Cornell Law School

The JD Program

Lawyers in the Best Sense

When Cornell University’s founding president, Andrew Dickson White, began to lay plans for a law department at Cornell University, he wrote that he wanted to educate “not swarms of hastily prepared pettifoggers, but a fair number of well-trained, large-minded, morally based lawyers in the best sense. . .” He hoped graduates of the school would become “a blessing to the country, at the bar, on the bench, and in various public bodies.” More than a century since President White’s vision, this ideal still holds true. A small top-tier law school located in beautiful surroundings, Cornell draws on, and contributes to, the resources of a great university, consistently producing well-rounded lawyers and accomplished practitioners cut from a different cloth.

Cornell is an international center of learning located in Ithaca, New York, the heart of the Finger Lakes region of New York State. The Law School’s small classes, broad curriculum, and distinguished faculty, combined with the advantages of being part of one of the world’s leading research universities, make it ideal for those who value both depth and breadth in their legal studies. Students find Ithaca to be a safe and supportive, yet culturally rich, environment in which to pursue legal studies.

Enrollment and Student Body

25 percent of the Law School’s entering class have two or more years between completion of their undergraduate degree and enrollment in law school. Selective admission standards, combined with an emphasis on applicants’ unique records and achievements, ensure that the student body is made up of people with wide-ranging interests, skills, concerns, and backgrounds.

Library, Physical Facilities, and Computing

The Law School is located in the renovated and expanded Myron Taylor Hall, at the heart of the scenic 745-acre Cornell University campus.

• Cornell Law School is a world leader in the development and support of electronic legal research. It combines outstanding collections with professional expertise and access to worldwide electronic information sources for Anglo-American, as well as foreign and international law. Students have access to the full array of Internet services. The Law School’s multiple-node network, wireless network, and computer terminals are available to students for word processing, legal research, statistical analysis, and database management. Students also have access to the many satellite computer clusters and mainframe facilities located on the university campus.

Faculty

Cornell Law School’s faculty are known not only as prolific scholars but also as great teachers. Tenured and tenure-track faculty teach and produce scholarship in their areas of law; clinical faculty run client-focused and simulation courses centered around legal aid in addition to several specialty clinics; and a large number of visitors, associated faculty from other university divisions, and adjunct faculty teach at the school each year. Many of the latter group are legal scholars and professors from other countries who teach in the Law School’s significant international program.

Joint/Dual Degrees

Being part of a world-renowned university, and the interdisciplinary environment it provides, is of great benefit. Cornell Law School and Cornell University offer many opportunities for combined-degree programs, including JD/MBA (business degree from the Johnson Graduate School of Management), JD/MPA (public affairs degree from the Cornell Institute of Public Affairs), JD/MILR (labor relations degree from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations), JD/MRP (regional planning degree from the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning), and JD/MA or PhD in a variety of fields (master’s or PhD degree from the graduate school). Law students may also take as many as 12 credits outside of the Law School for law school credit.

International Legal Studies

The Berger International Legal Studies Program is one of the country’s oldest and most distinguished programs in international legal education. The Law School’s comprehensive program features a unique JD specialization opportunity; a four-year JD/Master en Droit (French law degree) program; a three-year JD/MLLP (German law degree) program; a Paris summer institute with the Sorbonne Law School at the Université Paris 1 (Panthéon-Sorbonne); a comprehensive speaker series; the Mori, Hamada, and Matsumoto (Tokyo law firm) Faculty Exchange; the Turin Interuniversity Centre; a large number of visiting foreign professors and scholars; a weekly luncheon discussion series; international moot court competitions; law clinics; internships; and a leading journal of international and comparative law edited by students. Students have the option to spend one semester abroad at a partner law school (we have partnerships with over 20 law schools in 18 different countries), or the opportunity to design an individual “term away” at a foreign law facility with which the Law School is not partnered.

The Clarke Program in East Asian Law and Culture brings an exciting interdisciplinary and humanistic focus to the study of law in East Asia. The Clarke Initiative for Law and Development in the Middle East sponsors seminars, colloquia, and lectures, and supports student and faculty exchanges with institutions in the region