Boston University School of Law

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Boston University School of Law
Boston University School of Law
Established 1872
School type Private
Parent endowment $967.9 million
Dean Maureen O'Rourke
Location Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Enrollment 822citation needed
Faculty 1521
USNWR ranking 261
Bar pass rate 95.78%1
Website http://www.bu.edu/law/

Boston University School of Law (BU Law) is the law school affiliated with Boston University. It is the second-oldest law school in Massachusetts and one of the first law schools in the country to admit students regardless of race or gender. It is also a member of the Association of American Law Schools and a charter member of the American Bar Association.

Located in the heart of Boston University's campus on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts, BU Law is housed in the tallest law school building in the United States and the tallest academic building on campus. The U.S. News and World Reports currently ranks the school 26th.citation needed

Contents

Admissions

BU Law's most recent entering class comes from 33 states and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. These students represent 14 countries and 114 undergraduate institutions. 2

Admission to Boston University School of Law is very competitive. For the class of 2015, BU Law received approximately 5,971 applications for an entering class enrollment of 210. The median GPA for incoming BU Law students was 3.75, and the median Law School Admission Test score was 166.3

Rankings

Boston University School of Law ranks #26 among American law schools in the 2013 list of best law schools compiled by U.S. News & World Report.4 U.S. News also ranks the School's Health Law Program #5; Tax Law #6; and Intellectual Property Law #8. The Journal of Legal Education ranks BU Law #12 for "Where Big Firm Partners Went to Law School," and the School ranks #21 in the National Law Journal's "NLJ250" Annual Survey for the number of graduates working in top U.S. law firms.

New building and tower renovation

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On September 13, 2012, media executive and alumnus Sumner Redstone donated $18 million to expand the School’s facilities. The five-story, 93,000-square-foot Redstone building will be located to the west of the law tower. It will house majority of the law school’s classrooms and expand the Pappas Law Library. Construction began in the summer of 2012.

Once the Redstone building is completed (scheduled for Summer, 2014), the School’s 18-story tower will undergo a complete renovation. This work, which includes renovated offices and administrative departments, refurbished exterior concrete panels, and new windows and electrical and plumbing systems-- is scheduled to be completed by Fall, 2015.

History

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The Boston University School of Law was one of the first law schools to admit women and minorities, at a time when most other law schools barred them. In 1881, Lelia Robinson became the first female BU Law graduate. Then, women lawyers were less than half of one percent of the profession.5 Upon graduation, she successfully lobbied the Massachusetts legislature to permit the admission of women to the state bar, and in 1882, became the first woman admitted to the Massachusetts bar. Her classmate, Nathan Abbott, would later become the founding dean of Stanford Law School. Another prominent female alum at the time, Alice Stone Blackwell, would go on to help found the League of Women Voters and edit the Woman's Journal. Takeo Kikuchi (1877), the School's first Japanese graduate, was co-founder and president of Tokyo's English Law School which grew into Chuo University. Clara Burrill Bruce (1926) was the first black woman elected editor-in-chief of a law review (the Boston University Law Review).

BU Law's first homes were 36 Bromfield Street, 18–20 Beacon Street and 10 Ashburton Place. In 1895, the University Trustees acquired 11 Ashburton Place, which was refurbished and named Isaac Rich Hall in honor of the third founder of Boston University. The dedication speaker was Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. whose historic speech "The Path of the Law" was delivered in 1897. Isaac Rich Hall housed BU Law until 1964.

In 1964 BU Law occupied the bottom half of the current building, 765 Commonwealth Avenue on the Charles River Campus, colloquially known as the "Tower." BU Law shared the Tower with the School of Education for some years but now occupies the entire building. BU Law's expansive legal library, Pappas Law Library, is attached to the Tower. Pappas Law Library also occupies two basement floors of the adjacent Mugar Memorial Library, BU's main library.

Curriculum

BU Law Tower

Boston University School of Law offers a broad selection of legal classes and seminars (approximately 200) with a student to faculty ratio of 12:1.

Dual Degree Programs

BU Law offers dual degrees in the following programs:

  • J.D./LL.M. in Asian Legal Studies with National University of Singapore
  • J.D./LL.M. in Banking and Financial Law
  • J.D./LL.M. in European Law with Pantheon-Assas University
  • J.D./LL.M. in International and European Business Law with ICADE (Madrid)
  • J.D./M.A. in Law and English
  • J.D./M.B.A. in Law and Health Sector Management
  • J.D./M.A. in Law and History
  • J.D./M.A. in Law and International Relations
  • J.D./M.B.A. in Law and Management
  • J.D./M.S. in Law and Mass Communication
  • J.D./M.A. in Law and Philosophy
  • J.D./M.A. in Law and Preservation Studies
  • J.D./M.P.H. in Law and Public Health
  • J.D./LL.M. in Law and Taxation

Concentrations

The J.D. program offers certificates in the following concentrations:

  • Business Organizations and Finance Law
  • Health Law
  • Intellectual Property Law
  • International Law
  • Litigation and Dispute Resolution
  • Transactional Law

LL.M. Programs

In addition to J.D. and joint degree programs, Boston University School of Law offers LL.M. programs in the following:

  • American Law (for Non-U.S. lawyers)
  • Banking and Financial Law
  • Executive LL.M. in International Business Law
  • Intellectual Property Law
  • Taxation (Online option as well)

BU Law also offers the following J.D./LL.M. programs:

  • J.D./LL.M. in Asian Legal Studies with National University of Singapore
  • J.D./LL.M. in Banking and Financial Law
  • J.D./LL.M. in European Law with Pantheon-Assas University
  • J.D./LL.M. in International and European Business Law with ICADE (Madrid)
  • J.D./LL.M. in Law and Taxation

Study Abroad

English Language Semester Programs:

  • Bucerius Law School (Hamburg, Germany)
  • The Buchmann Faculty of Law (Tel Aviv, Israel)
  • Graduate Institute of International & Development Studies (Geneva, Switzerland)
  • Harris Manchester College (Oxford, UK)
  • Leiden University (Leiden, The Netherlands)
  • Tsinghua University (Beijing, China)
  • The National University of Singapore (The Republic of Singapore)
  • The University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong, China)
  • University College London (London, UK)
  • Université Jean Moulin, Lyon III (Lyon, France)
  • Universidad Pontificia Comillas (ICADE–Madrid, Spain)

Foreign Language Semester Programs:

  • The University of Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
  • The University of Florence (Florence, Italy)
  • Université Jean Moulin, Lyon III (Lyon, France)
  • Pantheon-Assas University (Paris, France)
  • Universidad Pontificia Comillas (ICADE–Madrid, Spain)

Full-year Programs in English:

  • Universidad Pontificia Comillas (ICADE–Madrid, Spain)
  • Pantheon-Assas University (Paris, France)
  • The National University of Singapore (The Republic of Singapore)

Clinical Programs & Externships

  • Criminal Clinical Program
  • Civil Litigation Program

Students in the Civil Litigation Program work in one of the following field placements: Employment Rights Clinic; Housing, Employment, Family and Disability Clinic; or the Asylum & Human Rights Clinic

  • Legislative Programs

Students work in either the American Legislative Practice Clinic/Internship or the Africa i-Parliaments Clinic

  • Externships

Six externship options: Judicial Externship; Legal Externship Program; Government Lawyering Externship; Health Law Externship; Community Courts Externship; and the Affordable Housing Externship

  • Semester-In-Practice Programs

Four program options: Independent Proposal; Government Lawyering (DC); Death Penalty (Atlanta); and Human Rights (Geneva)

  • Immigration Detention Clinic
  • Human Trafficking Clinic

Publications

Notable alumni

Main article: List of Boston University School of Law alumni

References

  1. ^ a b c [1]
  2. ^ http://www.bu.edu/law/prospective/jd/class_profile/
  3. ^ [2]
  4. ^ [3]
  5. ^ [4]

External links

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