for two or more semesters, as an editor of The Wayne Law Review or The Journal of Law in Society; or
- Satisfactory service, with a grade of "Credit" for two or more semesters, on Moot Court.
- A seminar, clinic, workshop, course or directed study is "qualifying" only if students enrolled in it are required to write a substantial research paper, legal brief, or the equivalent. The faculty shall designate from time to time the law school offerings that are "qualifying" for purposes of the upper-class writing requirement. - Professional Skills Requirement. All students entering the law school in the Fall 2005 Term or thereafter must successfully complete, with a passing grade or better, one or more clinics, internships, or other courses or seminars of two or more credits per semester that offer{s} substantial instruction in professional skills (other than legal writing and analysis) generally regarded as necessary for effective and responsible participation in the legal profession. A student may not use the same course or seminar to satisfy both the upper-class legal writing requirement and the professional skills requirements. Each student enrolled in any clinic, internship, course or seminar who expects to meet the professional skills requirement by the satisfactory completion thereof shall submit to the Records Office a certificate, signed by the student and the applicable faculty member, certifying to that expectation. Unless the certificate is withdrawn as provided below, the certificate shall be binding on the student, and the student may meet the professional skills requirement only as specified therein. A student may withdraw the certificate by written notice to both the applicable faculty member and the Records Office.
- Three years in residence must be completed. Students earn years in residence at the rate of 0.05 residence years for each semester hour completed. A student may not earn more than one-half year in residence for a Fall or Winter Term in which 10 or more credits are completed and not more than one-quarter year in residence for a summer term in which 5 or more credits are completed.
- The final year of study must be completed in residence at Wayne Law.
Students who enter as full-time students must complete the degree requirements within five years of the date they enter; students who enter as part-time students must complete the degree requirements within six years of the date they enter.