Public Administration, Joint MPA & JD

The Master of Public Administration (MPA) guides you through the intricacies of public service. You embark on a transformative journey, delving into policy analysis, leadership, and ethical decision-making. Your studies equip you with the acumen to navigate the complex landscape of government and non-profit sectors. With a focus on public policy and management, you hone your skills in organizational governance and strategic planning. The MPA not only broadens your understanding of societal challenges but empowers you to enact positive change.

Degree Requirements

For Academic Year 24-25, the estimated cost of the program, not including books and fees, is $48,393. However, that estimate does not include the JD part of this joint program.

Seattle University graduate public administration students should be able to:

• Effectively utilize established concepts of management and organization to frame and interpret organizational issues.
• Utilize reflective action to improve management skills.
• Apply, analyze, and evaluate theories of the policy process and economics.
• Ability to define and describe public problems and develop plans of action.
• Create appropriate research methods and design to support empirical research objectives.

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
• Tax Law

Required Courses

Upon successful completion of Seattle University 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

Students in the joint program are required to complete 90 semester credits for the JD degree and 57 quarter credits for the MPA degree.

In the joint degree program, students can satisfy the requirements for each degree by using a specified number of crossover credits to be chosen from a list of approved courses in each school. This allows the student, whether full-time or part-time, to complete the two degrees in a shorter period of time than if the student sought to obtain the JD and MPA degrees independently.

Of the 90 semester credits required for the JD degree, 12 semester credits can be satisfied by 18 quarter credits chosen from a list of specified courses from the Department of Public Affairs and Nonprofit Leadership. (One quarter credit is the equivalent of .67 semester credits. So, for example, a 3-quarter credit crossover IPS course could be used to satisfy 2 semester credits for the JD degree.)

Approved crossover courses can be used to satisfy elective credits toward the JD and MPA degrees. Not all courses are offered each quarter, semester, or year, and some courses may require particular sequencing or have prerequisites.

In addition to the approved crossover courses, students may, upon approval, receive crossover credit for other appropriate courses that may be offered from time to time. Crossover credit will not be granted for courses that are substantially similar to courses already taken in the other school.