Juris Doctor (JD)

We offer several pathways across a range of specialties as one form of guidance for students in choosing courses. The pathways demonstrate sequences within and connections across the curriculum. It is not necessary for students to pursue a single pathway in depth, but many will find it worthwhile to do so. See course selection advice based on pathways.

Specialty pathways include the following:

• Business and Corporate Law
• Commercial Law
• Constitutional Law
• Criminal Law
• Environmental, Land Use and Natural Resources Law
• Family Law
• Health Law
• Intellectual Property, Innovation and Technology
• Labor and Employment Law
• Law and Social Inequality
• Litigation
• Real Estate Law
• Sports Law
• Tax Law

Required Courses

Upon successful completion of Seattle U Law’s JD program, you will obtain the ability to think like a lawyer, possess a basic proficiency in lawyering skills, and understand the professional, ethical, and moral values and responsibilities of law-trained individuals.

Legal analysis, knowledge, and problem-solving

Outcome 1

Graduates will be able to:

• Integrate information from multiple sources (e.g., opinions, statutes, regulations, rules, scholarly analysis) to identify operative legal rules, principles and concepts
• Retain a working knowledge of essential rules, principles and concepts
• Articulate and deploy these rules, principles, and concepts in a variety of contexts

Outcome 2

When presented with a problem, graduates will be able to:

• Generate legal arguments, plans, and strategies that link pertinent legal authority to legally significant facts
• Identify, assess, and discuss relevant policy arguments
• Make reasoned judgments as to the likely success of competing legal arguments and alternative courses of action in light of client objectives or other goals

Outcome 3

Graduates will be able to:

• Describe the primary formal structures and processes of the American legal system,
• Recognize and critically describe the influence of extra-legal factors, such as politics, history, and culture, on the legal system, and
• Develop and advance solutions to important social problems, demonstrating:
• Commitment and capacity to improve the quality of and access to the justice system for all members of society;
• Awareness of lawyers' varied roles; and
• Understanding of effective leadership and collaboration.

Lawyering skills

Outcome 4

Graduates will be able to communicate effectively, demonstrating the ability to:

• Produce clear, well-organized, properly sourced written work tailored to audience and objectives; and
• Make oral presentations and engage in other verbal interactions in a manner that is appropriate to the circumstances, respectful of other actors, and well-designed to achieve objectives.

Outcome 5

Graduates will be able to:

• Design and execute plans for developing facts necessary to achieve lawyering objectives;
• Use legal analysis to develop a legal research strategy, efficiently search a variety of resources, and identify, evaluate, and analyze information to resolve specific issues.

Outcome 6

In addition to the fundamental skills identified immediately above, graduates will also possess a set of additional lawyering skills (e.g., litigation skills, transactional skills, policy advocacy) that demonstrate their readiness to enter the profession.

Outcome 7

Graduates will be able to perform their lawyering tasks consistent with professional ethical requirements and with the cultural competence necessary for effective, respectful interaction with individuals from diverse backgrounds.

Learner skills

Outcome 8

Graduates will demonstrate the capacities to:

• Reflect on and learn from experience;
• Apply skills and knowledge learned in one context to other relevant contexts; and
• Assess and promote the development of their professional knowledge, skills, and values.

Adopted April 4, 2017