Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law offers a full-time program leading to a Juris Doctor degree. In addition, the School of Law offers eight specialized certificates that can be earned concurrently with the JD.
Information on the program admission and graduation requirements, as well as information on program costs and financial aid may be found on the Fowler School of Law website at
https://www.chapman.edu/law/academic-programs/jd/index.aspx
Required Curriculum
These core classes provide the essentials for students in legal studies and cover foundational topics such as torts, contracts,criminal law, real property, civil procedure, legal research and writing. The required curriculum also grounds students in corporations and federal income taxation, constitutional law, evidence and professional responsibility.
Lawyering Skills Curriculum
Skills training is the practical, experiential component of the student’s education, where they begin to acquire the skills essential to the practice of law. In these courses, students gain competency in negotiation, client interviewing and counseling, mediation, advanced legal research, advocacy, appellate practices and procedures, legal drafting, and trial practice.
Advanced Curriculum
These electives integrate the student’s legal knowledge and lawyering skills with vital practical experience necessary for success in the field. The clinics, externships, and competitions serve to enhance the student’s law degree experience.
Honor Code
Ethics are as important to the Chapman University Fowler School of Law as are academic performance and the mastery of practical legal skills. The faculty and the administration wish to prepare the law students for a career as an attorney through an education that embodies and promotes the highest ideals of the legal profession. Paramount among those ideals is the concept of honor, which fosters a community of trust that will be carried into the larger community long after students have graduated from The School of Law.
All students are governed by the Honor Code, the exclusive policy for dealing with ethical violations that include lying, cheating,stealing, plagiarism, harassment, criminal actions committed on campus, crimes committed after admission and while off campus, and obstruction. The Honor Council serves as the ultimate adjudicatory body in all Honor Code proceedings. Council members are drawn from the faculty and the student body. A copy of this Code is included in The Student Handbook and made available to new students upon matriculation through the office of the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. Updates to The Code or the Handbook are posted to the law school website at the beginning of the each fall semester. View the Handbook.
Law students are cautioned that they are also responsible for scrupulous adherence to the wider Student Conduct Code of Chapman University.
Learning Outcomes
Fowler School of Law faculty have identified the following learning outcomes as critical to a law degree and to developing the skills needed to become a proficient attorney.
- Graduates will know basic principles of the substantive and procedural law covered in the following courses: Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Corporations / Business Associations, Criminal Law, Evidence, Federal Income Taxation, Professional Responsibility, Property and Torts.
- Graduates will be able to engage in legal analysis and reasoning as required for the competent practice of the law.
- Graduates will research legal issues effectively and efficiently.
- Graduates will demonstrate the ability to write effectively as needed for the competent practice of law.
- Graduates will orally communicate in a professional manner that is audience appropriate.
- Graduates will demonstrate an understanding of and an ability to engage in the professional conduct expected of practicing attorneys, and the ethical standards set out in the ABA model rules, required to competently represent clients and to provide for an effectively functioning legal system.
- Graduates will be able to diagnose problems confronting clients, understand clients’ objectives, and generate strategies to achieve those objectives.
JD Degree Graduation Requirements
Students admitted to the JD program at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law shall complete the following minimum requirements to earn a J.D. degree:
- 2.0 Cumulative Grade Point Average
- 88 Credits
- 6 Residency Credits
The detailed description of the curriculum and degree requirements are listed on the Fowler School of Law website at https://www.chapman.edu/law/student-resources/registering-classes/jd-requirements.aspx.