Academic Programs
General Requirements
- Admission
Students must apply and be accepted for admission to the certificate program. Students are encouraged to apply as early as possible in their law school career.
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Graduation
Students must meet all graduation requirements of the College of Law.
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Additional credit hours
Students must complete eight credit hours in addition to the minimum hours required for the J.D. degree, with at least 20 of the credits being earned in courses designated as spelled out in
Course Requirements below.
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G.P.A. requirement
Students must achieve an average equivalent of 3.0 in 15 of the 20 credits earned in courses designated. There is no over all grade point average requirement beyond that required of the J.D. degree.
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Courses previously completed
Courses previously completed (and meeting the grade requirements noted above) by students subsequently admitted into the program will be credited toward satisfaction of the concentration requirements.
Course Requirements
To be eligible for the certificate upon graduation, students must earn eight credit hours beyond the minimum required to graduate, with at least 20 of the credits earned in courses designated (below).
A. Concentration Requirements
Students must successfully complete at least one from each group of core courses:
Core I (Fundamentals):
- "Perspectives on the
Family" (4 credits)
Core II (Advanced Principles):
- "Economics of the Family" (3 credits)
- "Child, Parent and
State" (3 credits)
Core III (Practice-Based):
- A clinic (including child welfare clinic, full representation family law clinic, pro se clinic, mediation clinic or juvenile law clinic)
- An externship (including externships in the public or public interest sector involving family law, child abuse and neglect, juvenile justice, poverty law, domestic violence and other family-related areas)
B. Elective Courses
Students may choose from among the following elective
courses and seminars to complete the remainder of the 20
credits:
- Bioethics
- Disability Law
- Education Law
- Elder Law
- Estate Planning
- Federal Courts
- Gender and the Law
- Health Law
- Human Rights Law
- Interviewing Counseling
- Mediation
- Mental Health Law
- Negotiation
- Poverty Law
- Selected Legal Problems in Family & Children's Law
Click here for a list of Current Approved Law Courses
Other courses deemed appropriate by the committee based on students over all record, including appropriate graduate level courses 5000 and above.
C. Seminar and Writing Requirement
Students must complete an advanced writing project which can be satisfied
through a seminar paper or equivalent work product approved
by the Family Law Certificate Committee.
*Certificate candidates have registration priority for the core courses and an elective seminar.