The UMass Law curriculum is the product of tradition and innovation. It combines a solid, comprehensive grounding in the subjects that form the traditional core of a legal education and a pervasive emphasis, based on the “best practices” movement, on teaching skills and values, both set in the larger context of the school’s mission to produce practice-ready citizen lawyers.

It is a curriculum designed to serve the needs of our students and thereby promote the school’s mission of graduating students who are prepared to pass the bar and practice law and who are motivated to make significant contributions to their communities and the legal profession in Massachusetts and beyond.

Core Program Requirements

• Contracts
• Property
• Torts
• Civil Procedure
• Constitutional Law
• Criminal Law and Procedure I & II
• Legal Ethics

Skills & Writing Requirements

Legal Skills Program

A three-semester requirement in Legal Skills uses an innovative approach that combines instruction in fundamental lawyering skills such as:

• fact-gathering
• legal research and writing
• interviewing
• counseling
• oral advocacy
• negotiation

The program has a significant simulation component, sometimes called the “law firm” model. Writing skills are embedded in the legal skills courses.

Upper-Level Writing Requirement

Students must also satisfy an upper-level writing requirement by writing a paper in an elective course or as an independent research project and complete the Bar Preparation course.

Distrubution Requirements

There are three 'distribution' requirements:

Code Requirement

Students are required to take at least one course (three credits) in which the primary focus is on statutory (rather than case) law. Courses that satisfy this requirement include:

• Sales Law
• Payment Systems
• Secured Transactions
• Tax

Foundational Requirement

Students are required to take at least nine credits of 'foundational' courses. Foundational courses include:

• Evidence
• Business Organizations
• Trusts and Estates
• Administrative Law
• Family Law
• Any elective designated as a code course that is not used to satisfy the code distribution requirement

Practice Requirement

In keeping with the school’s commitment to the necessity and value of putting knowledge into practice, the students are required to complete six credits of 'practice' courses that offer a variety of opportunities for independent work and internships:

• in civil legal clinics concerned with assisting low-income clients in a variety of civil matters, non-profit corporations in the community, and immigrants’ rights
• in a variety of law offices through an extensive clerking program
• in an international clerking program at the International Criminal Tribunal at the Hague (working as prosecutors, defenders, and with judges directly)
• in one-credit “mini-clerkships” linked to substantive law classes
• in internships with judges

Pro Bono Requirement

Because one of the goals of a legal education is to give the students the skills and knowledge that can be used to help others and that will make them become better members of their own communities (or 'citizen lawyers'), there is a 30-hour Pro Bono requirement. All students are required to volunteer to do the equivalent of one work-week of legal work in a:

• law office
• community organization
• government office
• other non-profit organization

Law Concentrations

The law school plans to develop 'concentrations' or distinct study areas that are particularly appropriate for a public law program and will support our mission. Within each study area, students may take several courses that will develop both their expertise and their practical experience in that area. The first concentration in Community Law Practice is expected to be in place in the fall 2012 semester.