LAW-JD - Juris Doctor

Students enrolled in the JD program must earn 87 law credits to graduate. Those 87 credits must be comprised of the following:

• The prescribed first-year courses:

  • Civil Procedure

  • Constitutional Law

  • Contract Law

  • Criminal Law

  • Legal Analysis, Research and Writing

  • Property Law

  • Tort Law

• Ethics Requirement: A two-credit course in ethics and professional responsibility.

• Substantial Research and Writing Project Requirement: One faculty-supervised research paper for a minimum of two credits. This may be fulfilled by way of a seminar or an independent study. The SRWP paper must be a solo project; group projects may not be used to fulfill the requirement.

• Experiential Learning Requirement: A minimum six credits in simulation courses, clinics and/or externships.

• Professional Development Requirement: Two non-academic professional development credits. These credits do not count toward the minimum credit requirement for your degree.

• Regularly-Scheduled Courses: A minimum 64 of the 87 credits must be earned in courses that require attendance in regularly scheduled classroom sessions or direct faculty instruction.

  • Regularly-scheduled law school courses include

    • Law School courses and seminars, including courses cross-listed at the Law School but originating in another school or department at the University.

    • Law School clinics

    • Regularly-scheduled courses completed at another ABA-accredited law school, including through the inter-institutional agreement with UNC and NCCU and transfer credits for students who completed the first year at another law school or who visited away at another law school.

    • Credits from an approved study abroad program.

  • Regularly-scheduled law school courses do not include independent study, non-law courses, externships, research tutorials, ad hoc seminars, and Bass Connections.

All students are responsible for monitoring their compliance with the graduation requirements. Detailed information about these requirements is available at law.duke.edu/study/jdrequirements.