Temple University—James E. Beasley School of Law
The information on this page was provided by the law school.
Official Guide to ABA-Approved JD Programs
Temple University Beasley School of Law is a leading law school committed to success both in and out of the classroom. Since 1895, Temple Law has welcomed students who are thinkers, doers, and creators from every imaginable background. The spirit of cooperation and collaboration within the student body is also present in the relationships students have with the faculty and the administration. The faculty is dedicated to preparing students to enter and continue in the legal profession with the highest level of skill possible, with a firm commitment to principles of professional responsibility, and with a sense of personal obligation to lead and to serve the communities in which they live and practice.
Our success is based on our ability to provide hands-on legal training through our an extensive selection of experiential learning opportunities and practicums. Temple Law graduates have excelled in every practice area and setting, locally and around the world, and are sought after by employers who know the value of a Temple Law degree.
The JD Program
In today’s challenging and competitive professional environment, experience counts. Temple has been a pioneer in experiential learning for more than a half century, and today’s innovative teaching methods are grounded in the experience that only decades of leadership can bring. Temple’s experiential programs are innovative in design, thoughtfully built on doctrine learned in our classrooms, and integrated throughout the curriculum.
Within weeks of beginning school, students negotiate employment agreements and interview mock clients in Introduction to Transactional Skills, while Litigation Basics gets them on their feet questioning and cross-examining witnesses in mock trials. During their first summer, Temple students have the opportunity to build upon those skills in either the Law & Public Policy Program in Washington, DC, or the Temple Summer Professional Experience Curriculum in Philadelphia. Whether they find themselves in the courtroom, conference room, or classroom, the experiences our students have today will make the difference in their careers tomorrow.
Temple offers a full roster of experiential opportunities for students who are ready to take their legal education out into the world. Every interested student is guaranteed a spot in 1 of over 25 diverse clinical courses, both internal and external to the Law School. Clinical offerings include opportunities to litigate criminal cases, work on immigration issues, assist clients with small businesses, handle bankruptcy cases, participate in medical-legal partnerships, and advocate on behalf of families in custody matters. Temple also offers the Federal Judicial Clerkship Honors Program for our third-year students, as well as the State Judicial Clerkship Clinical Program, designed exclusively for second-year students. Also, the Temple Law Practicum is a unique learning opportunity where a student and full-time faculty member engage collaboratively to solve a legal problem for a real client, often under the direction of a practicing attorney.
Student Life
A Strong Community
Temple students take full advantage of all that student life at a major urban university has to offer. They are actively involved in the governance at the law school as members of the Student Bar Association, which oversees the more than 30 student groups that flourish at Temple, including the Black Law Students Association, the Latino Law Students Association, the Asian/Pacific Islander American Law Student Association, the Women’s Law Caucus, and OUTLaw. Student publications include the Temple Law Review and the Temple International and Comparative Law Journal. Students who excel in advocacy may participate in the National Trial Team or the Moot Court Competition Team.
Career Placement and Bar Passage
Tuition and Aid
| Expense | Resident | Nonresident |
|---|---|---|
| Tuition |
$34,216.00
|
$50,710.00
|
| Fees |
$1,168.00
|
$1,168.00
|
Temple Law School has its own financial aid office dedicated to assisting law students with financial aid and billing questions. Our financial aid counselors are available to help students navigate the financial aid application process and provide loan and debt management counseling.
Admission Decisions: Beyond the Numbers
Our admission process is competitive and is designed to look at the whole person. Through a careful and individualized evaluation of each application, the admissions committee selects applicants who have outstanding performance records and exceptional aptitudes for the study and practice of law.
One of the best things about Temple Law is the individuality of our students. Our students come from many different educational and professional backgrounds, and offer something unique to contribute to our community and the profession. We are pleased that you are interested in becoming one of them. If you are admitted to Temple Law School you were chosen because your skills, abilities, achievements, experiences, and potential earned you the opportunity.
Consistent with the ideals of Russell Conwell, the founder of Temple University, Temple Law School takes seriously its mission of offering opportunities to students who might otherwise be foreclosed from pursuing a high-quality education. Temple Law School began as an evening program over 125 years ago, providing students in our region whose jobs and family commitments made full time study prohibitive the chance to pursue a law degree. Over 50 years ago, the faculty at Temple Law School established a discretionary admissions program, Sp.A.C.E., creating an admissions process that avoided overreliance on the LSAT/GRE or other arbitrary, abstract admission criterion. Today, the values underlying Sp.A.C.E continue to guide the evaluation process helping us to select the very best students from our pool of talented applicants.
In determining whether a particular applicant should be offered admission to Temple Law School, the admissions committee continues to consider traditional Sp.A.C.E. characteristics. We are committed to providing a quality legal education and want to include in our class applicants who have faced and overcome serious long-standing economic deprivation, discrimination or arbitrary adversity, and those historically foreclosed from higher education. Because of our history and commitment to inclusion, we welcome applicants whose families are recent immigrants to the United States. Because we view law as a service profession, applicants who have demonstrated exceptional leadership ability in college, community or career activities, or who have evidenced a commitment to service through AmeriCorps, VISTA, military, or other service work are valued. Because we value academic excellence, we look favorably on applicants with academic honors, graduate or undergraduate degrees of unusual merit, or impressive undergraduate accomplishments that might or might not be consistent with standardized test scores. Because we believe in the value of hard work while recognizing that not everyone is free or well-suited to focus solely on their studies, we take into account applicants who worked during college to finance their education or to support their families. We value the discipline and work of student athletes either as a means of financing their education or out of a passionate commitment to personal excellence and teamwork. Our commitment to diversity includes applicants who identify as members of the LGBTQI+ community. We appreciate the talents of applicants with significant or unusual career achievement since graduation from college. Recognizing that adversity and discrimination takes many forms and that strength of character is shown in many ways, applicants with serious physical disabilities continue to be a part of our discretionary review. So too are applicants with other unique strengths and achievements. We emphasize that these factors are part of a holistic review of every applicant’s strengths and ability to contribute to the law school community and to the practice of law.
At Temple, we believe in the value of diversity. It reflects our reality. It enriches our lives. It vitalizes our communities. It maximizes our ability to succeed as legal professionals. It makes possible a viable future for the rule of law as we understand it. We share a vision of the practice of law as a service profession and believe that life is made more meaningful by serving others. We are steadfast in our commitment to excellence, and we support those forging new paths forward through legal education and practice. Our admissions process reflects these values and we encourage applicants to be as candid and thoughtful as possible in their written statements and to let us know how their interests and experiences align with our values.
In addition to a required personal statement, applicants are invited to submit an optional Sp.A.C.E. statement. There is no specified length required for either the personal or Sp.A.C.E. statement; on average statements are two to three pages in length. Beyond the academic indicators presented in an application file, the readers of an applicant's personal and Sp.A.C.E. statements will be trying to get a sense of them as a person, as a prospective Temple Law School student, and as a future member of the legal profession.
